El Paso Matters – How a new generation is reclaiming Segundo Barrio’s mural tradition

Citlali Delgado didn’t attend Bowie High School, the historic campus that was originally located on the southern fringe of El Paso’s Segundo Barrio. She graduated from Burges High School, about seven miles east. But the stories, memories and pride her parents carried from the neighborhood made an impression too powerful to ignore.

Now, the 21-year-old, who graduated from New Mexico State University in May with a bachelor of fine arts, will leave her own indelible mark on the neighborhood that shaped her family. Along a concrete wall on Sixth Avenue between Ochoa and Virginia streets, her mural stretches across the block: a vibrant depiction of a smiling girl with brown skin and long, flowing braids. Intertwined within the braids are a vibrantly hued rattlesnake along with images of Hispanic women of varying ages and in various modes of dress.

The mural is painted on parachute cloth and was prepared by Delgado and student artists from Guillen Middle School and Bowie High School. It ripples with color and symbolism — an ode to Hispanic/Indigenous identity, feminine strength and communal healing.

“This mural is a feminist take on the Chicano movement and also just on muralism,” Delgado said. “A lot of our paintings are very masculine, very labor-intensive. You see our people at work, whether they’re men or not. But I feel that our people can also relax. We can have fun, we can smile and be, because we’re human.”

Though Delgado has exhibited her art in academic settings, the Segundo Barrio mural is her first major public work — and one that reclaims muralism as both a community practice and a personal statement. The piece, which she designed and painted over nearly two weeks alongside a cohort of youth artists, is part of the newly launched Segundo Barrio Mural Project — a multi-organizational effort to restore, preserve and expand the neighborhood’s iconic public art tradition.

Spearheaded by artists Jesus “Cimi” Alvarado and Francisco Delgado, and backed by organizations including CompARTE (an affiliate of the El Paso Community Foundation), the South Side Neighborhood Association, Conscious Barrio Inc. and the El Paso Independent School District’s Community Schools initiative, the project aims to renew aging murals, create new ones and engage a new generation of artists in the process.

“This is just the first wave,” said Alvarado, a renowned El Paso muralist who grew up in Segundo Barrio. “We’re continuing a tradition that began here in the 1970s — where muralism was born from protest, from the fight for better housing, for better conditions. We’re teaching the youth where they come from, and we’re showing them that they can shape where it goes next.”

A new wave of Segundo Barrio muralism 

For Alvarado, the Segundo Barrio Mural Project is about more than paint and preservation — it’s about continuity.

“It’s to continue the tradition of painting murals,” said Alvarado, whose work can be found throughout the city, especially in the neighborhoods where he grew up. His murals have also garnered national attention, appearing in major films such as “The Forever Purge.” He also painted murals that coincided with the release of “Blue Beetle” and “Cassandro.”

Muralism took hold in the neighborhood 50 years ago, when a group of Chicano artists and activists organized La Campaña por la Preservación del Barrio in response to deteriorating housing and the threat of displacement in Segundo Barrio.

Their weapon was art.

Murals began to bloom on crumbling walls, visual declarations of cultural survival. One of the original pieces, painted in summer 1975 by Arturo Avalos and others, still stands along the 400 block of Father Rahm Avenue.

“That’s where the mural movement came from — the original one in 1975,” Alvarado said. “It was for the betterment of the people who wanted better living conditions. They were already living in really bad conditions. (The mural) was just a little bit to try to better their days.”

By reigniting that spirit today, Alvarado said, the mural project hopes to educate as much as it beautifies. With support from partner organizations and a new generation of artists, the project serves as a community classroom — one where paintbrushes, history lessons and mentorship go hand in hand.

“We’ll keep telling them, ‘Be proud of where you’re from.’ But, they don’t know where they’re from because we’re not teaching them.”

Jesus “Cimi” Alvarado

“We’re teaching them those stories and that history that the school’s not teaching,” he said. “I think that’s really important, you know, for us to know who we are. And then we’ll keep telling them, ‘Be proud of where you’re from.’ But, they don’t know where they’re from because we’re not teaching them.”

Alvarado understands the importance of that message firsthand. He grew up just blocks from where Avalos’ mural stands, and traces his own artistic journey back to his days at Bowie High School, where he was mentored by renowned Chicano artist and teacher Gaspar Enriquez.

