Hi Luis! Could you please tell about yourself, what you do, and share a brief introduction to your work?
Yes! My name is Luis Escalante.
I've been in San Antonio since 2018, I currently work as an urban planner here in town, and I make collage art. I began with physical collages, kind of just doing those as a hobby. When I started grad school, I gained access to Adobe.
From there, I transitioned to digital collage. Much of the work I do kind of centers around themes surrounding Texas or the southwest. I try to paint a particular theme with each collage. There is influence in terms of historical documents that I sift through, images that I've taken throughout this whole region. Stories and storytelling. Recently, I’ve explored indigenous cultures found in the southwestern region of the United States in my work as well. Themes of land and indigenous cultures are close to my heart. There’s an ongoing destruction of land and people across the world and I focus on this side of the border.
The statements I try to convey in my collages are things that deal with living and land. For instance I have some work in progress on narco-urbanism that looks at the violence to people and land that cartels have done, or how in my graduate thesis I cover corporate landlords and their effect on livability here in town. I also have works on the sacred waters and land of Texas/north Mexico and the cultures that originally were/are here.
The main element in the collages that I use now are maps. I believe maps solidify the placement of the general theme of the collage. You can have a theme in its own space, but I think adding a geographical setting encourages your mind to think about this particular region or whichever map shown in context with the theme of the collage.
From viewing your Are.na page, that was readily noticeable. Maps, migration patterns, the direction of flowing water.
Since your primary medium now is digital collage, what was your process like creating in a different medium?
Before I went digital, I made physical collages. I would go to used bookstores and find cheap magazines. There was a bookstore here, Nine Lives, and they had a huge collection of National Geographic magazines I would run in and grab a couple random ones, and from those magazines, cut out pieces and layer them on top of each other, in a way that helped me transition to digital with paper. It can be hard to achieve the translucency that you find a lot in my collages now. My older stuff is bolder, with front and center images that pop out.
Now, when making collages - I use a ton of historical documents and photos, premade maps, and images I’d find on the internet and just layer them on top of each other, editing each individual component to make a cohesive piece. Now, I use ArcGIS to make my own maps which really allows me to customize maps the way I couldn’t with maps made in textbooks or research articles. Lately I’ve also been using Midjourney - combining my own collages in the prompts and getting weird outputs. I usually will take a piece of the Midjourney output and use it as a component within the final collage.
Do you have any early memories of first instances where you’ve made art or is this a recent part of your life?
I first started making art using the cut-up method developed by William Burroughs. I started this shortly after highschool.
I'm a huge Burroughs reader. When I came across his cut-up method, I started to make my own cut-ups of newspaper articles or used books I'd get at old bookshops. The cut-up method involves taking a text and 'cutting it up' into, typically 4, sections and rearranging the sections back into a full page - the result is a new rewrite of the original text with an entirely new meaning.
I did this for a little over a year - my favorite was taking newspapers from the U.S. and England (I was living in England at the time) and cutting-up headlines or full articles and combining the cut-up sections with each other. I'd get really weird and odd 'pressing news'. The whole idea of cut-up is that the future leaks out when you intervene with the present. I really believe this and still enjoy utilizing this framework for making art.
Your work itself is uniquely Southwestern and I did notice a prevalent narco-urbanist undertone in some pieces, as well as your narco-urbanism Are.na channel, could you expand upon that theme?
Yeah. Narco-urbanism is largely influenced by journalists in Mexico, like Ioan Grillo, Katarina Szulc, Luis Chaparro, and Ed Calderon. What I'm interested in is how cartels influence urban spaces in the United States. You can read online how cartels in Mexico have utilized their capital and resources in building infrastructure. Things like roads, hospitals, and even making legit construction firms. While things like this do help in some way to the urban environment or socially, I think these may serve as ways to placate the population. There’s a cost associated with cartel-financed infrastructure. That cost is largely human lives, and the destruction of land and habitat. Ioan, in his recent book, explains how internal departments of the American government work with these entities or have inadvertently helped cartels. There’s the added aspect of general violence that occurs in the Southwest. It’s always a misnomer to me, for example, that the city of El Paso is boastfully quoted as one of the safest cities in the U.S. But just over the border, in Juarez you have some of the most unsolved murders and crimes occurring. Or the violence that occurs on reservations in Arizona where the indigenous people are being surveilled by the American government under the guise of border security and add to that, the infiltration of drugs on reservations devastating communities and people. All these things influence this Are.na channel.
As the average person living in the States, you don't notice that there is an underworld operating behind your everyday life. To what level does cartel activity in the US influence our everyday lives? I can imagine there currently being political figures at the national and local levels that are receiving cartel money. Besides that, what else in our urban environment is influenced/bought for/backed by cartel operations. There's cases in California where cartels have moved into parts of national forests and parks to set up operations. These are no-go zones for hikers and hunters. Along the border, small towns are even being taken over by cartel activity. What does daily life look like in those smaller towns? Also, in places like San Antonio or Austin, I bet the activity and operations look way different than in small towns.
In my collages, the visuals that appear are of gunmen in the middle of town or tracing parts of the border, heavy ports of entry and images of burning cars, horses, bulls, and the like. These give the essence of the southwestern underworld happening all around us.
Were you meditating on these themes heavily with artwork made for Nudo?
Yes, sort of - I’ve made them one piece of work that they used for a single recently. That one was largely a Midjourney piece. But for their newest album, they had sent me a couple of their tracks before the release. Listening through that, I made a bunch of stuff that kind of fit the vibe of their music. In combination, the artwork and their music captures ‘narco urbanism’, & the general mood down here in the southwest or the Texas border.
