SAN ANTONIO – After ten years, an iconic mural, La Musica de San Anto, has faded with time.
It was painted on a building adjacent to the W. Commerce bridge, a gateway to city's West Side, as a tribute to ten famed musicians and singers who had passed away, with legacies from blues to boleros.
Next spring, lead muralist David Blancas, will put up a brightly colored, updated version with images of the same artists.
"This was a culture that still needs to be remembered and preserved as everything else started to change around it," Blancas said.
Blancas predicts changes are inevitable given the expansion of the UTSA downtown campus nearby.
Blancas’ friend and musician, the late Manny Castillo, the founder of San Anto Cultural Arts, chose him as the lead muralist for the commemorative mural in 2009.
Blancas said Castillo realized music lovers would ask why those ten artists and not others.
"It was my decision," Blancas recalls Castillo telling him. "But you're painting them, so you're going to get more heat."
Blancas said in his defense, "They are ten great musicians to start with. Why not do more murals to commemorate the music scene? I did my ten. Who is going to do the next ten?"
Not only is Blancas re-creating their images, he's researched the artists and reached out to their families in hopes of learning even more about them.
The only daughter of Rosita Fernandez, long known as San Antonio’s first lady of song, Diana Rosa Almaguer-Orellana visited Blancas’ studio on South Presa to see the work in progress.
"I'm just so happy about it. I'm glad that people remember her. She loved singing and she loved San Antonio very much." Almaguer-Orellana said. "My mom would be thrilled."
Blancas said the updated mural next spring, also will depict “a jukebox that’ll spill music into the mural.”