UTRGV and H-E-B Salute Hometown Hero with Commemorative Murals

by Melissa Vasquez/UTRGV

EDINBURG, TEXAS – For three-and-a-half months, UTRGV graduate art student Ramiro Peña has been perfecting two large-scale portraits honoring Edinburg hometown war hero Alfredo “Freddy” Gonzalez.

On Friday, May 27, his art pieces – two 8-foot by 12-1/2 foot murals recognizing Gonzalez’s valor and sacrifice for his country – were unveiled at the Edinburg H-E-B on West Freddy Gonzalez Drive during a pre-Memorial Day celebration.

Present to watch her son’s image come to life before her eyes was 86-year-old Dolia Gonzalez.

As the murals were unveiled, tears welled and her face was filled with pride.

“It was beautiful,” Dolia said simply after the unveiling, as she stood for some time admiring her son’s face.

The images are suspended above the customer service desk, and the artist had been nervous about how people would react to his work; it was important to him to get it just right.

“The response from the city and the community was awesome,” Peña said. “I feel really honored and blessed to have done this. I feel really good about it.”

When Dolia saw the vibrant murals – which feature her son’s face, the Medal of Honor, the U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer USS Gonzalez named in his honor and other images – she could not help the emotions that overcame her during the unveiling.

Freddy’s mother, who is also an H-E-B employee, said she was greatly appreciative of the honor bestowed on her son, during a patriotic program coordinated by the grocery store as part of the Operation Appreciation Initiative. The H-E-B initiative recognizes millions of veterans living in Texas.

“If he were here today, he would have said, ‘Oh, mom, why are you making such a big fuss,” she said.

Dolia was presented with smaller versions of the paintings, also created by Peña, as a keepsake.

Freddy’s childhood friend Pete Vela, former Mercedes football coach and Weslaco ISD athletic director, attended the event with Dolia. He, too, was emotional as he saw the murals and remembered his best friend.

“He was a true patriot, and you don’t find a lot of guys like Freddy Gonzalez. I still miss him,” Vela said.

The Edinburg H-E-B store commissioned Peña in fall 2015 to create the murals. Freddy Gonzalez, a U.S. Marine Corps platoon sergeant, was killed Feb. 4, 1968, at the Battle of Hue in Vietnam. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and in 1996 the USS Gonzalez was commissioned.

“We commissioned Ramiro Peña to help us and I truly believe he did a marvelous job with that. We also enlisted the help of UTRGV. We could not have done this without their help,” said Bob Tellez, H-E-B director of retail operations for the border region.

From making sure the oil paints blended correctly to create just the right color for Gonzalez’s skin tone, to building his own large canvas frames to specifications, Peña spent a lot sleepless nights thinking about one of the biggest art projects he has ever undertaken, and probably his most important.

To complete this major task, Peña said, he worked weekends and after work, sometimes not getting home until 2 a.m. He admits that the closer he got to deadline, the more nervous he became.

“I was biting my nails at the end. The last thing I wanted to do was not get it right,” he said.

Family time was put on hold for Peña, as he missed out on birthday celebrations or simply helping his daughter with homework. He said he especially appreciates the support and love of his family during the entire process.

His family, which includes wife Alma, son Noah, a UTRGV junior studying biology/pre-med and currently interning in the Summer Internship Program at Johns Hopkins University, and daughter Valerie, a future student at the South Texas High School for Health Professions, pitched in to put the finishing touches on the murals. Alma, whom Peña calls his rock, helped him paint at times. She even ironed the creases out of the large pieces of canvas fabric.

“Alma is the rock who keeps everybody on task and keeps things going when I am not present. Once again, if it wasn’t for her, I would not have been successful,” Peña said.

Now that he has some time, Peña plans to enjoy the summer with his family. He also will start on a new mural project, this one for the Dustin Michael Sekula Memorial Library, the public library for the City of Edinburg. That mural will feature Gonzalez, along with another hometown war hero, U.S. Army Private Pedro Cano. Cano was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for valor during World War II by President Barack Obama in February 2014. H-E-B has donated the materials for the library murals.

Peña hopes to complete his graduate studies by fall 2017 and is interested in teaching at the secondary or college level.

“This was definitely a test to see what kind of artist I will be in the future,” Peña said.