Robert Garza, “La Fuerte De La Tuna.” Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
The 17th Annual Mole Feast: A Taste of Cuisine, Culture and Art opened last week on October 15, 2026 at the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Curated by Edna Lugo, the exhibit included 35 artists. I am most familiar with the following ten artists: Rolando Briseño, Carolina Flores, Maria Jessica Brown, Hector Garza, Jacinto Guevara, Frank Harris, Celeste de Luna, Angelica Mayorga, Monica de La Cruz Walker, Liliana Wilson, Terry Ybanez, and Maria Jessica Brown.
Ludivinia Smith. “La Cocina Nos Une.” Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
Mole is a delicious sauce first served in pre-Hispanic Mexico. The word mole comes from the Nahuatl mōlli, also written mulli, meaning “sauce” or “stew.” The Mayas and Aztecs prepared mole by combining chiles, pumpkin seeds, tomatoes, and herbs such as hierba santa. Indigenous cooks served mole with turkey (guajolote) and deer meat. Over the last five centuries, mole has evolved, and regional versions have been developed through culinary exchange involving Indigenous ingredients and foods introduced through colonial trade. Moles range from dark, deeply toasted preparations to fresh-tasting green sauces and lighter, brothier yellow ones. Their defining quality isn’t a single color, ingredient, or level of heat, but how the ingredients are prepared, ground, and balanced.
Detail of the Mole Exhibit. Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
Mole is normally a special dish reserved for celebrations, such as weddings, quinceañeras, and funerals. However, some restaurants across Mexico recognize its popularity and serve it regularly. Harriett and I have sampled mole in Mexican restaurants in Mexico City, Querétaro, Puebla, and Oaxaca. The latter two regions take special pride in their mole and serve the most varieties. Depending on the recipe, mole brings together chiles, seeds or nuts, herbs, spices, vegetables, and a thickener such as masa, bread, or tortillas. Azteca and Maya mole did not include chocolate, but today some moles include it.
Rolando Briseño, “Camarón con Chile Cascabel,” Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlán. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
Moctezuma’s Table: Rolando Briseño’s Mexican and Chicano Tablescapes, edited by Norma E. Cantu, is an excellent primer for discussing mole and art. Amalia Mesa-Bains’s essay in the book is especially noteworthy. She writes: “The blending of Spanish traditions and pre-Hispanic cuisine has transformed the history of food around the world.” She adds that mole is “most emblematic of the mezcla of Indigenous and Spanish cuisine.” Mesa-Bains notes that “We cannot fail to recognize that the more lasting benefit to Europe, rather than the discovery of gold, was the wonder of the tomato, the potato, and chocolate.”
Briseño’s artwork in the Centro exhibit is scintillating and masterfully creative. For some works, he paints on tablecloths rather than on traditional canvas. Briseño’s Centro painting, “Camaron con Chile Cascabel,” is painted partly on a red checkered tablecloth attached to a canvas. Much of the painting is on the tablecloth, but about 20 percent spills over onto the bottom of the canvas. Briseño’s “Camaron” [shrimp] is painted entirely in shades of red. The center of the painting is dark red with images of shrimp and chilies dropping into a pre-Hispanic-style bowl.
Rolando Briseño, “Tamales, Tamales, Tamales.” Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
A second Briseño painting, “Tamales, Tamales, Tamales,” is filled with pre-Hispanic bowls and a plate from the Spanish colonial era. Art historian Jacinto Quirate commented on this particular painting in an essay, “The use of Aztec, Maya, and American popular sources in the works of Rolando Briseño.” Quirate wrote, “The first of the three motifs in the lower row represents three food-like objects placed in a pot.” I noticed that Briseño placed four Mayan bowls in a sequence filled with different vegetables and animals. On the right side of one bowl, he included an armadillo. Briseño’s placement of a fish on top of one of the ceramic bowls sparked my interest. Another bowl featured a “gallina…con chile amarillo” [a hen with yellow chile].
Carolina Flores, “Fidel Grocery & Market.” Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
The Centro Cultural Aztlan’s “Mole Feast” exhibitions began in 2009 and have evolved over the past two decades. However, there is significant variety in the themes and concepts represented in the Mole 2026 exhibit. Carolina Flores, an artist whom I have followed for two decades, painted “Fidel Grocery & Market,” which captures the essence of a Latino neighborhood store that sold Mexican food and household products, and of course, all the ingredients for making mole. The store is painted yellow, with a dark purple sky as the background. The dark sky and store lights establish the painting as a night scene. The yellow paint on the outside walls reminds me of a famous Vincent van Gogh 1888 painting of “The Yellow House,” his rented house in Arles, France.
Robert Garza, “México En La Piel.” Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
Another interesting artist in the “Mole Exhibit,” Robert Garza, is a self-taught painter who developed a passion for art by reading his father’s collection of books on European masters. A native of Monterrey, Mexico, he elevated his artistic practice through portraiture, public painting demonstrations, and commissioned work. While in Mexico, his subjects ranged from individual likenesses and landscapes to Mexican historical figures and cultural traditions. In his River Center Mall studio in downtown San Antonio, Garza specializes in drawing and painting. He emphasizes vibrant color, expressive figures, and the relationship between personal experiences and cultural heritage. His San Antonio activities have included a solo exhibition at UNAM San Antonio, the San Antonio campus of the well-known Mexican university.
Garza’s paintings in the Mole exhibit focus on portraits of individuals eating pan dulce and drinking coffee. His portrait of Frida Kahlo, “La Fruta y La Tuna,” shows Frida drinking what appears to be a café de olla surrounded by nopales and red tunas [fruit of the nopal]. Garza paints Frida with a pensive look, a warm smile, and dreamlike eyes. The colorful background of nopales and tunas de nopal makes this painting unusual. Another Garza painting of a Mexican woman eating a chile relleno with a Mexican flag on the dining table fits well with the show’s food theme. A painting titled “Mexico En La Piel” [Mexico in its skin] shows a figure who appears to be a Mexican actress, perhaps María Félix, who was recognized internationally. Through a window, one can see the Eiffel Tower in Paris lit up with a brilliant red sunset in the background.
Maria Jessica Brown, “Kitchen Table in the Evening.” Courtesy of the Centro Cultural Aztlan. Photo by Ricardo Romo.
South Texas native Maria Jessica Brown creates autobiographical paintings that draw on realism, surrealism, and magical realism. Her painting in the Mole Exhibit, “Kitchen Table in the Evening,” reveals her interest in using familiar imagery to explore emotional experience rather than merely depicting appearances. The kitchen table is filled with platters of tamales and beans, corn tortillas, and small pots of chili sauces. She placed blue and red corn husks in the background of the table.
The first Mexican settlers to Texas brought their food and likely introduced mole to the Southwest in the early 1700s. Today, Mexican food continues to inspire Latino artists and to set consumption records. Last year, Mexican food sales in the USA reached $104 billion, and Mexican restaurants employed over one million food workers. San Antonio’s proximity to Mexico influences broad food exchanges and contemporary art renditions of Mexican cultural food traditions.
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Copyright 2026 by Ricardo Romo. All photo credits as indicated above.