'It is such an honor' Artist's dream comes true after painting mural at UTSA

SAN ANTONIO – Artist Cristina Noriega, a San Antonio native, had her dreams come true after painting a mural at UTSA. She says murals have a way of speaking to people, doesn’t matter what language you speak, you can understand the visuals and art.

“It is such an honor, as an artist and as a native San Antonian to have my art downtown. As a little girl, I would walk around here, and we’d go visit. It fills me with pride and I’m so grateful that I got to be a part of this truly,” Noriega said.

The mural tells a story of a young Latina girl who is holding a dandelion. She blows it and makes a wish. The seeds then spread out and then transform into digital dandelions that become very colorful until they finally turn into a big array of bright colors. She says they’re meant to look like data art because it’s the school of data science.

“I wanted the mural to speak to what’s inside of the building, and also inspire people to say they can be anything they want. They can wish, whatever their dreams are, they can come true,” said Noriega.

She also says that she wanted to incorporate elements of what the community wanted to see in the mural, and they wanted to see a lot of bright colors and the history of San Antonio. The little girl in the building is wearing a traditional Mexican embroidered blouse, with the school colors of UTSA, blue and orange.

“I wanted to make sure the community’s feedback was incorporated and that they had also told a story about what was inside the building,” Noriega said.

The mural was inspired by her daughter, Luz who is the little girl in the painting. Noriega says she wanted to use her because she looks like a typical San Antonio girl.

“She’s got black hair, you know she’s a proud, young, Latina, and she’s right at that age, where they’re wondering, what am I going to be when I grow up?” Noriega says.

She says that she’s grateful to everyone at UTSA and the Department of Arts and Culture and that it’s been such a pleasure to work with everyone on this team.

“I think it is very important to mention that UTSA is a tier one Hispanic Serving Institution and what that means is that it’s one of the top universities in the whole country and they go above and beyond to make sure that Latinx students are prepared for high paying in-demand careers of the future,” she said.