A 40-foot abstract mural tucked inside Hemisfair's Yanaguana Garden is this month's pick for the City of San Antonio's #MonthlyMural digital spotlight, drawing fresh attention to a decade-old artwork that reaches back centuries into the region's Indigenous past. The piece, titled “Yanaguana,” was painted by veteran San Antonio artist Alex Rubio with help from teenage artists in a youth mentorship program, and it channels the origin story that gave the San Antonio River its original name.
The city's Department of Arts & Culture posted the feature through its City of San Antonio
account, describing the work as a 40-foot-long abstract composition inspired by the history and myth of the San Antonio River. According to the post, the piece was rendered with assistance from Contemporary at Blue Star's MOSAIC Student Artist Program, and it draws on the fact that the region's Indigenous community once knew the river as Yanaguana. The #MonthlyMural campaign itself is part of a broader municipal effort: as reported by
Arts & Culture, City of San Antonio
, the series spotlights public art pieces.
A River Named for Refreshing Waters
The name Yanaguana comes from the Payaya Coahuiltecan people, who called the San Antonio River region “a place of refreshing waters,” according to the San Antonio Current. The name is tied to an origin myth in which a blue panther and a water bird created life-giving spring water droplets across the land, a story the same account recounts. That myth doesn't stay confined to Rubio's mural alone — Yanaguana Garden also features Oscar Alvarado's mosaic tile sculptures “Panter Azul” (Blue Panther) and “Anhinga” (Water Bird), which directly visualize the same creation story in the same play area, according to the San Antonio River Authority.
Rubio's mural was originally commissioned as part of “PLAY,” a suite of six kid-friendly public art installations that San Antonio's Public Art Board and Historic and Design Review Commission approved ahead of Yanaguana Garden's opening, the San Antonio Express-News reported at the time. Six local artists were selected to create installations blending art, play, and local history for the space. The mural was created for the garden's October 2015 opening, and the 40-foot abstract mural was created with assistance from student artists in the MOSAIC program, according to the San Antonio Report.
The Artist Behind the Curves
Rubio grew up on San Antonio's West Side and began his career painting murals in public housing projects before developing his signature curvilinear abstract technique in 1989, according to East End Houston. He has also collaborated with student artists. Rubio and MOSAIC student artists collaborated on Yanaguana, the San Antonio Report noted.
The students who helped bring Yanaguana to life came through the MOSAIC Student Artist Program. In this project, the program provided student assistance on the mural. Contemporary at Blue Star is the organization associated with MOSAIC.
Hemisfair's Busiest Corner
Yanaguana Garden opened in October 2015 as the first 4-acre phase of the larger Hemisfair redevelopment, and it has since welcomed visitors. The garden is a public park in the district. The garden sits within a district built on the site of the 1968 World's Fair, which had previously been a downtown neighborhood, per San Antonio Woman. The garden is part of a redevelopment that also includes Civic and Tower phases.
Hemisfair's evolution has been a running storyline in San Antonio, from a 2012 $30 million bond for three redevelopment phases to ongoing redevelopment in the district, both of which point to Yanaguana Garden as an early proof point for the district's transformation. The park has also been in the news for less celebratory reasons recently, with a shooting reported at nearby Civic Park. Still, the mural's spotlight this month keeps the focus on the garden's original mission: turning a patch of downtown into what the city's post called a creative landscape rooted in the river's oldest story.
