RICARDO ROMO’S TEJANO REPORT 9.24.26 LATINO ART CONTRIBUTES TO HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH CELEBRATION

Some Tejano historians believe San Antonio may have initiated some of the earliest celebrations of the end of Spanish colonial rule in the New World. Today, Latinos across the United States celebrate Mexican Independence Day on September 15th.

Mexican independence began two hundred and sixteen years ago when Padre Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla gathered the parishioners of Dolores Hidalgo, a small town in central Mexico, and called for a revolt against Spain. The revolution was long in coming. The battles were largely fought in the central and northern states of Mexico, but San Antonio was not spared. Hundreds of Tejano soldiers were killed in the Battle of the Medina River in 1813 during one of the most violent eras of the Mexican War for Independence.

In the late 1700s, the Age of Enlightenment and liberal revolutions in Europe inspired an independence movement in Mexico. The American Revolution [1776] and the French Revolution [1789] influenced many colonists from New Spain [Mexico] and Latin America to think, write, and talk about life free from a colonial system that largely benefited Spanish royalty and elites.

For three hundred years Spain dominated the political and economic life of Mexico and Central and South America. According to historian Clarence Haring, the King of Spain possessed not only sovereign rights but also property rights in Mexico: He was the absolute proprietor and sole political head of his American dominions. Every privilege and position, economic, political, or religious, derived from him. On this basis, Spain achieved the conquest, the occupation, and the establishment of Spanish government in the New World.

The Hispanic elites of New Spain created a hierarchical system of race classification (sistema de castas) based on social inequality. In colonial society, birth, color, race, and ethnic origin determined the status and social position of the Mexican people. The Spanish elites and colonial officers created a system of castas that was more than a socio-racial classification. Under this system, both the Spanish colonial state and the Church required larger tax and tribute payments from those of lower socio-racial categories. The Indios, or Mexican Indigenous tribes, at the bottom of the casta categories, were the most oppressed, and they responded with revolts and revolutionary acts for three hundred years. These Indian revolts were regional, and Spanish armies suppressed them successfully, in many instances, quickly and violently.

The Mexican Independence movement began as a peasants’ and miners’ rebellion led by the local priest, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. Hidalgo issued “The Cry of Dolores” on September 16, 1810, calling upon his townspeople to stand up to colonial oppression. That day is celebrated as Independence Day. Hidalgo started with 600 men, but soon had 100,000, and he and his troops overran towns of central Mexico. The revolt led by Hidalgo had some initial victories in the towns surrounding Central Mexico, but within a year the Spanish Army ended the initial revolt and executed Padre Hidalgo.

After the suppression of the Hidalgo Revolt, the Mexican War for Independence entered a new phase, which for the next six years was characterized by fighting by small, isolated guerrilla bands led by José María Morelos. Morelos was also captured by the Spanish forces and executed. In 1820, the conservative Creoles (Spaniards born in Mexico) joined the rebellion led by Agustín de Iturbide, a military captain who had previously helped defeat Hidalgo’s army. The rebels formulated the ” Plan of Iguala,” demanding an independent constitutional monarchy, a religious monopoly for the Catholic Church, and equality for Spaniards and Creoles. Spain agreed to a peace treaty, and Iturbide was installed by the Mexicans as their new emperor. The monarchy lasted only a year and was followed by a national election won by Guadalupe Victoria, officially the first president of Mexico.

The USA now celebrates Mexican Independence as part of Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 12. In the Westside of San Antonio, Our Lady of the Lake University [OLLU] offered students and the public a chance to celebrate Diez y Seis de Septiembre [16th of September] with an art show. Curator of the exhibition, Maria Magdalena Williams [The Art of Four,] also invited five OLLU students to show their work along with the works of several Latino professional artists, including Robert Wilkens, Carlos Ocasio, Fabian Santoyo, Courtney Jimenez, Anita Becerra, Monica Saldana, Joel Salcido, and Larry Portillo.

Courtney Jimenez, among the talented Latina artists in the OLLU exhibit, is a San Antonio–born artist whose paintings and murals explore emotion and cultural identity. Jimenez’s interest is in creating work that concerns relationships and the ability of art to heal. Working in acrylic, watercolor, and public mural forms, she creates narrative-driven images that seek connection across cultures and personal experience.

Jimenez is an example of the complexity of Latina identity. She traces her heritage through her mother’s family. Her maternal grandfather was Cuban, her maternal grandmother Mexican, and her mother was born in Mexico. Her father was born in Texas. Raised largely within her Mexican family in San Antonio, she grew up surrounded by cultural traditions, family stories, and colors that continue to shape her art. Ten years ago, she spent a year living in Dolores Hidalgo and Querétaro, Mexico, further deepening her connection to Mexico and its visual and cultural traditions.

Jimenez began drawing at age five or six and by her teens recognized that art was an essential part of her identity. After attending San Antonio’s School of the Arts, she completed high school in Austin. Although she did not pursue a university art degree, she developed her skills through sustained practice and a desire to improve creatively. Her public career began while still in high school, when a Haitian gallery owner invited her to join a group exhibition. In her first large show in 2006, Jimenez sold eighteen works in one night at a Congress Avenue gallery, affirming the possibility of a professional art career.

Over two decades, Jimenez has balanced artmaking with family life and motherhood. She is the mother of four and shifted from oil to acrylic because it was safer to use around her children. She now lives in Manor, outside Austin. Influenced by Frida Kahlo, Gustav Klimt, music, and Mexican visual culture, Jimenez paints expressive women, symbolic natural forms, and emotional narratives.

Her public murals have broadened her sense of the civic purpose of art. After her mother died of COVID-19, she created an Austin memorial mural for pandemic victims, incorporating initials shared by grieving neighbors. Whether on canvas or on a wall, Jimenez believes that her work affirms that people—despite their differences—are more connected than they may realize.

Robert Wilkens was born and raised in South Texas and is now based in San Antonio. A self-taught oil painter, he developed his artistic practice independently, shaped by early adversity, close observation, and intuition.

Wilkens’ paintings inhabit a distinctive space between fantasy, surrealism, and symbolic narrative. He also paints realistic historical portraits. One of his paintings at the OLLU exhibit showed Emiliano Zapata, a hero of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, on a rearing horse. Drawing upon personal experience, philosophy, and contemplative disciplines, he approaches painting as both a visual language and a search for a better understanding of personal experiences.

Throughout his career, Wilkens has traveled extensively across the United States and exhibited work in large and small shows from Texas to Minnesota. His paintings have found an audience among viewers drawn to cultural imagery and contemporary expressions of perseverance. Wilkens spoke at the exhibition and described his evolving visual language– a modern, avant-garde approach that challenges immediate interpretation. Rather than remaining at the surface of an image, Wilkens invites viewers to move through layered symbols and emotional tensions. Through his developing body of work, Wilkens continues to create paintings that are personal in origin yet broadly resonate in their exploration of imagination.

Special thanks to OLLU President Abel Chavez and Sister Rose Kruppa, CDP, Superior General, Congregation of Divine Providence, who opened this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month events at Our Lady of the Lake University.

__________________________________________________________________________