Tejano Arts Organizations

Sam Coronado and Sylvia Orozco in The Serie Print Project Exhibition at Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas, photograph, 2001; ( https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth304573/m1/1/?q=mural : accessed May 14, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History,  https://texashistory.unt.edu ; crediting Mexic-Arte Museum.

By Tess Harmon and Eli Galli-Anderson

In the 1960s, amidst national demands for racial and social justice, the Chicano art movement emerged as a way of exploring and celebrating Mexican American cultural heritage. At the same time, it acted as an outlet for creative activists during a period of protests and change.

The movement quickly took root in Austin, capital of Texas, a vibrant gathering place for Tejanos, and a city with a history of fighting against systemic injustice. Later on, while workers participated in strikes at the Economy Furniture Company, Brown Berets protested against police brutality, and farmers of the Texas Farm Workers Union marched for justice, Austin-based artists expressed the meaning behind the movement. A “concientización” (awakening of consciousness) took place: Chicano artists connected the ongoing events to their history of oppression and injustice and their lived experiences to their rich heritage of ancient Central American art. Through painting, theater, screenprinting, and textiles, among other art forms, they strengthened the movement’s cultural arm and celebrated the identity of a long-silenced people. ¹ 

Austin thrived, especially through the participation of Austin’s university students. Groups such as the Chicano Arts Students Association at the University of Texas (CASA), which frequently partnered with the League of United Chicano Artists (LUChA), challenged the university’s notions of art as universal and non-political, electing instead to provoke thoughts of social progress. In a bid to strengthen community networks, artists collaborated with related organizations, catered to Tejanos of all ages, and made art accessible to all. 

Tejano arts groups in Austin have produced art through visual, literary, and performance arts. Murals, perhaps the most public-facing form of visual expression, became increasingly popular among Mexican American artists in the Southwest during the ‘60s and ‘70s and continue to be a key component of Austin’s Tejano arts scene. According to Tejana historian Teresa Palomo Acosta, “​​Mural production became part of the effort of Hispanics to reinvigorate their cultural heritage,” and, in Texas, showcased symbols from the pre-Columbian era, the revolutionary period, and Tejano history. Murals in East Austin, such as the Hillside Theater mural at the Oswaldo A.B. Cantu/Pan American Recreation Center, “La Lotería” on East Cesar Chavez Street, and “Por La Raza” in the Holly Shores neighborhood, represent generations of collaboration between artists, volunteers, and students in the community. ²   

In the literary sphere, Chicano writers have expressed identity and communicated key social themes through essays, poetry, short stories, and plays. Literary journals such as the UT-based, CASA-partnered Tejidos formed across the United States. Also, performing arts groups have centered both traditional and modern forms of expression in their performances, and include dance, theater, and comedy troupes. ³  Musical organizations, such as the Austin Latino Music Association, have celebrated a wide array of local musicians, including pop, Latin jazz, and conjunto artists. 

The arts organizations featured in this section have all created spaces to explore Tejano identity and establish community. Many participated actively in El Movimiento (The Chicano Civil Rights Movement) and many continue with a mission centered on social justice and cultural expression, celebration, and preservation. Reading closely, you might find earlier organizations mentioning each other, and later organizations calling back to earlier efforts — revealing a historied and ongoing vigorous network of artists.

Roén Salinas, the director of Austin’s Aztlan Dance Company, has expressed why art is so key to Austin’s Tejano community. 

“Art has always played an important and pivotal role in this whole idea of a collective conciencia,” Salinas said. “Within our communities, it's part of our self-expression. It's how we learn to understand each other, how we learn to interact with each other. It's how we learn to create statements that validate this idea that we're contributing to the diversity of America's fabric.” ⁴ 

Arionus, Steve & Salinas , Roén. Oral History Interview with Roén Salinas on June 16, 2016., video, June 16, 2016; ( https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth992330/m1/ : accessed May 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History,  https://texashistory.unt.edu ; crediting TCU Mary Couts Burnett Library. This is one of six video clips that can be accessed from the link above.

In the mid-1960s, María Salinas and her family moved to Austin amidst the heat of El Movimiento. Salinas, who grew up in the Rio Grande Valley and spent summers with her family in Monterrey, Mexico, was eager to help her children and community appreciate their heritage by sharing the cultural dances she had learned as a young girl.

By the end of the decade, the Ballet Folklórico Aztlan de Tejas had begun as a small family dance troupe in Salinas' backyard. María Salinas invited other families, and over time, the Salinas’ dance troupe grew as they performed across Austin at the Zilker Hillside Theatre, Paramount Theatre, Pan Am Hillside, and even internationally in Mexico, England, and Hong Kong. In 1974, the dance troupe became officially incorporated as a nonprofit, starting at Juárez-Lincoln University with the League of United Chicano Artists, while other ballet folklórico groups emerged, such as the UT Ballet Folklórico, founded in 1975, and Roy Lozano’s Ballet Folklórico de Texas, founded in 1982.

