On West Commerce Street, a mural on the back of a bail bonds building marks the gateway between downtown San Antonio and the city’s West Side. Bursting with life, La Música de San Anto depicts several of the city’s musical legends, from the Texas Tornados’ Doug Sahm to “The Meadowlark of the Border,” Lydia Mendoza. They’re all mid performance as couples dance in the background. The mural is a colorful love letter to the city’s history and cultural impact, and to friendship.
San Antonio has always had a reputation as a friendly city. When I grew up there, people were eager to come together. We took advantage of any excuse to throw a party, light up the River Walk, or play music in the streets. Whether you’ve lived in town your entire life or it’s your first time visiting, you’ll find yourself swept into the celebration. And no matter how big San Antonio gets, a small town closeness permeates the city.
These qualities have been recognized by publications including Condé Nast Traveler and Southern Living, both of whom have recently named San Antonio one of the “friendliest cities” in the country. In thinking about why that is, I keep coming back to the mural, and the man painted sitting at the drums, his figure slightly blurred in excitement: Manny Castillo.
I’ve heard about Manny my whole life. In the stories of my dad’s teenage years, Manny was an instigator—one of my dad’s best friends, and the catalyst behind countless wild nights sneaking into clubs underage. He was a punk rock musician, an advocate for the arts, and a community activist who loved the city that raised him. After a brief stint away from home in college, he returned in the early 1990s with a vision.
In 1993, he teamed up with local artists Juan Miguel Ramos and Cruz Ortiz to launch Inner City Cultural Arts, now known as San Anto Cultural Arts. The nonprofit supports aspiring artists in the community, in part through a mural project the trio hoped would transform the West Side.
Then and now, the West Side is often overlooked and underfunded. Yet, the neighborhood has produced many of the city’s luminaries. It’s home to congressman Henry B. González, La Gloria chef Johnny Hernandez, legendary Tejano producer Manny Guerra, “Queen of the Accordion” Eva Ybarra, and Ray’s Drive Inn—home of the original puffy taco. The mural project was a way to reconnect the neighborhood with its past and instill community pride. Over the next 15 years, Manny served as executive director, overseeing more than two dozen murals.
When he died suddenly from cancer in 2009, he had been enthusiastically following the progress of La Música de San Anto. Lead artist David Blancas promptly reworked the original layout, placing Manny in the center of the sprawling portrait. In his absence, Manny’s friends took up the mantle, painting more than 50 murals across the West Side: La Virgen de Guadalupe on the Guadalupe Community Center, people dancing to conjunto music on the walls of La Chiquita Bakery, Aztec legends painted down Brazos Street, and a family sharing a meal on the side of a former West Commerce car wash on wash on North Zarzamora Street.
When I pass by these murals now, they’re a reminder not just of Manny’s dream for the city, but of the decades-long friendships that made it possible. People came together to create works of art that would outlast them, artifacts that would preserve our history and perennially welcome newcomers. sananto.org