“I had never seen our people being represented… especially being exhibited in museums,” Alvarado said. “And Gaspar was doing that.”

The mural project’s other founding artist, Francisco Delgado, also grew up in Segundo Barrio. His art tackles themes of identity, labor and migration with a sharp and often satirical edge. But for Delgado, the work underway in the barrio is personal and communal.

“I don’t want to consider myself the brain behind it,” he said of the mural project’s beginnings. “But Cimi and I talked about it, and I said, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ll help out.’ I’m always willing to help, you know, if it benefits this community … especially the community that I grew up in.”

Delgado, who is Citlali’s father, attended Hart Elementary School, Guillen Middle School and graduated from Bowie High School in 1993. He said it was mentors such as Rosa Guerrero and Felipe Adame who showed him what was possible for a young artist coming out of the neighborhood. Now, he sees passing on that guidance as part of his responsibility.

“As an artist, it’s like passing the tools to the next generation,” he said. “I think more importantly, as an artist, you know, getting that generation out there so they can do their own stuff. It’s kind of, like, full circle.”

The Segundo Barrio Mural Project reflects that full-circle ethos — bringing veteran artists and emerging voices together to create works that not only honor the past, but empower those coming up next.

“I think to be proud of who they are,” Delgado said, “even something as simple as taking the broom and sweeping, you know, that area that looks dirty … that tells the community that you’re proud.”

Restoring history

Before there was a mural project, there was Arturo Avalos and some cans of paint.

In 1975, at just 18 years old, Avalos and a group of fellow artists painted what would become one of Segundo Barrio’s most iconic works — an expansive mural along Father Rahm Avenue depicting a stylized Aztec face framed by colorful, geometric wings. At the time, the neighborhood was facing rampant demolition of tenement housing, and activists feared the community would be erased. The murals were part protest, part preservation.

“We thought that by beautifying the neighborhood, they would stop demolishing it.”

Jesus “Cimi” Alvarado

“We thought that by beautifying the neighborhood, they would stop demolishing it,” Avalos said while overseeing a restoration effort of the mural this week. “And we also wanted newer housing because they were destroying housing, but not replacing them. So, we felt under attack, and we decided to do something about it.”

Nearly 50 years later, Avalos is back — this time watching his mural come back to life with the help of student artists and fellow muralists, including Francisco Delgado, Alvarado and his own former collaborators. 

Among the new faces is Bowie High School student Derek Montañez. Montañez is one of 19 students who took part in the Segundo Barrio Mural Project. He was among a small group who helped professional artists with the restoration of Avalos’ mural. 

“I think it’s very cool,” Montañez said. “I think it will be cool to know that I’ll pass by and know that I helped put that there.”

The project has drawn the community together, echoing the grassroots nature of its origins. 

“We have people that haven’t seen each other in I don’t know how many years,” Alvarado said. “This has brought people together.”

For Avalos, seeing a new generation engaged in preserving and continuing the work is deeply gratifying.

“Oh, man, it makes me feel very good,” he said. “And it also makes me appreciate that all the people care about it and care for it.”

He remembers the skepticism the mural faced in the 1970s. As he and his fellow artists painted, truck drivers hauling recycled cardboard from Juárez would pass by, shouting sarcastic encouragement, he said. 

“There was one particular truck, when it passed by, he would yell, ‘Ahorita se la avientan,’” Avalos said. “We were like, ‘Why are they saying that to us? Do they think we’re gonna paint the whole wall?’”

They did. And when the mural was complete, the same drivers returned — with beer in hand — to apologize and celebrate.

“They came and said, ‘We just want to tell you we apologize for all that grief we were giving you. Here’s una 12-pack of beer. Mis respetos.’ They had a beer with us and that’s it.”

What Avalos and his team didn’t anticipate at the time was the longevity — or the reach — of their work. Years later, while working at Stanford University in California, Avalos stumbled across a textbook on Chicano studies.

“One of the pages, there’s a picture of my mural,” he said. “I felt great. But I also felt ripped off. But I said, ‘Well, you know, it’s a teaching book.’ It’s teaching Chicano studies, so I’m OK with that.”