—
Let’s move over to the dimensions of urban development in San Antonio. As an urban planner yourself, you maintain a channel on Are.na dedicated to collages and memes about the real estate market in San Antonio, large companies that manage extensive amounts of wealth and assets, and the cost of living crisis here.
Could you give us some perspective on the whole gestalt of this region regarding the housing market? Why is San Antonio becoming so unlivable?
I finished my masters degree in urban planning last year in 2023.. My thesis was on the presence of corporate investors in San Antonio. Through that research paper and analysis, it showcased that San Antonio was one of the largest cities in Texas with the most corporate investor activity growth after 2020. I don’t think it’s the sole cause of the city increasingly becoming unaffordable but is most likely a large contributor.
Basically, the thesis lays out that these investors particularly targeted predominantly black and brown neighborhoods. They were able to purchase homes at a lower than average market rate due to readily available access to capital. When corporate investors approach homeowners, most homeowners are taking the cash deal because it's quick payment. And they're offering an amount that's lower than what the home is valued for. Those newly purchased properties get turned into rentals. The amount of rentals in San Antonio as well as rentorship have increased since 2020 at a higher and faster rate than pre-2020 levels.
So what we’re seeing is residents of the city receiving lowball offers from investors because it’s easier to take cash and do whatever they want with it?
Yes. The investment portfolios owned by these corporations are giant and span across the nation. By selecting pre-established homes to purchase, they're increasing their return on investment. Not only are they doing that with, with established homes, but they're also buying up land on the outskirts of town and building out entire suburbs of newly built homes solely for rent. The strategy switched to building suburbs only to perpetually rent it.
In the development of that thesis. I thought “how do I visually explain all of this without being too technical or using technical tools like data analysis or OLS regressions?”. I began making collages at that time. I have one collage with a lizard, an evil lizard holding all these houses and adding elements of money and stuff like that. San Antonio is a very popular city. Tons of people are moving here.
The greatest irony of all - despite the intensity of corporate investments and growth coming into San Antonio post 2020, we have a modest labor market and somewhat stale career and economic opportunities for residents compared to other major cities in the United States and in Texas. What’s with that disparity?
It’s hard to have an answer for the disparity of stale career opportunities. I’m sure in recent census data you’ll find that many newcomers to SA are from the “home base is San Antonio, but I work in Austin” situation.
There’s a robust service industry here and underneath it, workers generate their own economies. Vintage clothing, reselling, pop-up markets, DJs…
Everyone is hustle here. It’s also, like, very typical of people to generate their own economies. I mean in most Mexican communities across the country you’ll find pulgas, flea markets, people vending, eloteros, I mean the other day I saw an old man selling birdhouses he made and fruit he picked on the side of Grissom Road.
Otherwise you would be selling yourself to a company that might not directly align with your values. Also it’s just hard to break into white collar desk jobs - many of them screen your resume through AI that can barely read.
–
For creatives or artists getting started here, what words of advice would you give?
I think being consistent. Be consistent with your art - don’t veer away or forget why you’re making the art. Make art that speaks life into you, stand by what you’re trying to say. Don’t worry about whether or not your art is recognized. I think that can be a big blockage in producing art. Also, when creativity hits you - follow that creativity. The consistency acts as a kind of practice or meditation you follow that can help generate intense creativity.
I would advise keeping true to that, why are you making the art? What's your intention behind the art? Stick to it then branch out. For instance, I started off with prints or physical collage, and then at a certain point, I wanted to update that with a leap to digital. Once you've got your art in line, try something a little bit creative in a new direction or something that will keep you on your toes and grow in terms of your abilities.
Trying out different mediums, seeing what sticks?
Yeah, I think that, and also, thinking “what am I trying to say with this piece of art?” Not having the interpretations of others becoming your goal or thinking “I'm gonna make art so I can be a famous artist.”
Make art because it speaks to you or touches your heart, it propels you to keep going in this life to make something.
Anything noteworthy before we end? Who’s making interesting art worth recommending?
I’ll give you some notes for the collages I submitted…
“Tejikuri” is an homage to the medicine in the region. The elements of the collage include the White Shaman mural of the Pecos, deer in reference to El Venado Azul, arrowheads found around texas, and maps of peyote distribution across South Texas/North Mexico.
“Realms” is something I made with the idea of tricksters. I believe in the existence of other realms- that they're stacked all on top of each other and there's moments we experience when they tend to 'bleed' through.
The collage titled "Dead Voices" is taken from Gerald Vizenor's book of the same title. I was wanting to create something new. Bright bold colors aren't something I typically use and I suppose a trickster was in my ear or controlling my hand in the process.
Who’s making art worth recommending? In terms of music, I would say Nudo, they're making incredible experimental/Tejano/electronic of their own genre.
I would shout out to my good friends Jesse and Loba, they're hand-poke tattoo artists who’ve done my tattoo. They tattoo as medicine, that reconnects with our indigenous ties here in the southwest, particularly here in Texas and beyond into Mexico. Very talented artists and Jesse is an incredible musician too. @itzpoktli.tatu & @xiuh_mazatl
My close friend Yusuf @yusuf.objects is a super talented woodworker and artist. My other close friend Andrew, @__technik, is making some awesome posters in San Diego - he and I both really got into poster art and graphic design at the same time.
I think other mentions would include, @tart_collage - a great local collage artist. I really enjoy their work, one of the first collage artists I saw here. @givingdirt has some insanely well made collages.
Broadly, there's a lot of stuff here that you won't see in the coasts, like California or New York. I think a lot of the work that comes out of this region is super heartfelt and passionate. Like, gente is really on it with new styles of music and art here.
Thanks Luis!