“​​Moving to Austin, there was a deep need to really carve and cultivate a sense of space and place for the Chicano community, and for mother, it was really important for her to get her kids doing something,” Roén Salinas said. 

Salinas, María’s son and now leader of the re-named Aztlan Dance Company, recalls how his mother hoped to empower youth, while just outside adults went marching for El Movimiento.

“Back during the mid-'60s, the Latino, the Chicano community was much smaller than it is today, and so La Raza just would constantly find themselves feeling out of place in the multiple environments that they circulate in,” Salinas said. “The whole idea was to come together and engage these kids in an instructional program, and here is where I feel like I continue doing mother's work, is that it's a way of expressing our culture, our heritage, our multiple identities as a product of both Mexico and America and blended it in a way so that we can really feel enriched as a community to know that we can fall back on the cultural underpinnings that makes our communities valuable and that contribute to society in general. It was totally about carving identity and creating the safe spaces for families to engage with each other in an environment back then that was weird.”

While ballet folklórico involves traditional Mexican and indigenous dances, in recent years, Roén Salinas has moved to incorporate both sides of the Mexican American identity.

“The idea is to create contemporary, expressive Chicano Latino dance and choreography. It differs radically because what it does, it defies national narratives,” Salinas said. “It goes back to that dichotomy, “Ni soy de aquí ni de allá.” Or, you can claim agency and say, “soy de aquí y soy de allá.” ⁴ 

Read more about the history of Ballet Folklórico Aztlan de Tejas in this  1998 Austin Chronicle article . Watch more of the oral history interview with Roén Salinas  here . 

After Teatro Campesino (Rural Farmer Theater) emerged from Los Angeles during the ‘60s Californian strikes, folk theater became a significant component of El Movimiento. Chicano theater spread across the nation, adapting to regional artistic forms and issues. 

In Austin, Juan Chavira, a farmworker from the Rio Grande Valley, founded el Teatro Chicano in 1969. Chavira’s troupe consisted of UT and local high school students and performed street theater and political skits on topics such as education, voting, and medical care, as well as Austin-specific issues such as the worker strikes at the Economy Furniture Company. ⁵  The actors often included their own experiences in the skits, while providing comedic entertainment that was critical, and culturally and historically relevant. ⁶  El Teatro eventually went on to play across Texas and for the Smithsonian’s American Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C.

Sylvia Herrera, who joined el Teatro Chicano when she was in high school, learned that she could fight to make things better for her community through her time at the company. ⁷ 

“To stand up in order to [ask], ‘What are we going to do about it?’ We can’t lose our identity or have somebody else take away our identity.’ Be proud of who you are, and instill that a lot of times as a group, not as an individual. Collectively, we can change things in the system,” Herrera said. ⁸ 

Of the acts that followed the Teatro Campesino, Teatro Chicano de Austn is considered to be among the most successful in spreading El Movimiento within Texas and beyond, and its works and history are frequently mentioned in relevant Latino literature, even if they never received critical acclaim. ⁹ 

[in English, "Fabrics"]

In 1973, graduate students at the University of Texas René Cisneros, Betty Leone, and Jaime Calvillo started Tejidos, a non-profit quarterly literary and arts publication self-described as a “bilingual journal for the stimulation of Chicano creativity and criticism.”

After its first issue was released in the fall of 1973, the magazine grew to include the work of artists from across the United States and Latin America, with a subscriber base that spanned the globe. In both Spanish and English, the magazine published short stories, essays, music, and poetry ranging from sonnets and barrio to the prisoner’s Pinto style. Issue topics included the Texas Farmworkers, children’s literature, and women’s writing.  

The editors of Tejidos equally employed diversity in their literary forms and writing staff. Angélica Martínez, editor of Tejidos, noted in ‘78 the magazine’s role in promoting women writers in a predominantly male field. 

“Women have been writing all along, it’s just a matter of them reaching an outlet and gaining favor and gaining the exposure to the Chicano audience. Women are being published more and more. Tejidos always makes it a point to publish women whenever they can in each issue, plus they devote one issue to women only, solely to women,” Martínez said. 

Like other artists of the Chicano movement, Martínez highlighted the importance of Chicano art as a powerful tool of both self-expression and activism. 

“The printed word is a very powerful thing and it can unite people for a reason, other than for art’s sake. And that is the thrust that Tejidos has used,” Martínez said. ¹⁰ 

 Listen to Angélica Martínez discuss her work with Tejidos.   

