Fronteridades Part 3: Leyendas

This six-part series on the Fronteridades program is sponsored by the University of Arizona Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry

I meet Priscilla “Nefftys” Rodriguez outside of Arroyo Blvd. in Nogales, Arizona.

Rodriguez parks her car in the parking lot of the place where people paid their utility bill. Before that, it was a Payless ShoeSource. There’s lots of places here like that. Reinvention is a trait of Nogalenses, the people of Nogales.

Across the street there’s a taco shop that was once the first Jack-in-the-Box in town.

Rodriguez gets out of the car wearing a black jaket with a hoodie and metallic earrings in the shape of hummingbirds.

Rodriguez is an artist, rapper, and poet. Five years ago, she and a clica of artists—Tony Plak, Gerardo Frias aka Hideraus (Rodriguez’s husband), and others—turned the twin border cities Nogales, Sonora and Nogales, Arizona into their personal canvas. The public art project was made possible thanks to a University of Arizona Confluencenter Fronteridades grant from the Mellon Foundation. Their work paid homage to the history of Ambos Nogales through a series of murals to bring about a greater public understanding of the border.

“The Confluencenter really started this journey for me,” says Rodriguez.

“They asked a very simple question: ‘How can you tell the story of the border?’I felt like I could do that with history, poems. When I started doing that, I found so much history. Like, I can’t fit it into one piece. It’s really just the tip of the iceberg. I’m really thankful for that opportunity.”

In front of us is a large mural of jazz great, Charles Mingus. The mural was a collaboration between Rodriguez and other street artists. Mingus was born just outside of Nogales in Camp Little where his father who was a Buffalo Soldier was stationed.

“Este proyecto hizo que se pusieran las pilas,” this project pushed others to get their act together, says Rodriguez explaining that it later inspired a memorial that was later built near the entrance of Western Avenue by a graveyard. There are a few benches and a mosaic with the image of Mingus.

A mural in homage to jazz great, Charles Mingus

Rodriguez was part of three border artist teams that each received $30,000 awards in 2020 to support interdisciplinary art projects in border communities.

”I like to create projects and involve other artists. My husband is one of them,” says Rodriguez before switching to Spanglish, “Se junta con el Flak.” He rolls with Flak.

“Priscilla and I met around 2008. We have friends in common,” says Gerardo Frias, 33, over a phone call.

Artwork by Gerardo Frias, aka Hideraus on Instagram.

“Out of all the projects that opened doors for us, Nogaleria was key,” says Frias. “We used to do mostly workshops, but this project gave us more space so that other artists would get to know us. We were in Tucson with Ruben Morelos, with the Mitoteras,” (referring to Mel Dominguez and Melissa Brown-Dominguez).

"We have been muralists in Nogales, Sonora doing graffiti in 2008. And this time we wanted to take our artwork to the curios.”

Artwork by Hideraus

A border cultural renaissance

Neffty’s talks about the cultural renaissance happening along the border, still careful of not taking up all of the credit.

“Not all of the Nogales murals are ours. There have been other murals done by high school students.”

Cross border artists working on a mural outside the Hotel Regis in Nogales, Sonora are challenging the notions of the border as a militarized zone. The murals, vary in techniques and styles, from graffiti to stencils, to projections and free hand, infusing color and vibrancy into the Nogales region.

Though wall space is abundant in a small town where lots of businesses come and go, Rodriguez wishes the City of Nogales did more to support upcoming artists.

“We need more support from the leaders and people in power who can say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the projects. Especially when it comes to graffiti,” she says.

She adds that graffiti is still very much taboo and doesn’t always meet the definition of art. “They think it’s gang related or something that is not artistic.”

Through the Mellon Foundation Fronteridades grant, the Confluencenter at the University of Arizona was instrumental in giving upcoming artists and creatives like Rodriguez and her collaborators the resources to inject creativity into this emerging arts community.

“There’s been a great wave of work that has been done lately with art and new spaces but there is more support needed,” says Rodriguez. “When it comes to government, we need an arts department.”

“You need a postcard of Nogales, where you can take a photo,” says Rodriguez.

