Each year, Hispanic Heritage Month creates space to acknowledge and appreciate the contributions of Hispanic people to American life and culture. In the greater St. Louis region, communities in Fairmont City, Illinois, and on Cherokee Street in St. Louis have become beacons of Hispanic pride.
This year’s observance brings something different: St. Louis can now pride itself on being the birthplace of the first Hispanic Heritage Month Flag.
Commissioned by Hispanic Festival Inc. the flag was designed by artist José Garza. Garza relocated to St. Louis from Jacksonville, Florida, to pursue a master's degree at the Sam Fox School of Fine Arts, where he now works. He told St. Louis on the Air that he feels more connected to the Hispanic community in St. Louis than other places he’s lived throughout the country.
“I think that's something that I always yearned for and looked for,” he said. "And when I came to St. Louis, I intuited that that could be possible somehow, even though [St. Louis’ Hispanic community] is small.”
Garza’s flag design is not his typical art practice. He admits that the method he used to design the flag did not always align with the fundamental practices of vexillography. The first “rule” broken was that Garza designed the flag along with a committee. “Within Hispanic communities there’s a lot of different ethnic groups, different belief systems [and] languages. So, designing something that’s supposed to represent everybody was a very daunting task,” he said. “As an artist I do work on things on my own … but I think this, unlike any other projects I’ve worked on, had an extra sense of, not urgency, but maybe importance.”
Garza said he is proud of his creation — and the community it represents. “Once the flag was created I felt like I released it into the public space,” Garza said. “It hasn’t really hit me yet.”
For more with José Garza including how flag design differs from his typical art practice and the other “golden” rule he broke to create the first Hispanic Heritage Month flag, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, or by clicking the play button below.
Related Event
What: Nuestra Comunidad: Hispanic St. Louis Past, Present, and Future
When: 5:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday
Where: Missouri History Museum (5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63112)
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Ulaa Kuziez is our production intern. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
