RICARDO ROMO’S TEJANO REPORT 9.19.25 LATINO CULTURE CELEBRATED IN PHOTOGRAPHY

Latino Culture and Community Celebrated in Photography

The 2025 Centro Cultural Aztlan’s Fotoseptiembre exhibit celebrates Latino Culture and Community.  The exhibit photographs document everyday life, cultural traditions, social movements, migrations, festivals, rituals, and personal expressions, creating a rich visual archive of Latino experiences.  The opening reception was held on September 5,  with live music by Juan and Armando Tejeda.

Fotoseptiembre artists include Mike Cervantes, Joe D. Garcia, Chris Hernandez, Ramon Hernandez, Al Rendon, Joey Reyes Duran, Ricardo Romo, Joel Salcido, Monica Saldana, Kathy Vargas, and Guillermina Zabala. The exhibition, curated by Dr. Ricardo Romo, highlights the role of photography as a connector and educator.

The Centro CEO, Malena Gonzalez-Cid, presented Kathy Vargas with the first annual Aguila Aztlan award. Vargas, who was recently recognized with a national Latnix Fellowship, also received a City of San Antonio Citation from Councilwoman Dr. Sukh Kaur and a U.S. Congressional Certificate from Congressman Henry Cuellar honoring her contributions as an educator, artist, and mentor.

Kathy Vargas, a San Antonio native, began her career in art after high school when she shifted from painting to photography. She studied under Tom Wright, the renowned rock and roll photographer, at the Southwest School of Art and Craft.  At San Antonio College, Mel Casas, a founding figure of the Chicano Art Movement, further influenced her, emphasizing the power of art as a force for social justice. Vargas went on to earn a BA and MFA from UT San Antonio.

Early in her career, Vargas worked as a journalist covering Chicano artists, and later became Visual Arts Program Director at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center from 1985 to 2000. For the past two decades, Vargas has taught at the University of the Incarnate Word, serving as Chair of the Art Department from 2000 to 2013.

As a professional photographer, Vargas is widely recognized for producing hand‑colored photographs created through multiple exposures, her signature style of blending technical craft with personal vision. Her work has been shown internationally and is part of major public collections at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Museum of Mexican Art [Chicago], affirming her place as one of San Antonio’s leading artists.

Al Rendon’s passion for photography started in 1973 as a sixteen-year-old sophomore at Central Catholic when he joined the yearbook staff to cover the local music scene. His older brother won tickets to a sold-out Led Zeppelin concert, where Rendon captured candid shots of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page before security stopped him. That summer, he showed his photos to KONO Radio, which landed him an assignment to cover Elton John.  He soon gained backstage access to concerts featuring global music legends.

Soon, Rendon’s photography earnings encouraged him to pursue full-time work as a photographer. Over the next decade, he took commercial commissions and documented major San Antonio concerts. Rendon’s photos of Iggy Pop, Ted Nugent, and John Bonham performing at the Exchange Club are now in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

In 1981, assignments with the San Antonio Fiesta Commission strengthened Rendon’s ties to Mexican and Tejano culture, leading to steady work with the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. There, he documented conjunto festivals, ballet folklórico, cinema, and the Inter-American Book Fair, photographing luminaries like Carlos Fuentes, Isabel Allende, and Maya Angelou. Revisiting his Latino roots gave him a mission: to document Hispanic culture. His images of Flaco Jiménez, Santiago Jiménez Jr., Emilio and Raulito Navaira, and a young Selena mark key moments in Tejano music history. His photographs in Uvalde after the 2022 tragedy carry the same intimacy and emotional depth that have defined his career.

Joel Salcido’s journey began in Ciudad Juárez, the Mexican border city opposite El Paso, Texas. Moving to the U.S. at seven, he grew up in an El Paso barrio. After college, his career took shape at the El Paso Times (1979–1991). He covered the Rio Grande Valley, Juárez, El Paso, and southern New Mexico. Immersed in the border’s rhythms, he became both observer and storyteller. His acclaimed photographs include the Tarahumara people and the 1985 Mexico City earthquake.

 

Salcido’s assignments expanded to USA Today, Texas Monthly, and Texas Highways, taking him across Latin America and the full 830-mile Texas–Mexico border. These travels deepened his grasp of the region’s politics, history, economy, and traditions. Salcido identifies as Mexicano and Mexicano Americano, navigating both worlds with a visual language reflecting their intertwined legacies.

