SAN ANTONIO – Under gray skies, crews with the City of San Antonio’s Public Works Department struggled against strong winds on Friday morning to lift two colorful works of art into place.
They used a large crane and several trucks equipped with cherry picker forklifts to hoist the metal-backed panels to posts along the bridge on North New Braunfels Avenue.
The images, entitled “Let Freedom Ring” and “The Legacy of the East Side,” replace artwork that was removed in March after it became worn and faded.
“I can’t help but feel anything but excitement,” said Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, San Antonio City Councilman for District 2. “I’m so excited to finally see the artwork live in person.”
For McKee-Rodriguez, the installation marks the end of a tough journey.
Acting on the requests of constituents, McKee-Rodriguez began the process of removing, and then replacing, the worn-out panels in early 2024.
That previous artwork had served as an unofficial gateway to the city’s East Side for more than 25 years.
“It was a very long process with a lot of red tape. We had to figure out who had ownership over the bridge,” McKee-Rodriguez said.
McKee-Rodriguez said the effort required Union Pacific, which owns the railyard beneath the bridge, the Texas Department of Transportation and the City of San Antonio to work together.
To select the replacement panels, McKee-Rodriguez decided to hold a citywide contest.
In June 2024, the councilman announced the winners: two local artists who came up with the designs.
Sonya Castro designed the banner entitled “Let Freedom Ring,” which includes an image of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. on a multi-colored background with people of all colors joined hand-in-hand.
In the upper right corner is a drawing of the San Antonio skyline, which includes a silhouette of the Tower of the Americas.
Kat Cadena is the artist behind “The Legacy of the East Side,” which includes a close-up image of a woman’s face surrounded by pink, white and orange flowers.
“The new artwork pays homage to the outgoing work and the themes that we saw are very much recurring,” said McKee-Rodriguez.
To Richard Palomo, who happened to be passing by early on in the installation process, the new panels were just “cool.”
“I like them. Yeah, they’re good,” Palomo said. “I remember the old ones. They needed to put new ones.”
Even with the new artwork installed, the old banners won’t quite fade from history.
McKee-Rodriguez said his office has been working with the San Antonio African American Community Archives and Museum (SAAACAM) to preserve them.
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