By Brian Argabright
Del Rio’s newest mural is a tribute to the past, present and future of the community.
Local artist Bianka Santillan unveiled “Sol del rio,” a colorful representation of the renowned ballet folklorico dancers that have been a familiar sight in Del Rio for years, during a ceremony Friday evening.
The mural was commissioned by the Casa de la Cultura and the Cardenas family, which owns Plaza Hall and the blank wall that would become the home to the piece. Lupita De La Paz, executive director at the Casa, explained that the mural, which was funded by a grant and the Casa, came about through a contest. She said they received submissions from about nine artists, including some from out of town.
“When we put out the call for this mural, we asked people to create something based on the idea of what they think of when they think about the plaza,” De La Paz said. “This piece spoke to us.”
Santillan’s was the one that was chosen and she began the project in January.
Santillan’s work was already familiar to visitors in that area. She had painted a cactus and grape landscape on the wall of the city’s parks and recreation office building, which was located adjacent to the historic Brown Plaza. For the Plaza Hall mural, Santillan explained it started off as what she described as scribbles, but in her mind the final product was going to be something to remember.
“I took a picture of the blank wall on my iPad and used an app to draw what I was envisioning,” Santillan said. “When I started it, anyone who looked at it probably just saw a bunch of scribbles.”
Santillan didn’t devote every waking hour to the project. She is still a full-time student at Texas A&M University, majoring in architecture with a double minor in art and architecture history. She worked as much as she could on the project, mostly on the weekends, turning those “scribbles” into fully fleshed out dancers clad in beautiful, flowing dresses, but she admitted that the rough weather Del Rio saw this year – from snowstorms to hail storms – delayed her work.
Once her collegiate finals were completed, she was able to dedicate more time to the mural. This past week meant starting early and finishing late, painting through the brutal Texas heat. She finally completed it late Thursday, and then with the help of her family and fiancée, it was covered with a large blue tarp until its official unveiling.
With the music of Mariachi Relámpago from Eagle Pass serving as a countdown, the tarp was dropped and the mural was revealed for the first time to the public in its completed beauty.
Santillan explained where the name “Sol del rio” came from.
“I chose the name ‘Sol del rio’ because how a sunset would last for a short amount of time, these celebrations that we have are really a bright celebration of our culture but they’re so short lived so I wanted to kind of give it a place to live forever on this wall,” Santillan said.
There was a hidden aspect in the mural that was known to Santillan, De La Paz and just a handful of other people that wouldn’t be made public until the unveiling.
Alfredo Cardenas’ family has owned the Plaza Hall for decades. It’s played host to a variety of events and has become a staple in the San Felipe area for as long as many folks can remember. As a tribute, Santillan was asked to use the faces of his daughters and grandchildren as those of the dancers.
Bonita Gonzalez, one of Cardenas’ daughters, said their work with Santillan was a clandestine affair. She said her father was aware of the mural, but the use of his family’s faces was hidden from him, making it difficult at times to coordinate between artist and subjects.
When the mural was unveiled, Cardenas, whose eyesight has worsened in recent years, was carefully led to the front of the artwork so he could soak the whole thing in. As he stood and looked it over, his daughter Irma Ruiz showed him that the faces of the dancers were those of his own daughters and granddaughters. It was then that he broke down and cried tears of joy, soliciting similar tears from his family and from Santillan.
Gonzalez said that though it’s the faces of her family members on the wall, the mural should be seen as a representation of the entire community.
“I hope people see themselves in this. It’s so free with the confetti falling … it’s just – I mean it’s our culture. This is us; this is everybody,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t want to say, like, ‘Hey guys, that’s us,’ because it’s not about us really. It’s about Bianka and her art and it’s the culture. I want everybody to see themselves in this painting. There was a woman here with her two daughters and she had Bianka take a picture with them because they want to be little artists. Isn’t that amazing? They can see themselves in this, too.”
