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Former UTSA President Ricardo Romo was asked to curate a FOTOSEPTIEMBRE exhibit at Centro Cultural Aztlan. He said art is a passion for him.
“I only write about art. I've been doing this for about five or six years now,” Romo said.
“I've been writing for La Prensa for seven years and also write for Latinopedia. I'm a guest curator for Septiembre,” he said, abbreviating the longer name of the yearly event and exhibit.
That exhibit is at Centro Cultural Aztlan, which is on Fredericksburg Road in the Art Deco area. Centro Cultural Aztlan focuses on Westside cultures.
Romo has been taking pictures for decades and placed two of his own images in the exhibition.
“I have a couple images that go back to when I started photography as a hobby in doing documentation, and they're going to be in the show. The two photos of Cesar Chavez that have never been shown before,” he said.
Those two pictures mean a lot to him.
“(Chavez) invited us to his daughter's wedding, and we went to the daughter's wedding, and nobody had a camera. It's just a bunch of good working people, blue collar farm workers,” Romo said. “And so I took a picture of him dancing with his daughter, and then a picture of him standing there, kind of admiring the proceedings.”
Romo has a long history of liking and collecting art. And as someone who has played an active role in San Antonio the last few decades, there was something he noticed, when it came to funding the necessities on the Westside.
“A lot of funding didn't reach the Westside. There was a lot of cultural arts funding, for the musical groups, the symphony and others. And very little went to the Westside. So some of the city council people got behind the idea that there should be something there for the Westside,” he said.
The exhibit opens Friday, September 5, from 6-9 p.m.
