For the artists of El Paso, "the border" isn't a crisis. It's life.
 | By Peter Catapano Senior Staff Editor, Opinion |
It was September 2020 when the novelist and essayist Diana Spechler first wrote to me to propose a piece on the mural art scene in El Paso. At the time, I wasn't sure what to make of it. A little more than a year had passed since the massacre of 23 people at a local Walmart, but the horrible wound the city had suffered still seemed fresh. The moral and political crisis fueled by the Trump administration's handling of the border was raging — as was the pandemic — and marked El Paso as a troubled place in the American consciousness. But Diana, an American who had lived in Mexico for five years before moving to Texas in early 2020, "felt pulled toward the border" to witness something beyond the alarming news reports so many of us were steeped in. |
As she learned more about the muralists of El Paso and the rich history of Mexican muralism — going back to renowned early 20th-century painters like Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros — she was inspired to paint her own picture. |
"I want to write a colorful, beautiful story about a city that's often presented as dark," she wrote. The result is a prismatic essay published this morning in Times Opinion that guides you through the painted walls of the border town and introduces you to the artists and their work. |
The author traveled under pandemic restrictions to El Paso and went almost directly to the Kalavera Culture Shop, an art and graffiti supply store owned by Kata Decker and her husband, the local muralist Jesus Alvarado, known as Cimi. The shop is a hub for artists in El Paso and Juárez, the Mexican city across the border, who come to buy spray paint, drink beer, gossip and hang out. It also supports local artists, displays their work, connects them with collectors and brings art and art education to children in the barrios. Despite its importance to the community, Kalavera doesn't even have a website. "We're the keeper of all secrets," Cimi told Diana. |
But the art itself is no secret: The hundreds of murals that adorn the city tell stories of its inhabitants' past and present in glorious living color. During her stay, Diana spent time with several artists and found a "big-hearted and politically astute community" that defied the one-dimensional narrative of a border town in perpetual crisis. |
"The border isn't abstract to them," Diana says. "It's not something they know from the news cycle. It's so personal. It's so close. They aren't having the same conversations we're having." |
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