Spring Break
Photo festival honors Rendon's body of work
By Melissa Toscano Lazcano
Issue date: 9/26/08 Section: Premiere
Originally published: 9/25/08 at 4:46 PM CSTLast update: 9/25/08 at 5:08 PM CST
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A multimedia presentation included 20 years of documenting Hispanics such as iconic singer Selena.
Selena's original portrait was donated by Rendon to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
"It's my favorite photo of Selena because she's so pensive and intense," Rendon said.
"In most photos you see of her, she's always smiling and having a great time, but she was a very serious musician and designer also," he said.
The first attraction of Witte's Focus Gallery displays performers involved with downtown's historical Alameda Theater, which was built in 1949 and still stands at 318 W. Houston St.
One of them is a portrait of flamenco guitarist Willie Champion with his wife and native flamenco dancer, Teresa.
"Big pioneers of flamenco music here in San Antonio, they're probably on their fourth generation of kids now that are learning flamenco and carrying out the tradition," said Rendon.
Next is Jorge Cortez, owner of Mi Tierra restaurant, in which famous figures like actor John Wayne and singer Gloria Estefan have dined.
Aside from proudly exposing Hispanic culture, the Cortez family was among the supporters for the Alameda Theater restoration and visionaries of today's Museo Alameda, a 40,000-square-foot Latino museum inaugurated on April 13, 2007, at 101 S. Santa Rosa.
Rendon said, "I photographed him (Cortez) in this big room they have with this beautiful mural that has all the famous Mexican revolutionaries and artists," such as Emiliano Zapata, Frida Kahlo and former president of Mexico Venustiano Carranza.
Then there is singer Rosita Fernandez, with a painting of Jorge González Camerana in the background.
"San Antonio's First Lady of Song," who sang to Pope John Paul II in his 1987 visit to the city, passed away after heart surgery complications on May 2, 2006.
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