#TBT: Antonio E. Garcia Arts & Education Center celebrates 25th anniversary
Antonio E. Garcia was a celebrated working artist from South Texas, known for his portraits and frescoes. In 1998, the Center for Hispanic Arts was renamed in his honor, becoming the Antonio E. Garcia Arts and Education Center.
On Thursday, the center celebrates the last 25 years of building community relationships through arts and education outreach.
Who is Antonio E. Garcia
Antonio Encarnación Garcia came to San Diego, Texas, in 1914 as a young teenager to live with his grandfather. His father sent Garcia and his two sisters from their home in Monterrey to escape the violence of the Mexican Revolution. After graduating from San Diego High School, he saved money to attend the Art Institute of Chicago, briefly coming back to San Diego to marry his high school sweetheart Herminia Gonzalez in 1929, then returning to Chicago to finish his degree.
The couple moved to Corpus Christi in 1935, where they raised their five children and Garcia was a working artist. His portraits and paintings along with his career as an art teacher paid the families’ bills, but his frescoes are among his most well-known works. Garcia taught himself the technique from books on Egyptian, Aztec and Etruscan paintings. His most famous frescoes include "Mexican Annunciation" at Presidio La Bahia in Goliad, five panels done at Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Comanche Street, and another in the Immaculate Conception Chapel at St. John Paul II High School on Saratoga Boulevard.
Son Eduardo Garcia recalls helping his father during his work on the Sacred Heart frescoes, which were done in the late 1940s and early '50s.
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“I would help send up the fresh plaster for him to paint on. There was a man mixing it who would put it in a bucket, and then I would take the rope and put it on a pulley to get it up to my father,” Eduardo said. “And he wouldn’t let me go up on the scaffolds because it was obviously too dangerous.”
Daughter Rosa Garcia, who attended the original dedication in 1998 and plans to attend the anniversary celebration, shared an anecdote about an exhibition of The Bronx Museum of the Arts she attended with her father in 1988 featuring his painting, “Woman Before a Mirror,” which was a likeness of Herminia.
“On the right of one door was his painting, and on the left side of the door was a painting by Diego Rivera,” Rosa shared. “My father was very proud of that fact, as he was a great admirer of Diego Rivera.”
The family and the center also are seeking photos of any of Antonio's works that may be in private collections, in order to have a more complete catalogue of his works. Photos can be emailed to the center at garciacenter@tamucc.edu.
Arts and Education center origins
The center first opened in March 1993, as the Center for Hispanic Arts, but its origins go back to 1978. That was the year the National Chicano Arts Festival held its annual event, Canto al Pueblo, in Corpus Christi and local organizers recognized the need for a permanent organization in the city. That newly created task force created the Center for Chicano Arts, Sciences and Humanities in 1981, then changed the name to Center for Hispanic Arts in 1983 when it achieved nonprofit status.
Though the center had no home at the time, it continued to grow and co-sponsor activities through the 1980s. The Westside Business Association formed in the mid-1980s to help preserve the Westside businesses in danger of displacement from construction on the Crosstown Expressway.
They helped created the Agnes/Laredo corridor, and in 1986 the Corpus Christi City Council earmarked $500,000 in block grants to build a home for the CHA at 2021 Agnes Street. The building opened in 1993, and in 1997 merged with the Creative Arts Center and the Art Museum of South Texas (an affiliate of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi) to create the South Texas Institute for the Arts, and the following year the center was renamed in honor of Antonio E. Garcia, who died in 1997.
The namesake felt appropriate, not only for a center begun for arts education and appreciation, but to build community relationships. The center’s website shares a quote from Antonio where he told reporters, “God has been good to me. I have five lovely children. That was my dream – to rear good citizens who would contribute to the welfare of their community.”
Celebrating 25 years
The center has expanded since those initial days of supporting the arts. After becoming affiliated with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, in 2004 the university’s College of Education took over day-to-day operations and the center expanded to focus not just on art, but also education and health.
Esmeralda Herrera-Teran, the center’s director since late 2020, explained the center seeks to use hands-on techniques to help the at-risk communities they serve, from school readiness to arts to health education to counseling.
“We look for ways to close that gap with our students, we stay with them throughout their lives,” said Herrera-Teran, “and eventually they come back to us as instructors or volunteers, or even staff.”
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Students with the College of Education are hired as tutors to help at-risk students with math and reading skills in the after-school program. The center offers counseling services through the college and Family Night Out events, diabetes education classes, a chess club, plus the arts and cultural events part of the center’s original mission.
“We also would not be able to function at 100 percent if it wasn’t through our community partners that we have,” she explained. “We are able to provide all these services because of these partnerships.”
In addition to the College of Education, other groups include the College of Liberal Arts, Grow Local South Texas, Boy Scouts of America, Kids Get Fit, Art Museum of South Texas, K Space Contemporary, Coastal Bend Food Bank and more.
The 25th anniversary Pachanga begins at 5 p.m. Thursday, and the public is invited to celebrate not only the legacy of namesake Antonio E. Garcia, but the center’s successes and ongoing mission in the community.
The center will unveil two murals, one a homage to Antonio E. Garcia by artists Mayra Zamora and Eugene Soliz. The other, “Faces of our Future,” is a collage of self-portraits completed during the summer by student artists ages 12 to 17 in collaboration with K Space Contemporary and under the direction of Monica Marie Garcia and Zamora.
Other artwork on display includes a ceramics show by Dr. Leonel Monzivais; a trio solo show featuring Monica Marie Garcia, Mayra Zamora, Eugene Soliz; and a tribute exhibit to Antonio E. Garcia and his artwork. In addition to contributing works to the show, resident artist Mayra Zamora has organized much of the celebration event, and even got her start at the center as an America Reads tutor.
Attendees will also enjoy performances by Ballet Folklorico Viva Mexico and mariachis, a car show with three local car clubs, light refreshments, and have a chance to make purchases from Most Comida food truck and community vendors.
“I honestly believe we’re taking the Garcia center for the next 25 years into a whole new level of community involvement and support,” Herrera-Teran said.
“I’m super excited about what’s ahead for us.”
IF YOU GO
Antonio E. Garcia Arts & Education Center 25th Anniversary Pachanga
When: 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14
Where: 2021 Agnes St.
Cost: Free admission
Contact: 361-825-3600 or https://www.tamucc.edu/education/departments/garcia-center/
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Antonio E. Garcia Arts & Education Center celebrates 25th anniversary