Founded in 1974 by several Austin-based artists, the League of United Chicano Artists, or LUChA, for short, was a multidisciplinary arts and cultural organization that shared the work of Latino artists, promoted cultural awareness, and advocated for the rights of Chicanos. Initial members included Santa Barraza, Raúl Valdez, Juan Pablo Gutierrez, Amado Peña, Inés Hernandez Tovar, and Alberto Urista. ¹¹ 

Throughout its existence, LUChA hosted and sponsored numerous programs that connected the East Austin community to local artists. In the ‘70s, LUChA painted murals across East Austin, which acted not only as representations of the community but also as calls for equity. ¹²  Most notably, the Los Elementos mural, painted on the side of Juárez-Lincoln University, at the time headquarters of LUChA and other related groups, symbolized the struggles of East Austin Chicanos. LUChA and other groups related to the university continued to use the space after its closing until 1983 when the building—and Los Elementos—were demolished by developers, and soon replaced by an IHOP. The community went to court and protested Juárez-Lincoln’s destruction, as many felt the mural belonged to the people of East Austin. ¹³ 

Prior to its destruction, Juárez-Lincoln hosted LUChA-organized programs such as the Museo Del Barrio art and mural design classes. LUChA also worked to showcase Latino artists and held several exhibitions a year,  commencing the Festival Estudiantil Chicano de Arte y Literatura, a showcase of children’s art and literature developed through public-school workshops, in 1975, ¹⁴  and the Galería Quinto Sol, Austin’s first Chicano art gallery, in 1978. ¹⁵  The group encompassed a variety of mediums in its programs, including literature, arts, dance, music, drama, and photography, and initially sponsored Ballet Folklórico Aztlan de Tejas. ¹⁶  The group aimed to encompass a variety of mediums in its programs, including literature, arts, dance, music, drama, and photography. LUChA also worked with the Annual Barrio Music Festival, which featured prominent and up-and-coming Chicano and Tejano musicians. ¹⁷  Though the group began to decline in the late 1980s, its legacy is still felt in East Austin murals, local art networks, and Tejano fights for justice.

Read more about Juárez-Lincoln University  here . 

[in English: Chicano Artists Serving Aztlán]

The Chicano Arts Students Association began in the 1970s at the University of Texas with a primarily visual arts approach to El Movimiento. Similarly to LUChA, which CASA shared members with, its efforts eventually encompassed different artistic mediums, including poetry readings and musical performances. 

The group embraced the idea that art should further the fight for equality and representation, and in 1977, they changed their name to Chicanos Artistas Sirviendo a Aztlán. Juan Tejeda, a member of CASA, recalled the significance of this moment for the organization in an essay for Mexic-Arte Museum: “This shift in name reflected the shift and focus of the organization: from the university to the community. We were artists and cultural guerrilleros and workers for the Chicano people and the Chicano Nation of Aztlan.” ¹⁸ 

In time, as its members began to work with different mediums, CASA expanded out from the university area and into the East Austin community, where El Movimiento was thriving. In 1977, they produced ‘TA CINCHO, a publication which featured poetry and art. In 1978, they partnered with Tejidos to publish Encuentro Artístico Femenil, which emerged from a women’s workshop at Juárez-Lincoln University to feature nineteen women poets, musicians, painters, photographers, and artists. ¹⁹  CASA was also involved in many of LUChA’s programs, including the annual Festival Estudiantil Chicano de Arte y Literatura. 

Read more about Juan Tejeda’s experience in CASA, LUChA, and other Austin-based organizations  here .

[in English: Women Artists of the Southwest]

According to Santa Barraza, artist and co-founder of Mujeres Artistas del Suroeste, Austin in the 1970s initially had few opportunities for Chicanas: the University of Texas’s art departments and Mexican American history classes were taught largely by male professors, and El Movimiento, while nominally advancing women, largely excluded them from important positions, considering the concurrent feminist movement to be too culturally removed from Chicano goals. This left many young women like Barraza without the support networks necessary to advance their art.

It was only after a call to action at the “Encuentro Artístico Femenil'' (Women's Artistic Workshop) in Juárez-Lincoln that, in 1977, Barraza and fellow artist Nora González Dodson began to work for LUChA’s Cultural Center. After finding the collaboration ultimately limiting, Dodson, Barraza, and two other artists collectively rented a studio for $75 a month above an Antone’s Record Shop and founded Mujeres Artistas del Suroeste. 

