Holly Street Murals
This post is a part of our East Austin Barrio Landmarks Project honoring the historic and cultural significance of East Austin's Mexican American community. For more information on the project—including our complete blog series and self-guided tour—click here.
For La Raza, Restored, Courtesy of Art in Public Places
Murals Accessible to All Citizens & Publicly Celebrate Chicano Culture on the East Side
BY CATALINA CHERÑAVVSKY SEQUEIRA
East Austin is full of iconic public artworks that honor Mexican American heritage—La Lotería mural on East Cesar Chavez Street, the Chicano Park mural at Edward Rendon Sr. Park, the Hillside Theater murals at the Pan American Recreation Center, and the Metz Pool House mural, just to name a few.
These murals are accessible to all citizens and publicly celebrate Chicano culture on the east side. Most importantly, these artworks were created by community members themselves. In the Chicano culture of East Austin, the arts are incorporated into everyday life. From religious shrines to original music, creative expression is at the heart of so many Mexican American traditions and has the power to unite people through their collective identity.
The Holly Street Murals are among the most monumental public artworks in East Austin, spanning a large part of the sound wall around the Holly Street Power Plant. They speak to the long and fraught history of city developers and the needs of their people. The murals symbolize the resilience of Mexican American citizens in Austin despite being subject to constant discrimination and neglect.
Holly Street Power Plant, 1970 (Austin History Center via the Portal to Texas History)
The Holly Street Power Plant was created in 1958, one year after the City Planning Commission zoned all of East Austin, including its single-family neighborhoods, industrial. This segregationist land use policy pushed polluting infrastructure east of Interstate 35, where primarily Black and Latino people were forced to live.
It kept the city’s white residents, who mainly resided in central and downtown Austin, free of the machinery that was required to sustain everyday urban services. These discriminatory practices angered East Austin residents, and many fought tirelessly for the power plant’s decommission for several decades. The plant represented the biggest investment in East Austin municipal services during the postwar period and its site was chosen for its proximity to downtown, where there was the most demand for those services. Initially, the plan was to develop the entire Holly neighborhood for industrial purposes, displacing all of the families who lived there. Therefore, little consideration was given to the constant concerns raised by residents who felt their closeness to this power plant posed a health and safety threat.
Community organizers saw the power plant as a manifestation of environmental racism. Paul Hernandez, a leader of the Brown Berets, Susana Almanza, a founding member of PODER (People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources), and countless other residents of the neighborhood demanded that the plant be decommissioned as early as 1991. Austin Energy constructed a sound wall to placate the complaints about noise and safety, but the wall did little to reduce the roaring sounds and fumes that emanated from the facility. There was one silver lining, however; the wall would become an ongoing community project that highlighted the legacy of the neighborhood’s people.
Names of Original Artists Painted on the Western Wall Around the Holly Street Power Plant, c. 1991
In 1991, local artist Felipe Garza was selected to organize a project to paint different panels along the sound wall that would celebrate the local heritage and make the industrial site more visually bearable. It began with seven murals and a plan to paint a total of ten works over two years.
One mural was meant to be a continuously changing graffiti painted by kids from the neighborhood. Garza invited Al Martinez, Ambray Gonzalez, Arleen Polite, David Santos, Fidencio Duran, Jean Aubrey, Joe Perez, Mando Martinez, Oscar Cortez, Raymond Mendoza, Robert Herrera, and others to participate in the project. Additionally, David Santos and Joe Perez designed Big Arch facing Riverview Street, which was meant to teach neighborhood youth the craft of stone carving through its production. Many of the artists involved in the mural initiative were quite young at the time and were active in promoting Chicano culture and representation in the arts. Many had done so as members of LUCHA (League of United Chicano Artists) whose headquarters were at the Quintanilla House on East Cesar Chavez Street. LUCHA promoted the artistic community of Austin by distributing funding to local artists and hosting exhibitions to showcase their art. Unsurprisingly, much of the work by LUCHA artists was politically charged, underscoring the discrimination of the Chicano community and the rapid gentrification to which they were subjected.
