Agua es Vida
El Paso Museum of Art
El Paso, Texas
2016
Between Albuquerque and El Paso is a single body of water that has united us for centuries. It is the Rio Grande River, also known as the Rio Bravo, Too Ba'aadii, and Kotsoi. This river has sustained generations of indigenous people from Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico, acting as an important life force for irrigation and as a trade route to the north. Today, because of dams, overconsumption and shifty negotiations of water rights, only 20% of the once-thriving river makes it to the Gulf of Mexico and the people along the way. This mural honors the historical and traditional connection we have to water. The water that lives in us is the water of centuries. It is an imperitive realization we must have to protect our water, it is sacred, and it is what connects us all. This mural honors our relationship with water with the understanding that water gives us life.