MAS provided a support structure for female artists. Members critiqued each other’s art, exchanged information on tools and techniques, exhibited together, and, perhaps most importantly, provided each other with emotional and social support, crucial in a mostly-male environment. In and out of Texas, MAS presented important exhibitions involving art of various media, and in 1979 organized the successful Conferencia de Plástica Chicana in Austin, which featured locally and internationally recognized painters, sculptors, filmmakers, critics, and photographers from the United States and Mexico. ²⁰ 

In the mid-1980s, MAS was shut down after its members dispersed across the United States in search of better careers, but their work in empowering women artists is continued by Chicana activists and artists to this day.

Listen to Santa Barraza’s story  here .

After a dancing career that took him from Spain to the Peace Corps and finally back to Austin, Rodolfo “Rudy” Mendez founded the Ballet East Dance Company in 1978 with the goal of bringing modern dance to East Austin. Dance critic Sondra Lomax said, "Ballet East shatters the myth that one has to live west of Interstate 35 to be a highly trained dancer.” Accordingly, during the almost five decades since, Ballet East has discovered, fostered, and presented countless mostly East Austin-based dancers and choreographers through its frequent, community-engaging performances. 

However, Ballet East’s community investment efforts transcend mentorship. The company and its community host folk art festivals, run the nationally-recognized Dare to Dance afterschool program for at-risk students, and, in partnership with East Side Memorial High School, take yearly cohorts of low-income students on field trips where they meet face to face with professional dancers and learn backstage skills. "You wonder if the kids will be interested," Mendez said. "But they sat through all the performances… Seeing dance live keeps their attention better than viewing a tape." Ballet East also provides internship opportunities and, with help from a National Endowment for the Arts grant, sponsors public school students to attend productions from multiple major Austin dance companies.

"Dance opened all doors for me," Mendez said, "and I wanted other young people to have the same opportunities."

Few art organizations have continuously served the Austin Latin American community for as long as the La Peña restaurant-gallery, founded in 1982 and still exhibiting art today. Inspired by the peñas of South America, local gatherings for folk music, poetry, and homecooked food, founders Cynthia Pérez, Lidia Pérez, and María Elena Martínez initially ran a taco stand near the University of Texas to raise capital for the restaurant that eventually, in 1986, was granted status as an arts umbrella organization.

La Peña hosts thematic group exhibits, such as the annual show in devotion of the Virgin of Guadalupe organized with the Sociedades Guadalupanas, and a variety of musical performances, poetry readings, and even community engagement workshops targeted towards artists seeking funding. As an umbrella organization, La Peña sponsors other smaller groups, such as Austin Mural Organization (AMOR) and El Taller de Arte Público, aids new artists in publicizing their art and obtaining funding, and publishes a newsletter featuring work from around the state. Most importantly, its rotating monthly exhibitions have proven indispensable for new artists to introduce their art to the public.

The gallery’s rich history of displayed artists includes Marsha Gómez, Sam Coronado, and José Treviño, all artists who contributed to El Movimiento. ²¹ 

See upcoming exhibitions at their  website , and watch CBS interview founder Cynthia Pérez  here .

Red Salmon Arts, established in 1983 by writer, poet, and prolific activist raúlrsalinas, is best known for Resistencia Books, simultaneously an East Austin bookstore and a bastion to El Movimiento’s legacy. Its shelves form a gallery of Chicano heroes, declarations of liberation, and indigenous art, “allowing Austin’s working class communities to better understand the culture and arts of their families and ancestors.”

“[We] create a space where people don’t have to struggle to see themselves,” Dr. Lilia Rosas, UT professor and the bookstore’s current director, said. “I think [it] is absolutely fundamental in not only reclaiming Austin for what it should be, but what it has been.” 

Even today, in the face of gentrification and multiple relocations, the Red Salmon community is as active as it was in the 1980s. Day to day, its diverse staff of volunteers run the store, while weekly, they host creative workshops, invite authors for public talks, and lead work days on its community garden. "This place is a haven, a sanctuary for anyone who has experienced oppression. Come right in, we're not going to question you, we're not going to card you,” Rosas says.

The bookstore’s central room is dedicated to founder Salinas and his huge body of work, which includes memoirs, pinto (poetry from prison), music columns, and social journalism. Salinas, better known by his pen name raúlrsalinas, developed a world-renowned style after years of hardship, including a combined 9 years in prison for marijuana-related charges. Among some of his best-known works are East of the Freeway (1995), Un Trip Through The Mind Jail (1999), and Indio Trails: A Xicano Odyssey through Indian Country (2006).

Find upcoming events on the  Red Salmon Arts calendar , and watch an Austin History Center interview with Raúl  here .