For over 30 years, photography has accompanied Salcido—from tragedy’s darkest moments to the light of visual poetry. As a photojournalist, confronting disaster shook his faith in humanity. Turning to fine art photography, he sought renewal in images that reveal hope and beauty.

In 1999, Salcido spent a year in Belorado, Spain, focusing on an intimate study of its land and traditions. This culturally rich work is now preserved in Texas museums. He continues to photograph the border with insight while envisioning future projects related to Texas borderland’s icons. His career remains rooted in resilience, discovery, and the enduring poetry of the borderlands.

Monica Estrada-Saldana is a San Antonio-based Chicana artist and photographer whose work explores identity, femininity, and home, rooted in her Mexican American heritage. Raised in a lineage with centuries in San Antonio, Monica’s ties to her culture and land deeply inform her vision, highlighting the beauty and magic of everyday life. With her camera, she reveals resilience, softness, and strength in the women around her, portraying femininity through a personal, romantic lens.

Saldana’s artistic journey began in childhood when she received her first camera at age eight, later expanding her storytelling through high school journalism. Before fully committing to photography, Monica worked for six years as a professional makeup artist in film, television, and print, experiences that connected her to influential photographers and filmmakers. About five years ago, she transitioned fully into photography, pursuing it as her primary profession.

Saldana’s work has gained recognition both locally and internationally. Her photographs have appeared on Vogue Italia’s online platform and in Yes Ma’am magazine’s award-winning issue, “The Dream.” She has exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Antonio, and South Texas, with several works included in the permanent collection exhibition at the Philadelphia International Airport.

Beyond photography, she shares her journey and cultural narratives on Instagram, offering a glimpse into her life as a travel enthusiast, coffee lover, and proud Tejana artist who documents her world with honesty and intention.

Guillermina Zabala is a San Antonio–based interdisciplinary media artist, educator, and curator, originally from La Plata, Argentina. Her work explores how individuals engage with their sociocultural environments, using visual storytelling to spark dialogue on identity, community, and social justice. Exhibited in museums, galleries, and film festivals across the United States, Latin America, and Europe, her practice bridges mediums while amplifying marginalized voices.

Zabala earned a BA in Cinema from Columbia College in Los Angeles and an MA in Media Studies from The New School in New York, where she was the first recipient of the Sinha Memorial Fellowship. Now pursuing a Ph.D. focused on Latin American documentary movements, she continues to shape conversations on transnational cinema and visual culture.

Zabala’s photographs are part of The University of Texas at San Antonio’s Art Collection, and her films have screened at major festivals including Telluride, Chicago Latino, San Sebastián, Torino, and CineFestival in San Antonio. Her award-winning documentary Las Artivistas received Best Documentary Short at CineFestival in 2022, while her feature-length Juanito’s Lab was the festival’s 2021 opening film. She has also been recognized with the Rick Liberto Visual Arts Award from the Luminaria Foundation, the SA Artist Foundation Award, the NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant, and UTSA’s 25Veinticinco Award.

For more than 15 years, Zabala directed the Media Arts Program at SAY Sí, mentoring youth in film and new media. She currently serves as Professor of Practice in UTSA’s Film and Media Studies program, extending her commitment to education and community engagement. As a curator, her projects—such as From South America to San Antonio—have illuminated shared realities across the Americas.

Ramon Hernandez is a legendary musicologist, journalist, photojournalist, publicist, and curator.  He grew up on the West Side of San Antonio and, beginning in the mid-1950s, developed a passion for Chicano music, focusing on behind-the-scenes work in photography and writing.  The Ramón Hernández Collection spans more than 50 years of significant materials from the 1920s to 2025 and is now housed at Texas State University’s Wittliff Collections.  His archives include historic photographs, vintage concert posters, rare recordings, artifacts, and instruments from legendary Tejano artists like Lydia Mendoza, Little Joe, Sunny of the Sunliners, Freddy Fender, Selena, and others.

This year’s Centro Cultural Aztlan Fotoseptiembre exhibit showcases images that preserve and celebrate the history, identity, and spirit of San Antonio’s Latino community. Special thanks to all the artists who provided me with bios and interviews to prepare this essay. Much of this story is in their words.

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Copyright 2025 by Ricardo Romo. All photo credits as indicated above.