Even so, Avalos said he has dealt with his share of appropriation over the years — images of his mural reproduced without permission, T-shirts sold in its likeness. Still, what matters most to him is that the art continues to speak.

“It just gives me a great feeling that I don’t know how to put into words,” he said. “When somebody appreciates something you did, what’s more fulfilling than your peers having your back?”

Now, as he contends with health issues and watches others pick up the brush where he left off, Avalos sees the project not just as restoration, but as a passing of the torch.

“I never really imagined that it would be an iconic symbol of the barrio that it has become.”

Arturo Avalos

“I never really imagined that it would be an iconic symbol of the barrio that it has become,” he said. “That people still care… that this new generation is aware and willing to preserve it and conserve it, I take great pride in that and I appreciate their efforts.”

Art as resistance,  memory

While the Segundo Barrio Mural Project is rooted in restoration, it’s equally focused on evolution. Veteran artists such as Alvarado and Francisco Delgado aren’t just reviving murals — they’re creating space for new voices and new stories to emerge.

“We don’t have, you know, centers where we can have the kids come in for art class or things like that,” Alvarado said. “And the way that it is right now, with our political climate, it’s getting worse to do something like that.”

By working with neighborhood schools, the mural project is filling that gap — giving students both technical skills and a sense of ownership over the stories told in their own neighborhoods. For Citlali Delgado, that meant teaching students to paint with parachute cloth, also known as Polytab, a mural method many of them had never seen before. For the students, it meant more than a summer project. It was validation.

“What I really love about this camp is that we’re paying the kids for their work,” she said. “It is possible. This is a real job. This is real work and you can get paid for it, for your skills, for your talents.”

Even for established muralists such as Christin Apodaca, the project represents something powerful. 

“It’s great that she’s (Citlali Delgado) getting this opportunity to create something long-lasting for this community,” she said. 

Apodaca, a native El Pasoan, has built a reputation for large-scale public art. Her work spans the city, from Montecillo to the El Paso Area Teachers Federal Credit Union, and includes a striking black-and-white piece outside the Salvation Army Downtown. 

“It’s great that she’s (Citlali Delgado) getting this opportunity to create something long-lasting for this community.”

Christin Apodaca

Last year, the city was introduced to an immersive mural she completed at La Nube STEAM Discovery Center titled “In our Desert, There is Magic.” Inspired by the biodiversity of the Chihuahuan Desert, the piece features playful scaling of desert plants and wildlife. Apodaca lent her skill to the volunteer team that restored Avalos’ half-century-year-old mural. 

“I think it’s important to collaborate. I’m always willing to help,” she said.

That spirit of collaboration is central to Alvarado’s vision. While many murals of the past were created in the heat of activism and the urgency of protest, today’s artists are building on that foundation by modeling what shared cultural authorship looks like — working side by side, lifting one another up and documenting their stories for future generations.

“I think it’s going back to that sense of community,” Alvarado said. “Artists just started showing up, you know, to help again. They were just, like, ‘Where do you want me to go? Where do you want to paint?’ That’s so great.”

For Citlali Delgado, the mural she helped lead isn’t just about visual beauty — it’s about being seen, in every sense of the word. Her depiction of a smiling girl with braids is a deliberate act of reclamation, an invitation to embrace cultural features often stigmatized even within the community.

“I wanted to switch that up,” she said. “I wanted to symbolize this as security within our own community, security of ourselves. We’re known as hard workers. But, we are more than our labor.”

Citlali speaks openly about the politics of representation — about colorism, caricature and the way murals can function as both resistance and release. She doesn’t aim to fit her work into a tidy narrative.

“I create to understand how I and my communities can live with, against, and past the border.” 

Citlali Delgado

“I create to understand how I and my communities can live with, against, and past the border,” she said. 

That sentiment resonates in Segundo Barrio, where murals are more than decorative — they are declarations. Visual anchors of cultural pride. 

“These kids, most of them live here, so they’re going to see this,” Alvarado said. “Yes, it’s just paint on the wall. But, for the people that live here, it’s something beautiful, where you can find the community.”

The post How a new generation is reclaiming Segundo Barrio’s mural tradition appeared first on El Paso Matters.

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