Today, many of the murals remain on the sound wall and projects are underway to preserve them. However, when the initial mural project took place, there was little to no consideration of creating long-lasting artworks that would stand the test of time. This was primarily due to the meager budget that the artists were given to carry out the project, which was meant to both pay for materials and compensate the artists. Many of them were young, only in their twenties, when they participated in the commission and were uninformed about the durability, or lack thereof, of acrylic and other kinds of paint. Additionally, the walls had been constructed for the primary purpose of noise abatement and relative safety, not to house long-lasting murals. They were built out of cinderblock, a cheap and porous material, meaning that water was absorbed very readily, damaging the painted murals quite easily. The location of many of the murals also made them susceptible to sunlight, causing more rapid deterioration of the artworks. Given all of these circumstances and the fact that three decades have passed, most of the murals have faded to varying degrees and have been tagged with graffiti. These factors have also led to numerous challenges when it comes to preserving them for perpetuity.
The murals around the Holly Street Power Plant represent the strength and creativity of the Mexican American community that comprises an important part of East Austin. Two of the murals have undergone important restoration projects, and efforts by individual artists and organizations like Arte Texas, founded by Bertha Delgado, and Art in Public Places (AIPP) are still underway to preserve and restore several more. The two intensive restorations of note are La Quinceñera by Fidencio Duran, restored by the artist in 2003, and For La Raza, restored by the original artists Robert Herrera and Oscar Cortez in 2018. Other murals have been worked on or repaired by artists over the years, but have not been formally restored. Artists have also added additional imagery and graffiti to the wall over time, creating a beautiful hybrid of old and new artworks, both official and unofficial, that symbolize the traditions, cultures, and imagination of a vibrant community within Austin.
La Quinceañera, detail, Fidencio Duran, restored 2003
Painted in 1991, La Quinceañera depicts an entire day in preparation and in celebration of a young woman’s fifteenth birthday. Quinceañeras are an important part of Mexican and other Latin American cultures, and represent a girl’s passage into womanhood. They are both religious and social events that signify a woman’s coming of age. The colorful mural spans a long stretch of the north wall around the power plant close to the riverside.
It shows people making and sharing food, having lively conversations, and dancing in celebration. Duran chose to depict a quinceañers because he felt the event encompassed many important aspects of Mexican tradition and was culturally relevant to the residents of the Holly neighborhood. This is essential to the artist’s oeuvre, as he focuses on the contemporary life of everyday people without political overtones. His artistic mission is to honor and uplift the culture of his family and community. The mural was the first instance in which Duran painted the scene of a quinceañera, and he would go on to make silkscreen prints and other artworks of the event throughout the 1990s. For the mural, he originally used oil-based paints on a surface that was not properly primed, which meant it had significantly deteriorated by 1998. In 2003, he worked with the Austin Energy department to refurbish his artwork, using exterior water-based latex paints, painting many layers, and sealing it with an acrylic varnish so that it could withstand outdoor conditions. Duran is an internationally known artist who continues to practice today. Locally, his work can also be seen at Zaragoza Park and Austin Bergstrom International Airport.
La Quinceañera, detail, Fidencio Duran, restored 2003
For La Raza is a more recent restoration spearheaded by Arte Texas, an organization dedicated to preserving and promoting public art in East Austin by Chicano, Mexican, Latino, and Indigenous peoples. At the time the original mural was painted, Robert Herrera was a member of the Austin League of Tejano Artists, an organization that brought people from opposite sides of town together to work creatively.
His use of Chicano and ancient Aztec imagery was meant to inspire pride and unity during a time when gang violence was pervasive in the community. The mural features an Aztec man and woman on either end praying to the central sun, the word Azteca written boldly in red, a globe surrounded by the Mexican and American flags, and a fist emerging out of stone as it turns to flesh. In 2016, AIPP commissioned Arte Texas to undertake what would become their biggest project to date with a budget exceeding $40,000. It took over a year of planning and six months to paint the mural. The project not only involved the original artists, but also invited children from local elementary schools to help paint the mural. Mando Martinez, another of the original mural artists, also played a meaningful role in the restoration project.
This time around, the wall was coated with a primer and a metal cap was added to protect against water damage. Upon completion in 2018, the mural was awarded Best Restoration by the Austin Chronicle and received a Preservation Merit Award from Preservation Austin. This restoration was a remarkable sign of progress in giving these murals their long overdue recognition. As Herrera states, “preserving this history is important to the neighborhood that it’s created in, as well as the city as a whole. [The murals provide] a picture of what the community has been through and where it is going.”
