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Local Artist Depicts Life of Mexican Charros
- Updated: November 29, 2019
Juan Vélez, right, talks about his work depicting Mexico’s Charros during a recent reception at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art. Photo: Tony Vindell/LFN
by Tony Vindell/LFN
The life of Mexico’s charros is being shown at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art.
Juan Vélez, the city’s Historical Preservation Officer, has a collection of 40 pieces he drew depicting the stages a charro goes through.
On Wednesday, Nov. 20, the museum held an opening reception of Vélez exhibit called “Charros.”
“We have Charro Days in Brownsville where some people dresses up like charros,” he said. “A charro is somebody who works hard out in a ranch since an early age.”
Vélez said he spent several years going into Matamoros, researching their lives and observing them at the lienzos, or the rings where they work with horses and steers.
He said the word charro comes from the word Txar from Spain’s Vascos region
Unlike the bull fighters who walk with their shoulders straight and their chests out, the charros aren’t like that as they spent the day working hard on a ranch.
One of Vélez’s works. Photo: BMFA
His collection of drawings, mostly in charcoal, show charros wearing their outfit, roping steers, working as well as different shots of Mexico’s charros.
Vélez was born in Brownsville but spent a good part of his life living in Spain where he studied fine arts.
His collection of paintings will be on display until Dec. 28, Deyanira Ramirez, the museum interim director, said.
She said the museum gets an average of 12,000 visitors a year – a figure she expects to increase to about 20,000 before 2019 ends based on today’s numbers.
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