SAN ANTONIO — If a picture is worth a thousand words, a new public art piece in the heart of downtown also proves a thousand tiles can be worth a huge piece of San Antonio history.
Almost a thousand tiles, at least.
"Iluminación de la Plaza," unveiled Friday morning near City Hall and overlooking the urban San Pedro Creek, uses more than 970 tiles to pay tribute to the history of the area. Front and center in the piece – at 18 feet by 24 feet, one of the city's biggest commissioned tile mural projects, according to officials – are two Chili Queens whose cooking would draw crowds of San Antonians to congregate and eat together starting in the mid-1800s.
According to the city, San Antonians said via survey that they were eager to see that piece of Alamo City culture presented on large-scale, vivid display—and in a part of town where the Chili Queens themselves would have served their bowls of carne guisada decades ago.
“The Chili Queens were a huge part of downtown, providing rich foods and feeding all kinds that were interested in purchasing their mole, their carne guisada, their beans, their tortillas," said Juliette Moke, manager of the Bexar County Heritage Center. "These were all done with love and hard work.”
Christopher Montoya, the local artist behind "Iluminación de la Plaza" (literally, "Illumination of the Plaza"), said it marked his first solo collaboration with the city—as well as the first time his work has been displayed on tile.
"I wanted to approach this mural in such a way that it was kind of traditional. I didn't want it to be illustrative," he said Friday, speaking from the shadow of his massive project. "I wanted it to look like a museum-quality type of artwork that could be accessible. Something documenting history."
In order to document the past, Montoya first had to dive into it. A large part of bringing "Iluminación de la Plaza" to life was research to determine which details of San Antonio life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries he would incorporate into the work, initially painted on canvas.
Those details are many, from longhorns and fruit stands to hardware storefronts and a downtown map adorning the top of the piece. At Friday's ribbon-cutting – attended by City Council members, World Heritage Office representatives and others – visitors would point to a specific sight before their eye caught another, their fingers suddenly drawing a route through San Antonio's cultural history in the air.
Taken altogether, those details form a boldly rendered illustration of downtown San Antonio nightlife as it would have looked roughly 150 years ago, with dusty streets where paved ones now lie and covered wagons where electric vehicles now roam.
For Krystal Jones, director of San Antonio's Department of Arts and Culture, the highlight is a lantern which Montoya says represents his desire for the mural to light the way through the history. Jones says it gives her a renewed appreciation for the lanterns she always noticed at the Spanish Governor's Palace next door, but didn't deeply consider until now.
"What I really love is that he's incorporated how the past is coming forward into the present," said Jones.
Montoya took several things into consideration when designing the mural, including the location itself. The four-phase project that is the construction of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park continues, but there's already numerous public art adorning its completed sections; part of Montoya's job was figuring out how to integrate "Iluminación de la Plaza" so it fit alongside them.
"I thought about the composition and how it was going to be perceived and viewed against the already-placed pieces here," he said, adding that he felt humbled to leave such a mark in his hometown. "I hope it inspires the community and younger generations."
Meanwhile, the work of other local artists will continue to be planned and unveiled as the city keeps momentum with its public art initiatives. Jones says residents can expect 30 projects similar to "Iluminación de la Plaza" to be unveiled over the next five years, the result of voter-approved 2022 bonds.
"You're going to be seeing dedications just like this (where) the public can come out and learn about San Antonio," she added. "Where there's a wall, there's a way."
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