Another walk around El Rio Neighborhood Center

This Center has classrooms, a public library, and other facilities. Both Mark Fleming (who's contributed a number of photos over the years) and I walked through the outside of the complex, and took photos, twice in the past 16 years: El Rio by Tineo on May 02, 2008 and El Rio revisited on January 23, 2012. You might want to look through those photos before you see the photos below — which include murals that have been renovated in the past five years.

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This is the northeast entrance, off of the parking lot, on July 11, 2024:

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If you walk in from the Speedway side, on the south, you'll see a curved bench and a mural:

At the top left corner, the signature says Mural by David Tineo / Restoration by @TENZ520 and Community 7/18/19 (I can't find @TENZ520 on Instagram, so I might have that wrong):

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The rest of the photos are a tour through murals along the inner walkway, roughly from the Speedway entrance walking north, not necessarily in order (since July, I've forgotten the order 😉):

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The last mural in this tour is along the east side, a Pima County Public Library branch:

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I took those photos outside on July 11, 2024.

Back on March 9, 2018, I found three murals inside a building. The mural at the library was different. The post also has a shot of the northwest entrance murals from a different angle: Even more art at El Rio on Speedway!

"Sugar Hill"

Mural by Tucson Arts Brigade. Sponsored by the Mt. Calvary Baptist Church.  The Sugar Hill neighborhood was one of the few places in Tucson where a black professional could buy a home between WWII and the passage of civil-rights legislation in the '60s.  Eventually, Sugar Hill was absorbed by the Northwest and El Cortez Heights neighborhoods.  A movement has begun to restore the name to the original neighborhood.  However, there is a debate whether the name honors the area or denigrates it.

I took these photos on 12/11/2018. Captions list artists' names from left to right.

The mural is viewed from N. 6th Ave.

Left Side: Teresa Diane Altamirano, Annalisa Loevenguth, David Tineo, Slov (Sabrina Vincent), Tanya Alvarez

Where's a chainsaw when you need it?

Right Side: Delbert Antone, Xaivier Ringer, Jessa Hudgens, Julian Argote, Caressa Wittwer

Complete Mural

 Click on any photo for a slideshow of larger and sharper images.

You can see a larger, sharper and scrollable image of the complete mural here:  Sugar Hill

Update from Jerry Peek (January 29, 2024): I've read (on the Facebook group Tucson Murals and Street Art) that Michael B. Schwartz led this project.

Tineo on Fresno

Famous Tucson muralist David Tineo told me once that he doesn't know where all of his many murals are. I found this one when I pulled off Silverbell and parked along Fresno Street. I looked out my car window and…

This minor miracle happened almost a year ago: October 22, 2016.

Here's the view from the other end (the "teardrops" are sunlight reflections through the lens):

Next, some closeups. The left end:

Two details from the center:

The right end — left side to ceiling to right side (at the top-right corner of the right side is Jesús C.):

Murals Through Our Parents' Eyes

Years ago, the University of Arizona put a series of pages online called Through Our Parents' Eyes: History & Culture of Southern Arizona. Part of the site are six pages on Chicano Murals in Tucson. From there are links to six early muralists — Antonio Pazos, David Tineo, Luis Gustavo Mena with Paul Lira, Martin Moreno, and Roberto Castillo. Each page has mural photos by James S. Griffith.

It's worth a look. (And, by the way, we're always looking for historic murals and stories. This blog started in 2006, and we've only found a few older photos since. Please contact me; thanks.)

A long mural along Prince

My camera couldn't capture all of this lonngggg mural between a parking lot and the fields at Amphi Middle School. It's across the street from 332 E. Prince.

Update (July 28, 2019): The mural style, and that fact that it's at a school, makes me think that it was created by muralist David Tineo with help from students.

Update (March 14, 2022): The photo above doesn't show much of the mural in detail. Today I realized that Google Street View might have the whole mural. Sure enough, it does. Here are two views from March 2011:





Update (April 1, 2022): Joe Pagac has replaced the mural. Today's post A new long mural along Prince (Murals being made, part 68) has close-ups of the mural in progress and finished.

El Rio by Tineo

"These pictures were taken at the El Rio Neighborhood Center located at 1390 W Speedway.
cheers,
Warren V."

And as you'll be able to see from Warren's pictures is the signature of the amazing muralist and artist David Tineo. Tineo suffers from macular degeneration, but his vision of art will always stay with Southern Arizona... and the Tucson Murals Project.

(Update by Jerry Peek: An Arizona Daily Star article on December 3, 2005, Opinion by Ernesto Portillo Jr.: World darkens for muralist says that Tineo painted his first mural in 1975, two years out of high school, here at the El Rio Neighborhood Center. In 2005, at 50 years old, David Tineo was losing his eyesight.

In another article, on January 22, 2006, As the light fades, Tom Beal wrote that Tineo started the El Rio murals in 1974 and restored them in the spring of 2005. He was losing his vision and "found himself losing balance atop the scaffold. He had to abandon the job and give up teaching at Pima Community College."

To find more about David Tineo and his murals, type his name into the search box near the top right corner of this blog.)

Update (January 23, 2012): There are more photos on the post El Rio revisited.

You Could Spend Hours....

....gazing at this double mural inside the Tucson Museum of Art grounds at 140 N. Main Avenue.
Artist Antonio Pazos painted "Nuestra Futura" and artist David Tineo painted "Nuestra Raices Humanas."

Update (December 2010): the mural will be removed in January 2011.