THIS WEEK ON LATINOPIA: CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF JOSÉ LOZANO, RICARDO ROMO’S TEJANO REPORT ON THE NEW MUSEO DEL WESTSIDE, SAN ANTONIO, EMMA TENAYUCA IN HER OWN WORDS AND A BIOGRAPHY OF EMMA TENAYUCA.
We begin this week on a sad note, the passing of our friend and superb artist José Lozano who passed on November 20, 2025. José was one of the vibrant and impactful voices of the Chicano art movement with is distinctive rendering of people and places, including his luchadores and people fall from the sky. We post an interview with José talking about his work and addressing the perennial question, what is beauty?
This week Ricardo Romo’s Tejano Report reviews a new museum in the barrio. El Museo del Westside has just opened in San Antonio and showcases the history of San Antonio. The inaugural exhibit highlights legendary labor activist Emma Tenayuca. Tenayuca led more than 6,000 women into a strike campaign for better wages in 1936, incurring the wrath of city fathers and result in her arrest and imprisonment along with many of her supporters. Ricardo’s blog incidentally also pays tribute to his paternal grandmother, Maria S. Romo, a partera [midwife], and to his aunt Julia Saenz, the midwife who delivered him and his brothers and sister, both of whom are also featured in the new Westside exhibit.
We accompany Romo’s blog with a video interview with Emma Tenayuca filmed many years ago when she was still with us. In her own words she tells us all about the Pecan Sheller’s strike.
We are also posting a Latinopia biography of Emma Tenayuca to augment Ricardo’s blog.
And lastly,