‘Halcon’ by Gerardo Frias and Ariel Ayala is one of the many murals supported by the Confluencenter. This colorful mural adorns the door of a Curios shop at Pasaje Morelos, in Nogales, Sonora, an arts courtyard near the border.

Rodriguez takes me to one of the first graffiti projects in Nogales, Arizona that she and her husband who goes by the street name Hideraus helped bring to life. They are located along N. Encino St. near Sacred Heart Church and Pierson High School.

Artists like Nefftys, Plak and Hideraus are elevating street art, expanding their geographic canvas thanks to the generous support of the Confluencenter via the Mellon Foundation.

”The Fronteridades project let us start something.”

“I’m a storyteller. I love history,” says Rodriguez. I was inspired to talk about the history of Nogales. Thinking about uplifting Nogales ‘pride’, we focused on murals that would pinpoint historical places.”

Priscilla “Nefftys” Rodriguez, standing saint-like in front of a graffiti wall

The sun as it begins to warm the streets near Downtown Nogales, Arizona.

Rodriguez is a modern day troubadour; poet, artist, rapper.

Before settling in Nogales, Arizona she flew to Europe and toured with a band in Prague. She later spent a few years living in Mexico City, and later honed her musical chops at the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Phoenix.

Her book of poetry, Nogaleria, also sponsored by the Confluencenter, soon followed.

Rodriguez pops open the trunk to her car and hands me several copies, true to her roots as a hip-hop artist used to carrying music samples to promote her latest single.

“Did I tell you my grandfather was featured in National Geographic?” she interjects.

Rodriguez tells me the story of her grandfather who in the 1950s photographed American tourists during Nogales, Sonora’s heyday.

Back then tourists from all over the southwest would descend to the tip of Southern Arizona to cross the border and buy arts and crafts, silver jewelry, ponchos, cheap liquor, pharmaceuticals.

Rodriguez’s grandfather (above) taking photos of American tourists in Nogales, Sonora and forever memorialized in the February 1955 issue of National Geographic.

Rodriguez credits much of her love for writing, the arts and photography from her dad and grandfather, both avid photographers and border dwellers. Hearing her talk about them and the border, it is clear that her connection to these lands runs deep.

Nogales, Sonora’s Avenida Obregon as well as Morley Avenue in Nogales, Arizona can feel like one continuous space for kids like Rodriguez growing up along the Curios stores on the Mexican side of the border and the family-owned businesses of families like the Brackers, Capins and Korys.

Nogales’ mural renaissance is on display on the west side of La Cinderella, one of the longest established retail stores, founded nearly 80 years ago by the Kory family.

Inside the store, black and white photographs tell the history of the Nogales, Arizona store which remains widely popular with both American and Mexican shoppers.

La Cinderella was established in 1947 and remains one of Nogales, Arizona’s most iconic corners.

Morley Avenue in Nogales, Arizona continues to draw Mexican shoppers, though its upscale retail stores have been long replaced by stores offering cheaper products.

As we walk back to her car, Rodriguez and I pass behind a public housing complex, the Bowman Senior Residencies, built on the former site of the Bowman Hotel. In 2015, the Nogales Community Development redeveloped the Bowman Hotel to create 48 units of low-to-moderate income housing for seniors.

Local residents walk by Rodriguez on their way shopping as cars full of churchgoers carefully maneuver the steep incline of Sacred Heart Church on a Sunday morning. The Bowman Residences in the background.

The Bowman development is an example of adaptive reuse, embodying the spirit of reinvention that is in the DNA of the people of Ambos Nogales. Photo credit: Poster, Mirto, McDonald.

Rodriguez is hyper aware of how important it is so seize this creative moment. She talks about upstart Nogales art galleries like La Linea and the Wittner Museum. She scans the downtown commercial district pointing to buildings with potential, whispering fragments of ideas of what one day she can transform into a performing arts space like Club Congress or the Rialto Theatre in Tucson.

In September of last year she helped create an Art Walk that brought together vendors, musicians and artists. She has her eyes set on the future.

“Hay talento, hay que apoyar.”