By Isabel Servantez, from  Reunir 

Mexic-Arte Museum was founded and established as a non-profit in 1984 by artists Sam Coronado, Sylvia Orozco, and Pio Pulido in the Arts Warehouse in downtown Austin. They sought to create a space for Mexican art and culture, something virtually unheard of at the time. Today, Mexic-Arte serves more than 75,000 visitors annually, with over 50% of those being people of color, and is one of the foremost Latinx art museums in the country. Through fostering diversity and embracing cross-cultural understanding, Mexic-Arte has created a space by and for Mexican Americans in central Texas

Mexic-Arte has prided itself on presenting state-of-the-art programming since its inception. In the last 40 years, programming has expanded to include a monthly Changarrito residency, the Taste of Mexico food and culture festival, the one-of-a-kind Emerging Latinx Artists Exhibition, and the Catrina Dinner.

The Museum’s permanent collection includes over 5,000 important historical and contemporary works. The Museum’s primary holdings consist of The Serie Print Project Archive, the Ernesto F. de Soto Collection, the Juan Sandoval Jr. Collection, the Taller Gráfica Popular Print Collection, Popular Mexican Dance Masks, and rare books within the Mexic-Arte Museum Library.

Education is central to the Museum’s mission through exhibitions and special programs,  providing more than 200,000 underserved Austin youth with art education through the nationally recognized Screen It! and AmArte programs.

The Museum’s community-centered programming provides visitors with a unique cultural learning experience. In 1984 Mexic-Arte Museum founders Sylvia Orozco and Pio Pulido were inspired to bring multidisciplinary and intergenerational Día de los Muerto customs from San Andrés Mixquic, Mexico to Austin. Locally, they included Chicano/Latinx customs such as lowriders, break-dancers, and artist and community altars in Mexic-Arte’s Día de los Muertos festivities. These festivities have included exhibitions, performances, street festivals, videos, murals, installations, processions, publications, and other Día de los Muertos expressions. The Día de los Muertos procession and festival, Viva la Vida, is the oldest official Día de los Muertos celebration in Austin. As the years have gone on, Mexic-Arte has expanded its reach, including over thirty organizations in the museum’s yearly procession with over 10,000 people in attendance.

“Printmaking is my favorite medium because it allows for endless experimentation and configurations. It is also the utmost democratic art form." – Poli Marichal, Serie Project artist, 2012 ²² 

The vibrant, expressive ideas of Sam Coronado, former professor at Austin Community College, artistic mentor, and Chicano movement icon, are almost all expressed through serigraphy, an accessible and affordable form of printmaking. His work explored the struggles and dreams of Latin Americans with vibrant colors and experimental styles and was widely commemorated after his passing in 2013. In 1993, in continuation of his efforts to build a community of Chicano artists, Coronado founded the Austin-based Serie Project. Since then, the Project, in part thanks to its medium, has “allowed for both established and emerging Latino artists to reach a bigger audience and in turn, empower their words and creativity to spread to a greater world."

The Serie Project collection is available digitally in the UTSA Special Libraries ²³  and The Art Gallery ACC ²⁴  featuring more than 250 pieces from over 200 artists, with themes ranging from Latin American cosmic spiritualism to love, war, menudo, the horrors of growing up, and Caribbean revolutionary movements – all part of a mission for justice, equity, and compassion.

From 1996, the theater company Teatro Humanidad employed and nurtured Latino actors, playwrights, and technicians for 25 years, through programs including weekly after-school workshops for bilingual teenagers, summer internships, and a Children’s Play Tour that performed across Texas. ²⁵  Teatro Humanidad also founded the Latino Comedy Project, which has grown to national acclaim and continues to perform today.

Teatro Humanidad’s mission was to “develop and present works that promote and preserve the cultura Latina.” Some of their productions included “Luminarlas,” “Six Mexicans Named Gonzales,” “Barrio Daze,” “Basement Refugees,” “Under A Western Sky,” and “Real Women Have Curves.” The group has also performed bilingually, most notably in their series of children’s plays “Alicia in Wonder Tierra” ²⁶  and “Manzi: The Adventures of a Young Cesar Chavez.” ²⁷ 

Founded in 1998 by Adrian Villegas and Ruperto Reyes Jr., LCP is an Austin-based comedy sketch troupe best known for its political and pop culture satire. Since its debut, LCP has performed original productions at comedy festivals and Latino showcases in Austin and across the nation. 

In its opening year, the Austin Chronicle awarded LCP its “1998 Best of Austin” honors and wrote: “The Latino Comedy Project has brought some of the best Latino comedians to the forefront of the entertainment scene in Austin. With biting satire on race and culture, the LCP hits the funny bone time and again in bilingual sketches that target every aspect of being Latino in the US.” ²⁸ 

LCP continues to perform and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2023. Since its inception, LCP has written and performed sketches such as “The Chicano Dating Game,” “Chuy to the World: A Christmas Comedy Mex-Travaganza,” and, most recently, “Gentrif*cked,” “Barrio Daze,” and “‘Estar Guars,” at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center. In 2023, LCP was nominated for “Best Comedy Troupe” in The Austin Chronicle’s 2023 “Best Of Austin” poll.

