Happy Holidays!

Have a safe and fun holiday season!

We look forward to your support in the new year!

love,

San Anto Cultural Arts Board and Staff

The office will be closed December 22-27 for the Christmas holiday.

Chase What Matters!

Friends y familia,

Chase Bank has come up with an exciting new way to give back to your community. Go to this link to learn more, but basically the gist is that if you search your favorite nonprofit (say, for example, San Anto Cultural Arts), you can cast your vote for them. If the organization gets enough votes, it will be eligible to get a nice chunk of change from Chase Community Giving. They're distributing $5,000,000 nationwide! Help us get in on that!

Here's what you do:

1. Go to http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/home/

2. Search for San Anto Cultural Arts

3. Become a fan of Chase Community Giving

4. Cast your vote for San Anto!

Help out San Anto!

VOTE

Muchos thank yous!

Celebrating the Sound of the City: La Musica de San Anto Mural Blessing

The Saturday before Thanksgiving, which was two days before Manny's birthday, San Anto blessed our 37th mural, La Musica de San Anto. Over a year in the making, La Musica is our biggest mural to date, and is one of our most special projects because of all of the superb musicians captured in its vibrant colors. These musicians include Doug Sahm, Randy Garibay, Eva Garza, Lydia Mendoza, Valerio Longoria, Clifford Scott, Felix Villarreal, Rocky Morales, and Rosita Fernandez. But we treasure this project especially because our late Executive Director, Manuel "Manny" Castillo, Jr. was added after his death in January. He is pictured doing something he loved best: tearin' up his drums.

La Musica has become something of a gateway to the Westside since it's located as cars pass coming over the Commerce bridge. We are extremely proud that the mural has been blessed and dedicated, and we hope that if you missed the blessing on November 21, that you will take a minute to drive by. It's located on the side of a bail bonds building at 1303 W. Commerce.

For more coverage of the event and the mural, check out the great article in the Southside Reporter by Nicole Marie Moore.

EP Poetry Nite 2009

El Placazo has been very blessed with high quality adult mentors over the last several months, the most recent additions being three Our Lady of the Lake University students who came in every Wednesday afternoon. These lovely ladies are English Education majors at OLLU, so they were practicing their craft by teaching our students some of the finer points of writing and journalism. The highlights, however, were their lessons in poetry. They taught the students about different types of poetry, how to write a good poem, and how to give a powerful reading. They worked for several weeks writing and rehearsing their poems, all leading up to the grand finale: a poetry reading at Guadalupe Street Coffee!!

All of the participants and some parents came out on Wednesday night to have an evening of poetry, fun, and fellowship. It was a great success! Here are some pictures from the event:

The students participated in a group reading on how to annoy your teacher. Hopefully they don't use this knowledge on Cristina! 

Serenity getting some last minute pointers from her mentor, Tess

Alexandra and her dad, Rico, reading a poem about her grandma (pictured on Rico's forearm)

Jeremiah G. reciting his poem

Erica, dressed in red, recited her poem about Big Red

Ashley proudly showing off what she wrote

Jeremiah V. and his mom, Dolores, practice her poem called "Toes"

Just another day with El Placazo: poetry reading and picture taking!

Special thanks to Liz, Melissa, and Tess for being such fabulous mentors,

Guadalupe Street Coffee for hosting us,

and our funders and supporters who helped make this event possible!

Gracias!

This Saturday: "La Musica de San Anto" Official Mural Blessing

Join San Anto Cultural Arts' Community Mural/Public Art Program as we celebrate the unveiling of our 37th Mural en el mero hueso de San Anto! 

Saturday, November 21

11 a.m. - 2 p.m. ish

1303 W. Commerce (on the side of a Bail Bonds)

Also known as the "Music Legends" mural, La Musica de San Anto (lead muralist: David Blancas) celebrates musicians across many different genres that have emerged from San Antonio. The musicians included in the mural are: Rocky Morales, Randy Garibay, Clifford Scott, Velereo Longoria, Manny Castillo, Lydia Mendoza, Eva Garza, Doug Sahm, and Felix Villarreal. There will be music and tributes from the musicians' families, good food, and of course a blessing by Father Marty Elsner of Guadalupe Church. We will also feature music by Ernie Gariby, Conjunto Kings of Flavio Longoria, and Snowbyrd, with DJ spinning by JJ Lopez. 

Special thanks to the following funders and supporters of this mural: City of San Antonio Office of Cultural Affairs, Kronkosky Charitable Foundation, Ruth Lang Charitable Fund and Dan & Gloria Oppenheimer Fund of the San Antonio Area Foundation, United Way Community Building Committee, The George W. Brackenridge Foundation, The John and Florence Newman Foundation, H-E-B, Valero Energy Foundation, Fast Action Bail Bonds, A-Amigo Bail Bonds, Express Bail Bonds, and all the individual donors and volunteers.

