Victor "Mask" Casas
BORDERLANDS REGION, 2022 - 2023
Victor “Mask” Casas (he/him) is an Army veteran and self-taught transfronterizo painter and muralist born and raised in the Segundo Barrio of El Paso, Texas. He is well-known in the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua border region for his political murals. Some of his work is in the Juan Sandoval permanent art collection at the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas. In 1994-95, graffiti became his primary art form, and when he returned to art-making in 2011, after serving in the Army, he began experimenting with bleach on fabrics, and he used art to deal with his PTSD. He has recently garnered acclaim for a series of murals entitled Border What!?, featured in The New York Times. His paintings have been exhibited by MexicArte Museum in Austin, TX. He is currently establishing a cultural space called Graffinearts, where the community can learn how to use spray paint and create, restore, and conserve murals.
Working in collaboration with local historians and community members in El Paso's Segundo Barrio (Second Ward), Victor is working on a mural project called "Los Ojos del Barrio". The project is in response to the ongoing gentrification in the neighborhood; pulling imagery from photographs taken by and of children in the area during the 70s and 80s, Victor and his collaborators are fighting cultural erasure and empowering their community members to tell their stories.
CULTURE HUB
La Mujer Obrera’s collective vision is to create a thriving community in which Mexican heritage is continually affirmed and celebrated, where Mexican arts traditions are fully known, acknowledged for their artistic merit, and shared in a free, intergenerational space. We work with intention in the Chamizal neighborhood dedicating years of organizing and cultural events planning to strengthen its cultural identity and social bonds. By centering ancestral art and cultural practices (food traditions), we create alternatives to contamination and blight that exist in our community. Historically throughout our organizing we have used teatro, murals, music to express the struggles and aspirations of the workers and our community. Through Proyecto Verde we identified and worked with active backyard gardeners in the Chamizal alongside El Paso area artists (musicians, graphic artists, etc) to organize Tianguis, neighborhood festivals. The Tianguis is a neighborhood-led effort that highlights the ancestral knowledge of neighborhood residents in relationship to food growing, preparation, and artistic expression. By hosting two artists it would allow more time for them to integrate into our organizational and community process. It would include participating in the thinking, planning and implementing of our programs and events in the community.