Every May, the annual Cine Las Americas International Film Festival, first held on 1998, showcases new and old narratives, documentaries, music videos, and short films made all over the Hispanic world, including pieces from Chicano, Central and South American, Spanish, and Portuguese artists. The festival’s other programs include the Emergencia 19-and-younger youth film contests, the special Hecho en Tejas (Made in Texas) local productions series, and mixers meant for connecting up-and-coming filmmakers. Year-round, Cine Las Americas contributes to the Austin community with programs such as CineNoche and CineClub México.

While the festival has been dedicated to becoming an international institution in the media business throughout its growth, and thus benefiting Latin American filmmakers, it is ultimately dedicated to offering fun, culture, and education to its community.

Founders Lara Gocer, Sandra Guardado, René Renteria, and Celeste Serna Williams explained their decision to establish the film festival in a  1998 Austin Chronicle piece .

“There are a lot of other Americas out there and [Austin] doesn’t know them,” Coger relates. Then, she cites the influence of El Movimiento: “About six months back, I went to see the (Austin) Chicano/Latino Film Forum's screening of Latin American film shorts. Now, these were obscure films, shorts from the ‘60s that were part of the new Latin American Cinema Movement of social protest - and the place was packed!"

ALMA, meaning “soul” in Spanish, was a non-profit organization active between 2001-2011 to elevate the contributions of Latino music and musicians to the local music scene in Austin. Signature programs included Women in Latin Music, Sonidos del Barrio (e.g. Sounds of the Barrio), Santana-rama, and Viva Jose Alfredo Jimenez.

ALMA recognized local Latin artists through its lifetime achievement award “Idolos del Barrio” which honored the Nash Hernandez Orchestra, Manuel "Cowboy" Donley y las Estrellas, Ruben and Alfonso Ramos, Jesse y Beto Duran y Los Aguilillas, Johnny Degollado y su Conjunto, Camilo Cantu, Roy Montelongo, Ruben Perez y su Orquesta, Matt Velaquez y su Orquesta, Lalo Campos, and Marcelo Tafoya. 

ALMA spearheaded "The Trail of Tejano Legends" which includes public art along Festival Beach in East Austin to memorialize the 1940s and 1950s Tejano musicians. Artist Connie Arismendi created three permanent public sculptures at the Roy Montelongo Scenic Overlook, Nash Hernandez Road, and Perez and Ramos Plaza at the MACC to commemorate the significant musical contributions of Austin’s Tejano and Hispanic Communities.

Since 2003, ProyectoTEATRO has preserved and promoted Latino culture in the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center — its usual host, built in the 90s in response to widespread Chicano activism — through exclusively Spanish, socially responsive arts and theater programming, led by longtime artist Luis Armando Ordaz Gutierrez. Uniquely, under Gutierrez’s direction, ProyectoTEATRO has fostered a space for the queer and alternative Latino community, experimenting with gender and cultural constructs and sponsoring a progressive community of actors, technicians, and playwrights.

"I really don't get a chance to, like, connect with my roots, so being here and Rachel teaching us these Indigenous dances, just learning about the history, it's a really beautiful thing,”  ²⁹  Valeria Smeke, dancer and performer, stated in a PBS interview.

Also, ProyectoTEATRO supports the Latino community at large by hosting events on culturally important days such as el Día de los Muertos, and provides material aid — including, among other things, community trash cleanups and mask handouts for COVID spikes.

In 2007, Austin artists Jaime Salvador Castillo, Michael Anthony García and Hector Hernandez met while exhibiting their work in the Mexic-Arte Museum’s “Young Latino Artists 11: Juventud Desenfrenada,” and together founded the curatorial collective Los Outsiders. After years of exhibiting art, the inclusion of Robert Jackson Harrington in 2014 led to their expansion into the larger artistic world.

Since becoming four, Los Outsiders have worked with digital media to open artistic discussion, have curated group exhibitions with local, national, and international artists, and fostered artist-driven community projects such as Dance Your Pants Off and #ATXLoteria. Los Outsiders received the 2012 Best Group Show Curation award from the Austin Critics’ Table for their art exhibition “HEIR Today, gone tomorrow,” and again the same award for “Gently Fried.”

The Projecto, led and founded in 2009 by the artist, curator, and producer Coka Treviño, is a multimedia contemporary art studio providing curatorial, design, and outreach services to communities and organizations both in Austin, committed to “redefining artistic boundaries, serving as a beacon for artists of all backgrounds, amplifying their voices, and embracing the rich tapestry of human experiences.”

