Tres equipos, T2C, STP e IWK, trabajaron juntos para dar vida a la ofrenda de la comunidad cerca de Hillside Park. La imagen central es el símbolo del Día de los Muertos conocido como La Catrina. Hillside está pintada con letras chicanas antiguas. (Foto contribuida)

When people walk near Hillside Park in Tyler, they now see a community mural painted with brightly colored flowers around the face of a woman with a skull. The central image is of what is known as La Catrina, the symbol of Day of the Dead or Dia de Los Muertos.

Three crews, T2C, STP and IWK, worked together to bring the mural to life.

“We just wanted to drop a wall for Hillside,” said Tyler resident and artist Gemini, 33.

After realizing they had some leftover paint, the artists decided to use it to start making the mural.

“I know Hillside didn’t have a wall down there, so we really wanted something to kind of represent the area and give the community something down there that they could be proud of,” Gemini said.

Once the artists started working on it, they decided to do a community ofrenda.

An ofrenda is a way to honor and remember loved ones who have passed. During Dia de los Muertos, people put out food, pictures of loved ones and light candles. Ofrendas are typically done inside one’s home. However, this one is for the community.

In the background, homages to Mexican folklore can be seen along with the letters Hillside in “old Chicano lettering.”

“I wanted to give everyone something to identify with,” Gemini said. “Everyone from the little kid that came see the wall, to the grandmas walking by, she can identify with it, to the 40-year-old that used to ride around the hillside and they knew how things were back then, can also identify with it.”

Meet the artists

As part of the all three crews, Gemini and Luis, 26, from T2C, collaborated with other artists to put together the community ofrenda. They both found their love of graffiti at a young age.

At 15 years old, Gemini created his first graffiti art on Erwin Street in Hillside.

From there, Gemini kept painting and improved his skills. Graffiti has a unique style that can’t be learned by studying.

“It’s not commercialized art, and it’s not a gentrified art, so to speak,” Gemini said. “So everybody in the community can identify with it, because it’s done by a person just like them that can understand what they go through and their struggles as well, just on a basic human level.”

When Luis was 14, he was walking home from school and saw an event with graffiti and hip-hop at the local cultural center in Bolivia.

“I fell in love with it,” Luis said. “That was it.”

For Luis, being a part of this community collaboration is special. As a kid, he would look at American artists. Now, he is one of them.

“It feels like I’m living my dream right now,” Luis said. “I was the little kid thinking about or seeing artists from America, and then I came here, and I’m doing the same thing now.”

As a kid, Gemini recalls seeing “Mr. Rodriguez’s” mural in Hillside and being in awe. Now, he gets to inspire others through his own artwork.

“Just to be able to do what I do now, is just amazing,” Gemini said. “I love the fact that I can leave an impact just with the skills that I have within myself that’s gonna outlive me long after I’m gone. Then maybe we can help motivate the next person.”

Community response

People in the community have reacted positively to the community ofrenda, by reaching out offering help and offering donations to help cover the costs to build the altar.

“It’s been amazing, just the community feedback and watching everybody that wants to get involved,” Gemini said. “I’m excited to see everybody bring their photos and their loved ones and their offerings and stuff and finalize the whole thing.”

They are planning to finalize the community ofrenda the last week of October. Afterwards, they will announce it on social media so people can bring their objects for the ofrenda.

They hope because of its location, more community engagement occurs.

“It gets engagement by the entire community,” Gemini said. “By putting that wall up and making this ofrenda, then people come out and just engage more, and it’s just a tighter sense of community.”

In addition, the community ofrenda exposes culture to people who are not familiar with Day of the Dead. It is a way of bringing people together of all demographics, Gemini said.

“The reward we get is the people in the community passing by and just showing their appreciation and love,” Gemini said. “…they really do enjoy the pieces that we’re doing in the community, and especially pieces like this that they can identify with, then they feel much more appreciation for what we’re doing out there. For us that makes it all worth it at the end of the day.”

For updates on the community ofrenda, visit Gemini’s Facebook page. Hillside Park is located at 1111 E. Erwin St. in Tyler.