As a point of clarification, we are aware that there are other events taking place on Saturday to celebrate the great success of this mural. The event listed above from 11 a.m. to 2 (ish) p.m. is the only official event by San Anto Cultural Arts. We hope to see you there!

Call 226.7466 for mas info!

Exciting new initiative!

+Do you love art?

+Do you love San Anto Cultural Arts?

+Do you love the art auction at our Huevos Rancheros Gala and Silent Art Auction but never seem to have the winning bid?

Have we got a deal for YOU!!

Because San Anto Cultural Arts is annually so blessed by how many artists donate their artwork to us for Huevos, we have a surplus of EXCELLENT arte that we have accrued over the years hanging out with us in our office (and for those of you who have been by, there's barely enough room for us to hang out, much less us and extra arte!!). So, in an effort to find good homes for this homeless art and make a little extra moolah for San Anto, we have established an account on....

That's right, www.ebay.com is now playing host to some of the artwork that has been donated to us over the years. We're still trying to figure it all out, but we're really excited about the potential it could have, but ONLY if YOU get on there and shop! 

So check it out! Right now we've only uploaded 3 pieces: one by Salvador Torres, one by Orlando Rodriguez, and one by Abraham Cantu. If you purchase one of those items (and any others that we list), San Anto Cultural Arts will receive 100% of the proceeds. Items can only be up for auction for 7 days, so you better act soon.

Help us out!

Go to www.ebay.com

Search for these three items, or for our seller ID "sananto" for upcoming arte

Shop around!

What's not to love?

Also, if any of you are avid eBay-ers, you can donate part of your eBay winnings to San Anto! Contact Melinda at 226-7466 or melinda@sananto.org to find out how, or to give her tips on how to make eBay work for San Anto! 

So what are you waiting for? Get shopping!!!

A note from our Executive Director

Dear San Anto Familia,

Happy Noviembre! It's hard to believe it's the middle of the month already! Time has flown by since Huevos because of all the exciting things going on around here...

• First of all, our 12th annual Huevos Rancheros Gala and Silent Art Auction was a huge success! Even though it rained for the first time in Huevos history and we had to move everything from the Plaza Guadalupe to the Guadalupe Theatre with barely an hour to spare, around 600 people came out to celebrate the life and legacy of Manuel "Manny" Castillo. Los #3 Dinners and DJ Roach played, we enjoyed the delicious huevos rancheros from Lisa's Mexican Restaurant, and the art available for auction was some of the best we've seen in years. San Anto profited around $18,000, which is the most we have ever made. Huge gracias to everyone who came out to support San Anto Cultural Arts!
  
• The students of El Placazo opened their first ever Juicebox Fotography Exhibit at Madhatter's on October 28. With the help of master fotographer Mari Hernandez, the students made pinhole cameras out of juiceboxes over the summer. The prints from that day are displayed in the back rooms of Madhatter's and will be up until the end of the month. Special thanks to Mari Hernandez for sharing her time and talents with the students and to Madhatter's for being so generous in hosting the exhibit and giving everyone a delicious tea party at the grand opening. Madhatter's is located at 320 Buearegard in the King William District.
• San Anto Cultural Arts, the P.E.A.C.E. Initiative (Putting an End to Abuse through Community Efforts), Inner City Development, and San Jacinto Senior Home celebrated the 9th annual Dia de Los Muertos Barrio Procession. Read more and see pictures at Dia de Los Muertos Barrio Procession through fotos.

We've been doing a lot in the last month, but there are still more exciting things to come!

• November 16 at Las Oficinas de Avenida Guadalupe Association from 5:30-7:30 p.m.: a Community Meeting to discuss San Anto Cultural Arts' proposed relocation to 2120 El Paso Street. This meeting is a chance to get to know San Anto's Staff, Board of Directors, participants, and programs, as well as learn about our proposed move from Chihuahua Street to El Paso Street. 
• November 18 at Guadalupe Street Coffee from 6-7 p.m.: a Poetry Open Mic Nite with the El Placazo students and three adult mentors from Our Lady of the Lake University. The students will read their own poems and perform a group reading. 
• November 21 at 1303 W. Commerce on the side of the Fast Action Bail Bonds from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.: a celebration and blessing of our 37th mural del Mero Hueso, La Musica de San Anto. Join SACA, lead muralist David Blacas, DJ Jay Jay Lopez, Conjunto Kings de Flavio Longoria, Ernie Garibay, and other special musical guests to honor the talents and legacies of some of the musicians who made music in this city great.

We're doing a lot, but we're having fun! Thank you to all those who have participated in our events of the last month. We hope to see you sporting your San Anto pride at these next three events!

In Community,

Heather Eichling

Executive Director

San Anto Cultural Arts

*** Please note: San Anto Cultural Arts will be closed November 26 and 27 in observance of Thanksgiving.***