As part of the Projecto, Coka has developed open-source audio libraries to bridge cultural gaps between the United States and Mexico, curated art exhibits across the city, and hosted symphonies highlighting women of color composers. Her Spanglish talk series hosted Tejano artists and leaders, highlighting their equity work, while her College Heights report rescued an underserved, traditionally African American neighborhood’s story, and was later recognized by the Preservation Merit Awards in 2023. ³⁰  Her most recent project reimagines the mythical Aztlán as envisioned in the 1960s.

Like the 1970s El Sistema program that inspired it, the Hispanic Alliance for the Performing Arts — now Austin Soundwaves — first began at a single school, with a cohort of dozens; later, it grew to serve thousands. Today, the organization, initially funded by Dr. Teresa Lozano Long, supports over 4,000 K-12 student musicians in the Greater Austin area. 

Austin Soundwaves originally only supported Latino string instrumentalists, but later grew to include band, full symphony, chamber music, and mariachi students of all ages and backgrounds. Soundwaves coordinates individual private lessons and hosts additional music theory, composition, and interdisciplinary youth leadership classes. Also among its programs, Austin Soundwaves notably leads the ages 10-55+ Mariachi Para Todos intergenerational ensemble and organizes the annual Draylen Mason Fellows Program, in which a cohort of 32 students perform a piece related to a collectively chosen social justice issue.

As part of its efforts, Soundwaves has supported students in traveling nationally to perform at programs like the National Take-A-Stand Festival in Aspen, Colorado, notable for gathering students from El Sistema programs across the country, and the YOLA National Festival in Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Hall. 

All Austin Soundwaves students since its first full cohort have graduated high school, with many going on to universities including Carnegie Mellon University, Duke University, NYU, Texas A&M, and UT Austin. The organization continues to grow today, accepting more schools and students each year.

Made up of local artists and organizers, Arte Texas is a community arts organization engaged in creating, restoring and preserving Chicano murals and graffiti in East Austin. Arte Texas was founded in 2015 after the famous La Lotería mural, formerly on the side of Cycleast on East Cesar Chavez St., was painted over for a South by Southwest mural. Along with neighborhood support, Bertha Delgado, founder and executive director of Arte Texas, organized artists to restore La Lotería. ³¹ 

Since 2015, the group has restored public art across East Austin alongside local artists and community students, paying homage to the neighborhoods’ Tejano heritage. Their work preserves their community’s history and stories in the face of gentrification. Arte Texas’s other restoration projects have included the mural at Martin Pool, the Virgin of Guadalupe painting on the side of Launderette, ³²  and the Por La Raza mural at the Holly Street Power Plant. ³³  In addition, the group creates murals of their own, including the mural of civil rights activist Cesar Chavez at 1204 E. Cesar Chavez St., unveiled in January 2023. ³⁴ 

Above all, Arte Texas is a “forum to connect veteran artists with emerging talent [...] focused on preserving, restoring, and celebrating the murals, street art, public art painting from the heart and soul of East Austin,” where “youth learn from established artists” and “artists and muralists give back to the community that they are rooted in.” ³⁵ 