Restoration of For La Raza (Photo: Rudy Ancira)
Over the years, the community has had to fight hard to simply maintain most of the murals, let alone restore them. The City of Austin planned to paint over them at one point in time, which would have been a devastating blow to el barrio, much like when La Lotería mural was painted over in 2015. Bertha Delgado was instrumental in the effort to prevent the Holly Murals’ destruction in 2013, and shortly after the Parks and Recreation Department incorporated mural restorations into its plan to convert the area surrounding the power plant into parkland.
However, less than two percent of the $2.5 million budget for the park’s development was allocated to the public art portion. Ultimately, the work on the original sound wall goes beyond mere aesthetics. The murals help the community to make sense of the greater society in which we live and promote their culture through creative expression, which has long been integrated into their everyday life.
While the history of the power plant and the Holly neighborhood has been one of considerable struggle, these murals commemorate a community’s solidarity and their daily existence, capturing the joys and the spirit of Mexican American culture. The history of this site must not be forgotten. Born out of segregation and environmental racism, the Holly Street Power Plant has become a space where people dealt with social inequality to bring about positive change. It speaks not only to the injustices prevalent amongst the Mexican American neighborhoods in East Austin, but to Austin as a whole. The efforts to preserve and add to these murals have only just begun.
Untitled, Arleen Polite, 1992
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“Austin Art in Public Places Unveils Restored Mural at Holly Shores.” Art Alliance Austin, December 21, 2018. https://www.artallianceaustin.org/news/austin-art-in-public-places-unveils-restored-mural-at-holly-shores.
Cantu, Tony. “Iconic East Austin Mural Restored To Original Glory.” Patch, June 5, 2018. https://patch.com/texas/eastaustin/iconic-east-austin-mural-restored-original-glory.
“City of Austin Historic Resources Survey, Final Report Volume I.” https://www.austintexas.gov/,
Hardy∙Heck∙Moore, Inc., October 24, 2016. https://www.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=231307.
“Current Projects.” Austintexas.gov, Art in Public Places, 2018. https://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/EGRSO/CurrentProjects_ForLaRaza_v1.pdf.
Delgado, Bertha. Video interview. February 11, 2022.
Duran, Fidencio. Phone interview. December 3, 2021 & January 24, 2022.
Fidencio Duran Papers. AR.2015.033. Austin History Center.
Flores, Nancy. “Revival of Holly Shores mural seen as a victory for neighborhood.” Austin American Statesman, June 18, 2018. https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2018/06/18/revival-of-holly-shores-mural-seen-as-a-victory-for-neighborhood/1716340007/.
Friel, Katie. “Decades-old Holly neighborhood mural restored to iconic status by original artists.” Culturemap Austin, June 5, 2018. https://austin.culturemap.com/news/arts/06-05-18-iconic-holly-neighborhood-mural-restored-por-la-raza/#slide=4.
Gaines, Tarra. “Full Circle: A New Vision for an Iconic Austin Mural.” Sightlines, September 9, 2018. https://sightlinesmag.org/full-circle-a-new-vision-for-an-iconic-austin-mural.
Herrera, Robert. Online interview. January 21, 2022.
Holly. East Austin Stories. September 16, 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj4mHmOBA04&t=10s.
Holly Street Power Plant - Archive. A 333.7932 HO. Austin History Center.
Martin, Sam. “Our Murals, Ourselves.” Austin Chronicle, September 4, 1998. https://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/1998-09-04/520177/.
PODER Records - Archive. AR.2012.015. Austin History Center.
“Public Art Action Plan for the Holly Shores Master Plan Area.” https://www.austintexas.gov/, September 11, 2013.
Rambin, James. “New Parkland at the Former Holly Street Power Plant Takes One Small Step.” Towers, February 10, 2021. https://austin.towers.net/new-parkland-at-the-former-holly-street-power-plant-takes-one-small-step/.
Smith, Amy. “One More Detour on Holly Street.” Austin Chronicle, January 21, 2011. https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2011-01-21/one-more-detour-on-holly-street/.
The Walls of East Austin. East Austin Stories. September 9, 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZLvElTZVOE.
Wick, Frank. Video interview. November 18, 2021.
PRESERVATION AUSTIN IS INDEBTED TO THE FOWLER FAMILY FOUNDATION FOR SUPPORTING THIS WORK AND FOR MAKING THE EAST AUSTIN BARRIO LANDMARKS PROJECT POSSIBLE.