El Paso Matters – Coming Home: El Paso artist Carlos Callejo’s courthouse, library murals celebrated

As a kid growing up in the Borderland, Carlos Callejo had a lot to say. A speech impediment made him insecure about speaking, so his doodles and drawings became his voice.

“It was my way of communication and expression,” the now 72-year-old artist said in a phone interview from his home in East Los Angeles this week. “It still is to this day.”

At the age of 9, he moved to California, where his interest in art and muralism was piqued while in high school. He studied at the Otis Art Institute In Los Angeles, earned a degree in social work from California State University, Los Angeles and studied in Spoleto, Italy, in the early 90s under an international arts program.

He moved back to El Paso for about 20 years and was commissioned for several murals here before returning to Los Angeles in 2007. He credits both cities for helping him perfect his art – converting sketches from paper to walls. He’s painted more than 100 murals in Texas, New Mexico and California, and a few other states.

This week, Callejo will be honored in two separate El Paso events highlighting his work at the Enrique Moreno County Courthouse Downtown and the Armijo Branch Library in Segundo Barrio – both pieces about 30 years old and still celebrating the Borderland’s rich cultural history.

“To see your work stand the test of time and to be seen by so many people – well, it makes me feel proud,” Callejo said.

On Friday, the county of El Paso with Augment El Paso, a company that turns print media into interactive augmented reality, will bring the courthouse mural, “Our History,” to life. Through an app, visitors will be able to interact with 3D models of the work, view animations and streaming video, and listen to narration, sound effects and music tied to the mural.

Carlos Callejo’s “Our History” mural is best viewed from the third floor of the El Paso County Courthouse. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

“Our History,” which stretches over 5,000-square-feet of walls beneath the court’s third-floor atrium, highlights key moments in El Paso history and features more than 50 iconic figures. The mural was unveiled in 1995, just a few years after the then-new courthouse was completed.

“It was commissioned, so we had to compete to get the work,” Callejo said. “I saw a unique opportunity to play with the lights and shadows from the large windows where others might have seen a challenge. I think that was my edge.”

Citing the key artists of the Mexican Muralism Movement (Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros) as his role models, Callejo points to his own life experiences as the greatest influence behind his murals: “They’re a reflection of me and those around me at certain points in time.”

The El Paso County Commissioners Court on Monday issued a resolution proclaiming Aug. 23, 2024, as a day to celebrate “Our History” and honor Callejo’s “beautiful work of art by incorporating technology to bring the mural to life.”

‘Follow your dreams’

On Saturday, a multipurpose room at the Armijo Branch Library featuring his mural, “Discover the Secrets of the Universe Through Your Library,” will be dedicated as the Carlos Callejo Mural Room. The mural spans over three walls, one of which features depictions of real neighborhood children reading outside the Segundo Barrio tenements.

A mural by Carlos Callejo at Armijo Branch Library depicts children from Segundo Barrio reading at the South El Paso tenements. (Cindy Ramirez / El Paso Matters)

“It’s a true and compelling representation of the community,” said Deborah K. Valdez, who was hired as branch manager of the Armijo library just over two years ago. 

At that time, she started going through boxes of paperwork and material on the history of the mural and how it came about, and was absolutely fascinated, she said.

“The beauty of it is how it connects our lineage but also how it connects to where we are now,” she said.

Valdez’s mother, Celia Corral, 84, visited her at the library one day.

“She pointed to the tenements in the mural and said, ‘I lived there!’” said Valdez, who grew up in the Riverside area. Hearing her mother’s excitement and sense of pride in seeing the Segundo Barrio depicted colorfully on the walls of the community library made the moment a sort of “poetic justice” and a “full family circle,” Valdez said.

“People come in and stare at the walls all the time,” Valdez added. “It really moves them.”

The Armijo Branch Library holds a special place in Callejo’s heart, too, he said, recalling that he painted his mural in 1994 in what was then an outdoor atrium. The area was later enclosed and the mural was preserved.

Unlike the courthouse mural that focuses on the past, the library piece was meant to reflect the past, present and future and reflect the Armijo community’s Mexican-American and Chicano heritage, he said.

Native El Pasoan Carlos Callejo visits his hometown this weekend to celebrate the anniversary of his murals at Armijo Branch Library, Aug. 22, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

“Behind those walls lies a tremendous amount of knowledge, culture and history,” Callejo said, adding that a key message was the importance of dreams and imagination. “That’s what I wanted to get across, hopefully to inspire kids to follow their dreams – but also to work hard to achieve them.”

Powerful messages evolve

Callejo’s work has evolved over the years, he said. He recalled that as a young adult during the Civil Rights and Chicano movements in the 1960s and early 70s, he produced protest art and propaganda posters with strong and direct political messaging. Over time, he began depicting personal and cultural experiences over political protest.

“I could still deliver a message without being in your face,” he said, adding that much of his work still focuses on the struggles and triumphs of Chicanos. “The message was more subtle, but hopefully just as powerful.”

Callejo left his mark on walls throughout El Paso: A mural of Our Lady of Fatima greets churchgoers at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Segundo Barrio. In the same neighborhood, “El Chuco y Que,” by Callejo, Antonio Mercado and Frank Mata, portrays a stereotype of a Hispanic El Paso cowboy, pointing it as an inaccurate representation of such. A few streets away, another mural speaks to the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s, painted by Callejo with students from a summer youth employment program and the El Paso Chicano Aids Coalition. 

Callejo has served as art director, curator and coordinator for numerous projects, often working with students and youth nonprofits to use mural painting to combine art and social work.

He was instrumental in starting the Spaghetti Bowl murals in 1999, working with more than 70 students to paint on the pillars underneath the Spaghetti Bowl highway at Lincoln Park.

Here is a video from the time many of the murals were first being painted:

Some of the work was torn down when the Texas Department of Transportation in 2020 began the I-10 Connect project that reconfigured the freeway to improve traffic flow to the Bridge of the Americas and better connect Interstate 10 and Loop 375.

Among them were some pillars with depictions of key historical figures in a series titled “Memorial Row,” including slain Los Angeles journalist Ruben Salazar, labor and civil rights leader César Chávez, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy, as well as “Zapata: Tierra y Libertad” (Zapata: Land and Liberty) and “Nuestra Reina de El Paso, Ombligo de Aztlan” (Our El Paso Queen: The Center of Aztlan).

“It definitely hit hard,” he said. “It meant so much to me, to all the students involved, to a part of our history and culture.”

Voice echoes in his work

His work has been featured at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., El Paso Museum of Art, Museo de Arte in Chihuahua, Mexico, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and others.

Today, Callejo’s voice still echoes in his work. 

He just completed a mural inside his alma mater, Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles, that portrays the history of the Boyle Heights neighborhood where he grew up and the school’s role in shaping the community. He’s in talks to develop another mural at the school, he said.

When asked how many murals he’s completed, he said he stopped counting at about 100. He said he doesn’t work as much as he used to, but plans to continue working his art as long as he’s given the chance.

Asked which mural is his favorite, he responds, “The favorite is yet to come.”

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