SAN ANTONIO — Kathy Vargas took a stroll to her old stomping grounds on San Antonio’s West Side or as the locals say El Mero Weso. 

It’s where she served as a visual arts director for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center.

“The focus was you have to go to New York, you have to make a name for yourself, New York is the place to be if you are a visual artist. But I came to love the Guadalupe so much and I came to realize there was so much work to be done here because there were amazing and incredible artists here,” Vargas said. 

So she and her colleagues at the Guadalupe gave these Latino artists a space to display their work and get noticed. It was the start for many legendary artists like Vincent Valdez and the late Adan Hernandez. Now, this gem is apart of a El Mero Weso, which is a fitting name for this newly designated cultural arts district. 

“Now it’s being named what we always thought it was,” Vargas said. “So now that it’s a cultural arts district, hooray, now the rest of the city is catching up.” 

Young artists like Alyssa can benefit from this arts district for decades to come. She’s a regular at SAY Sí, a nonprofit youth organization, that just moved to the West Side and played a huge role on the Texas Commission of arts designating this neighborhood a cultural arts district. 

“It’s really cool being able to be really close to the arts districts, like the art things like the Guadalupe theatre. I performed theatre there at CAST and those people there were so nice,” Alyssa said. 

SAY Sí, is one of eight organizations that will makeup this El Mero Weso. The main data base for it will be at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts bookstore and gift shop. 

It’s pretty evident that Vargas is excited about El Mero Weso Cultural Arts District and all she wants is for these nonprofits to continue the mission she and many others started decades ago. 

“What we did here, what we presented here, mattered tremendously to cultural life, to the arts life and beyond,” Vargas said.