SAN ANTONIO — Armando and Bert Hernandez were in awe when they stopped by the famous mural that was in the movie “Blood In, Blood Out.” It’s not because it was in the most iconic Chicano film ever. 

“Is that the original,” Bert Hernandez says. “Oh wow.” 

It’s because the mural was done by their big brother and legendary Chicano artist, Adan Hernandez, who passed away at the age of 69. 

“We never saw him as this giant that he is, we just saw him as my older brother,” Armando Hernandez says.

Adan was one of ten siblings and came from a family of migrant workers growing up in Robstown. The Hernandez family moved to San Antonio’s West Side when Adan Hernandez was 9 years old and it was in that barrio where he showed his creativity. 

Adan Hernandez would shoot short films at Brackenridge Park with his siblings and projected them in the family backyard for the neighborhood to see. He even designed his own clothes. 

Adan Hernandez stands in front of his painting “La Estrella Que Cae.” (Photo credit: Hernandez family)

“He wore his bellbottoms, tight jeans, French shirt, he even made a lot of his clothes he would sow patches into his denim jacket,” Armando Hernandez says. “He just did his thing his way and no one could tell him different.” 

Adan Hernandez painted powerful Chicano art because that’s who he was, a Chicano, who would be severely punished if he spoke Spanish in the classroom, but Adan never forgot his roots, even when he made it to Hollywood. 

“He’s staying true to himself a lot of the arte that you’ll see that he painted in the earlier years, and even in later years, was his familia, it was us,” Armando Hernandez says.

Armando Hernandez went through a large brown chest where he had some things his brother gave him like the original script to “Blood In, Blood Out.”

To Adan Hernandez, everybody was gente (his people), it didn’t matter if you were blood, a celebrity friend like Cheech Marin or just random 23-year-old kid from the West Side. 

It didn’t matter, Adan Hernandez made time for folks, just like he did for me three years ago, when we had a sit down interview in his van. His passion for the Chicano culture was evident in our 2018 interview. 

(Left to right) Bert Hernandez and Armando Hernandez stand in front of their late brother Adan Hernandez’ mural from the Chicano film “Blood In, Blood Out.” (Photo credit: Jose Arredondo)

“Chicano culture is world class, and people around the world embrace it and they immitate it as much as they can, you know, even though they are from other cultures,” Adan Hernandez told me in 2018. 

Armando Hernandez says losing Adan Hernandez felt like losing another parent, but the global support from the fans has helped the Hernandez family out through this grieving process. 

“I guess he shielded us from his fame because we really didn’t know how big he was until now,” Armando Hernandez says. 

Adan Hernadnez’ last painting was a picture of his Stacey Adams. He could barely walk and was losing his vision but he used a magnifying glass to help him paint every little detail. He gave the finished painting to his sister Gloria and her husband Daniel Trevino, who took care of him while he was ill. In his final hours he found the strength to find a marker and sign his name at the bottom. 

Such an Adan Hernandez thing to do.

“So we want to tell our raza, look how great we are, look how beautiful we are, look what we’ve done,” Adan Hernandez said to me in 2018. “I did things I couldn’t even imagine growing up as a migrant worker.”