1. Mexic-Arte Museum. (April 8, 2022). Virtual Chicano/a Art, Movimiento y Más en Austen, Tejas 1960’s to 1980’s. Mexic-Arte Museum.  https://mexic-artemuseum.org/event/chicano-a-art-movimiento/ .
2. Teresa Palomo Acosta, “Chicano Mural Movement,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed December 14, 2023,  https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/chicano-mural-movement . Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
3. Teresa Palomo Acosta and Kendall Curlee, “Chicano Art Networks,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed December 14, 2023,  https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/chicano-art-networks . Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
4. Arionus, Steve & Salinas, Roén. Oral History Interview with Roén Salinas on June 16, 2016., video, June 16, 2016;  https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth992330/m1  accessed November 21, 2023), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History,  https://texashistory.unt.edu ; crediting TCU Mary Couts Burnett Library.
5. Kanellos, N. (1978). Folklore in Chicano Theater and Chicano Theater as Folklore. Journal of the Folklore Institute, 15(1), 57–82.  https://doi.org/10.2307/3814138 .
6. “Teatro Chicano Schedules Performance at Carnival,” Austin American-Statesman article. 1970, August 2. Austin Files: Latinx M4300 (6). Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
7. "Introduction to the Chicana/o Movement," from oral history interview with Sylvia Herrera, June 10, 2016, Austin, TX, Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database,  https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/6489/introduction-to-the-chicana-o-movement-part-one , accessed November 21, 2023.
8. "Teatro Chicano, Part Two," from oral history interview with Sylvia Herrera, June 10, 2016, Austin, TX, Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database,  https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/6491/teatro-chicano-part-two , accessed November 21, 2023.
9. "Teatro Chicano," from Luis Cano oral history interview with Sandra Enriquez and Samantha Rodriguez, June 20, 2016, Houston, TX, Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database,  https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/3309/teatro-chicano , accessed November 21, 2023.
10. Gutiérrez, Armando. (1978, November 1). Chicano Poetry [Radio broadcast]. Onda Latina.  https://www.laits.utexas.edu/onda_latina/program?sernum=000524511&header=Culture .
11. Mexic-Arte. Chicano Activism at UT Austin and in the Community. Chicano Movimiento.  https://chicanomovimiento.mam.yourcultureconnect.com/e/chicano-activism-at-ut-austin-and-in-the-community. 
12. “LUChA: Cultural Traditions, Community Arts,” article. L.E. McCullough, 1985. Austin Files: Latinx M4300 (12). Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
13. María-Cristina García, “Juárez-Lincoln University,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed December 14, 2023,  https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/juarez-lincoln-university . Published by the Texas State Historical Association.“
14. “LUChA: Cultural Traditions, Community Arts,” article. L.E. McCullough, 1985. Austin Files: Latinx M4300 (12). Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
15. “Gallery Opens,” article. Daily Texan, 1978, July 12. Austin Files: Latinx M4300 (12). Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
16. “LUChA,” Austin Chronicle article. Greg Stephens, 1982. Austin Files: Latinx M4300 (12). Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
17. “LUChA: Cultural Traditions, Community Arts,” article. L.E. McCullough, 1985. Austin Files: Latinx M4300 (12). Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
18. Tejeda, J. (2022). “A Personal Testimonio: The Convergence of the Chicano Movement, Chicano Studies and the Xicano/a Cultural Renaissance in Austin, Texas 1972-1980, and Their Legacy.” Mexic-Arte Museum.  https://mexic-artemuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Mexic-Arte-Paper-on-Chicano-Art-Movement-in-Austin-2022.docx-1.pdf. 
19. Teresa Palomo Acosta and Kendall Curlee, “Chicano Art Networks,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed December 14, 2023,  https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/chicano-art-networks . Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
20. María-Cristina García, “Mujeres Artistas del Suroeste,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed November 21, 2023,  https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/mujeres-artistas-del-suroeste . Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
21. Kendall Curlee, “La Peña,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed November 21, 2023,  https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/la-pena 
22. “Interview with Poli Marichal for Serie 19,” YouTube, uploaded by Serie Project, 23 Mar. 2012,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydXVV4ZmGYA 
23. Serie Project, Inc. Print Collection. 1993-2013, UTSA Libraries Special Collections,  https://digital.utsa.edu/digital/collection/p15125coll11 
24. Cultivating Community Through Art, Sam Coronado, 1993-2013, The Art Galleries ACC,  https://admc.austincc.edu/tag/cultivating-commnity-through-art-sam-coronado. 
25. “Teatro Humanidad: Programs,” webpage. Teatro Humanidad. Austin Files: Theater T6500 (91). Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
26. Teatro Humanidad Youth Programs,” informational flier. Teatro Humanidad. Austin Files: Theater T6500 (91). Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
27. “Press Release: ‘Manzi: The Adventures of a Young Cesar Chavez,” email. Teatro Humanidad, 2006, February 22. Austin Files: Theater T6500 (91). Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
28. “About LCP,” webpage. Latino Comedy Project. Austin Files: Theater T6500 (91). Austin History Center, Austin Public Library.
29. Taylor, Journey. “Austin theater company works to preserve Latin American culture.” PBS News Hour, 5 Mar 2024,  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/austin-theater-company-works-to-preserve-latin-american-culture .
30. Treviño, Coka. Translating Community Hix story: College Heights & African American Heritage. The Projecto, 2020.
31. Barrios, N. (2016, September 23). 'La Lotería' mural unveiled in East Austin. Austin American-Statesman.  https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2016/09/23/la-lotera-mural-unveiled-in-east-austin/9928412007. 
32. Cantú, T. (2015, August 21). The Virgin of Launderette. Austin Chronicle.  https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2015-08-21/the-virgin-of-launderette. 
33. Cantú, T. (2018, June 5). Iconic East Austin Mural Restored To Original Glory. Patch.  https://patch.com/texas/eastaustin/iconic-east-austin-mural-restored-original-glory. 
34. Revilla, D. (2023, May 6.) Exploring the Lasting Impact of Arte Texas Cesar Chavez’s Iconic Mural on Our Community. La Prensa.  https://laprensaaustin.com/1784-2. 
35. Arte Texas. (2023, June 15). La Lucha Sigue, Arte Texas Mission Statement. Facebook.  https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=670755545098981&set=a.670755508432318.