Latino Art Enhances the Beauty of Botanical Gardens.
Kat Cadena, “Edmond Albius and the Vanilla Orchid.” Courtesy of the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
With the arrival of Spring, Latinos are drawn to parks as well as botanical spaces that include art. A recent visit to San Antonio Botanical Gardens demonstrated to me that art can make these visits a more engaging experience. The Botanical Garden is a stunning gem of a green oasis in the heartland of San Antonio. The Garden was established on 40 acres of the city’s Northeast prime hillside land in 1980. The garden’s preservation of over 100 endangered and rare species of plants has given it international recognition.
Emilo Ambasz, Lucile Halsell Conservatory at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. Courtesy of the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
Last week, the Gardens hosted a 45th anniversary celebration, with a reception and opening of an art exhibit Reflections of Nature ( through October), as a means to uplift public art related to themes of nature and the intersection of art and nature with humankind. Katherine Trumble, the Garden’s President & CEO, tasked Stuart Allen and Cade Bradshaw of the Bridge Project to commission art that honors San Antonio’s rich mural and art history with themes of nature, plants, animals, and the vibrant diversity of the people of the region. The Bridge Project superbly met its objectives of placing art by prominent artists “inspired by nature with the beauty of nature all around them.”
The Botanical Gardens are especially attractive to young visitors who are part of the 400,000 visitors who visit the site every year. The young visitors, often part of an educational field trip, are introduced to the garden’s botanical diversity, horticulture displays, and conservation ideas. The Garden allows many experiences that connect people to the natural world.
Lucas Aoki, “Origenes.” Courtesy of the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
Among the Gardens’s outstanding features is the award-winning Lucile Halsell Conservatory [1988] designed by the pioneering Latino architect Emilio Ambasz. An Argentinian-American, Ambasz is known for his brilliant fusion of architecture and landscape, often embedding buildings within gardens or natural forms. Ambasz is recognized as a leading figure in green architecture. He designed a subterranean structure consisting of five climate specific greenhouses surrounding a central courtyard specifically for the San Antonio Botanical Gardens.
Rhys Munro, “Light Woven [Architecture meets Nature].” Courtesy of the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. Photo by Cade Bradshaw.
Architecture meets Nature. Courtesy of the San Antonio Botanical Gardens horticulture department. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
Adjacent to Aoki’s murals are a series of bright colorful glass panels painted by Rhys Munro. A multidisciplinary artist and museum professional based in San Antonio, Munro’s early art training was inspired by visits to the Detroit Institute of Arts to view Diego Rivera’s murals. Munro began formal art training at San Antonio College focusing on painting and canvas construction. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Texas at San Antonio specializing in painting and murals, particularly the history of Mexican muralism.
One of Munro’s best known artworks is a mural on Laredo Street near San Antonio’s Produce Market. Her mural work demonstrates refl ective exploration of identity, social themes, and community narratives. Her installations illustrate deconstructive architecture and often transcend specific locations. Her work at the Botanical Gardens, a colorful wall of painted panels and colorful panels hung across the ceiling in the orchid garden illustrate the interplay between the fabricated and natural and simplicity and complexity. In addition to her career as an artist, Munro is an experienced conservation technician at the McNay Art Museum where she has worked since 2018. Munro is actively involved in all aspects of exhibition installation.
Kathy Sosa, Mestizaje series. Courtesy of the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
The art of San Antonio artist Kat Cadena is also close to Aoki’s work but is located in a grotto-like space in the orchid garden. An art graduate of the University of Texas San Antonio, Cadena is a multimedia artist, a recognized muralist, and an independent illustrator. She is known for portraying Latina women. The figure Cadena portrays at the garden is nurturing a plant that has come alive with light. The person in the painting appears to be a Latina, but the image may represent any person of color. Cadena credits a “multiple generation of strong, proud, and fierce mestiza women” for preparing her to venture into the world of art.
Christin Apodaca, Purple Martin. Courtesy of the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
San Antonio artist Kathy Sosa incorporated an intricately woven Huipil dress into her mural piece in the Garden. Drawing inspiration from San Antonio artist Veronica Castillo who creates large three-dimensional clay Tree of Life structures, Sosa combines Huipiles and Arboles de la Vida in her painting. The Garden installation is surrounded by Spring flowers. She has mastered these Tree of Life images blending them with colorful portraits of women.
Many of the women Sosa paints identify as mestiza, a blending of worlds– generally Mexican with Indian and European heritage. The concept of mestizaje is more complex than biological identity. A recent definition was offered by a team of scholars from the Routledge journal English Studies who wrote: “Mestizaje acknowledges historical encounters between Indigenous peoples, Europeans, and Africans and underscores how these interactions have fostered diverse mestizo populations with unique cultural expressions.”
Rudy Herrera, “Bendiceme Ultima.” Courtesy of the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
A stunning painted metal sculpture by Christin Apodaca depicting a Purple Martin in flight rests in the center of the Gardens. A resident of El Paso, Apodaca explores themes of resilience, connection, and identity through vibrant, narrative-driven creations. Her work is rooted in community engagement, and her art projects have ranged from public murals and installations to collaborative artistic constructions. Her Purple Martin sculpture is an example of blending bold imagery to meaningful narrative. Her creative work invites viewers to reflect on their own connections to culture, nature, and the human experience.
Rudy Herrera, “Bendiceme Ultima.” Courtesy of the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
Rudy Herrera, whose large murals illustrate the Garden’s Rotunda entrance, moved to San Antonio from El Paso at age nine and first learned about painting when he joined a friend in painting graffiti art. Herrera is of Native Tigua descent but also has Native- Mexican roots inherited from his father. His volunteer work with San Antonio mural artist Adriana Garcia introduced him to mural painting, an art medium and style that he prefers. A major breakthrough for Herrera came with his commission to complete a mural at the San Antonio Kress Building on Houston Street.
For the Botanical Gardens project, Herrera painted six large murals. His paintings employ a coyote figure as part of a life cycle narrative. In Native art, a coyote is used as a motif to explore personal and cultural identity. Artists may use a coyote to represent themselves or their communities, often highlighting themes of resilience, adaptability, and resistance.
Mitsumasa Overstreet. Entrance to the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
Herrera’s six panels at the Garden [“Bendiceme Ultima”] depict the life cycles of the coyote and the natural world that surrounds him. Herrera offers his interpretation of the relationship between Mother Earth and mankind. In the fi rst panel, a young humanized baby coyote figure rests on a bed of nopales [cactus]. Next there is a teen coyote wearing boots and climbing an agave plant. In the last panel, death overtakes the coyote. Herrera also includes Monarch butterflies in his paintings, a symbol of migration and a theme of many borderland artists.
The San Antonio Botanical Gardens art team has done a beautiful job of integrating art and nature in an experience that will inspire across generations.
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Copyright 2025 by Ricardo Romo. All photo credits as indicated.