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The Washington, D.C. plane crash, Baltimore bridge collapse, Los Angeles wildfires and the New Orleans truck attack—all resulting in innocent lives lost—saw Texas artist Roberto Marquez channeling his artistic passion into memorials for the victims.
When asked about why the 62-year-old chooses to dedicate his life to creating art following tragedies, Marquez said, “It creates, like, a community, and eventually the memorial turns into like a praying place or where we go and unite, cry or meditate. It’s good for all of us.”
2018 marked the year Marquez began to focus his efforts on art, including major commemorative works.
Since then, he’s become known as a tragedy artist, portraying the effects of American catastrophes such as school shootings, terrorist attacks, airplane crashes and more. Following many tragedies since 2018, Marquez persists in fostering community and unity among those experiencing loss.
His most recent project was the plane crash in Washington, D.C.
Marquez arrived in D.C. the day after a plane and helicopter collided over the Potomac River on Jan. 29. The crash resulted in the lives of 67 lost. Upon arriving, Marquez went to Home Depot to get supplies to start building 67 crosses.
When he first arrived, a police officer told Marquez that he needed a permit to build the crosses in the parking lot, so he decided to come back at 5 a.m. the next day in order to be able to build them. “Right after, they didn’t bother me too much because now they know that it’s not for me or to please anybody, it’s because somebody passed away and I wanted to do something to connect us all.”
For years, Marquez has been documenting tragic events through his art in the U.S. and Mexico. In January, he covered a truck attack in New Orleans. He joined the efforts of people remembering the 14 lives lost in the New Orleans New Year’s Day tragedy caused by a U.S. Army veteran driving a truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street.
“When there’s loss of life, I like to go, and usually it’s not only the memorial, it’s about being present,” Marquez said.
His contributions also included building crosses and a memorial to honor the lives lost during the Baltimore bridge collapse. On March 26, a powerless container ship collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing a section to collapse into the water. Six immigrant workers died as a result of the bridge collapse.
From building crosses and painting a mural for the LA wildfires, a memorial for the 53 immigrant lives lost in San Antonio who died as a result of heat exposure and asphyxiation in an unventilated tractor-trailer, creating art for caravans of migrants heading to the U.S., a memorial for the Uvalde school shooting and more, Marquez never fails to try to unite communities through his art.
From Guadalajara, Mexico, Marquez relocated to the U.S., where he found work in construction. He felt financially secure enough in 2018 to retire early and pursue his art. “I wanted to do something I had never done before. I didn’t have the training. I want to do this because I wanted a challenge. I never had a teacher. I don’t even know what a diploma looks like.”
He decided to start telling stories through art in 2018, painting and following migrant caravans heading to the U.S. and documenting their struggles and their journey. He started out by creating art to address the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Inspired by covering tragedies like the San Antonio migrant deaths and the Uvalde school shooting, Marquez, seeing a void in artistic response, began creating his memorials.
Marquez explained his love for art and its community-building power, saying, “This (is an) activity that I love to do, because people are in pain and they need to know that there’s somebody that they can talk to, and if there’s more that I can do, then I do more.”
Marquez’s memorials and murals have deeply impacted many, fostering community unity and collective mourning for significant losses. Marquez is the first artist to dare to approach tragedy art in this way.
“Art is something so beneficial, it's got so much to it that at this point I’m not able to describe, but I do know it is something very, very helpful, very important. It has connected me to so many people and taken me to so many places that I’m always thinking, why is it that I did not make this decision 20, 40 years ago?”
Marquez believes that pushing personal boundaries and trying new things, even if uncomfortable, is the key to discovering incredible things, like his unifying art projects.
To see more of Marquez's art, take a look at his Instagram, here.