Eagle Pass, TX
Greetings from Eagle Pass, Texas! We’ve been in touch with this border city in Texas for some time and finally had the chance to create our second postcard mural in the lone star state. A lot of people may not be aware of this small community, but it’s the fastest route between San Antonio and Mexico often referred to as "La Puerta de Mexico" or Mexico's Door. The sister city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico is located right across the border and almost 95% of the population within Eagle Pass are hispanic. While it feels like you could be in Mexico, the locals here are proud Texans!
The name “Eagle Pass” originated from the contour of the hills through which the Rio Grande flows, creating an image that resembled the outstretched wings of an eagle. The city was historically known as Camp Eagle Pass and was the first American settlement on the Rio Grande. Today, it’s become the second busiest international rail crossing between the U.S. and Mexico. In fact, Union Pacific Railroad was the official grant sponsor that made this project possible. One thing we learned after traveling this country for 6+ years is that there’s always the sound of a freight train horn wherever we find a place to settle for the night. In our RV & home, we use vintage Union Pacific calendar that matches our current year. Their logo is already ingrained in our memory from looking at it all these years!
Since Lisa was 6 months pregnant, we felt that it was safer that she didn’t travel for this project. Therefore, we connected with a lot of locals ahead of time to help out. Lisa coordinated the documentation remotely. Special thanks to local artists (full time teachers) Adrian Ortiz and Diego Diaz for their support and help on the ground before Victor arrived. In addition, we had a local photographer Erick Ramos help capture the process as Victor worked on the mural. We are grateful to collaborate with the locals in a community whenever possible!
Arturo Marquez was our city contact. He helped secure the wall downtown in an area they were looking to designate as a future Arts & Entertainment District. Arturo used to live in El Paso and actually found out about our project from our El Paso mural at The Substation. By coincidence, we now have two murals in border cities both with the same “EP” abbreviations! Arturo was a great host and set us up with everything we needed to knock the mural out in the 4 days Victor was in town. Thank you for all your hard work in making the vision come to life.
On the first day, the local artists (Adrian and Diego) met Victor at the wall at sunrise and got straight to pouncing. With their help, we accomplished a lot and ended up a full day ahead of schedule! However, we soon discovered that UPS actually lost one of our packages so we were missing about half the spray paint needed to complete the mural. Using brush and latex paint would have been really tough on such a textured surface and the clock was ticking. We had planned on having a regional artist from San Antonio come help. Therefore, we assumed he could pick up some of the spray paint before he came down. However, as luck would have it, he couldn’t make it down at the last minute. Long story short, we had to pay a very hefty fee to courier the paint down 2.5 hours via a car service. Whatever it takes to get the job done, we’ll do it!
We love interacting with the locals while we paint and learning about the city through their viewpoints. One interesting fact we learned is that the only casino in the state of Texas is actually located in Eagle Pass. The Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino is able to operate under federal rather than state jurisdiction. The tribe has a very interesting history in this area and they actually lived under the international border crossing bridge for many decades before they acquired their reservation land rights.
On the Mexico side, Constellation Brands has a major brewery plant that’s responsible for producing Corona Extra, Corona Light, Modelo Especial, Negra Modelo, Pacifico, and Victoria. All of the beer produced there is actually exported to the United States. This contributes to a lot of the rail traffic coming across the border through Eagle Pass. We met a lot of locals who travel across the border on a daily basis for work and family. Our Eagle Pass mural is located just a few blocks from the border crossing but we would love to eventually paint a mural in Mexico one day too!
The unfortunate migrant crisis in Del Rio happened recently only about an hour north of Eagle Pass. When they closed the border, the buses were actually rerouted to Eagle Pass, but their neighboring city in Mexico didn’t allow them through. It was a sad story and signs of the overflow was evident here in town. We took a drive down to the Rio grande a few blocks away to have a look into Mexico and check out the International Bridge. The national guard was now stationed there and they had setup a “steel wall” with shipping containers and barbed wire.
Because of the short amount of time we had, we went with a style that was more graphic with a limited color palette. It was a mix of our classic postcards with the vintage travel poster style we recently painted. One of the last minute additions to the piece was incorporating a hint of green into the 3D. The background is a tribute to the Texas flag, but we felt that with the strong Mexican culture here, there should also be representation of the Mexican flag colors as well! Sometimes, it’s the minor final adjustments that really make the piece feel complete.
Thank you to the Eagle Pass Lowe’s and Sherwin Williams for their support in donating some supplies for this project. Both companies have come through many times for us in different communities across the country. Last but not least, a big shout out as usual to Montana Cans for their generous spray paint support since 2015! People are usually shocked to know the pieces we create are done 90% in spray paint.
Once the mural was completed, the city had a ribbon cutting event at the wall. It was also recorded on the city’s Facebook live for those at home. We had the honor of meeting mayor Rolando Salinas Jr. and state rep Eddie Morales amongst many other local officials. Our hope is that this mural project will inspire other talented local artists to get out there and create more murals in their hometown. Thanks to the Arts & Culture Center for also inviting us to their holiday concert afterwards to celebrate. We see a lot of potential for the arts in this city and hope to be back soon!
Local artists Adrian Ordaz (left) and Diego Diaz (right)
Eagle Pass State Rep Eddie Morales
Letter Guide:
EAGLE — Maverick County Courthouse
PASS — Eagle Pass Public Library
Press:
City of Eagle Pass - Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
Year: 2021
Mural Size: 12'H x 25'W
Location: 263 Jefferson St, Eagle Pass, TX 78852