![\"Andrea](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/e248e610-122a-4b98-9bca-4efa726246d1_1663882949.file.png\")
<\/a>SACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014<\/p>\nFor Cecelia Perez, drawing started at a very young age.<\/p>\n
“When I was probably around 4 years old, right before I started elementary school, my mom gave me some markers and a drawing pad,” Perez said. “For some reason, I felt like I needed to draw every animal that I could think of off the top of my head.”<\/p>\n
That childhood hobby eventually became a career.<\/p>\n
Perez, a Sacramento native and the artist behind “Hey Ruca,” has built a growing national profile, creating work for brands and organizations including the Sacramento Kings and San Francisco Giants. Her work has also been featured at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
Now based in the Bay Area, Perez said she still starts her days the same way she did as a child.<\/p>\n
“I wake up and I draw,” she said. “Even as a full-blown adult, I still wake up and I just draw, and it’s an absolute dream come true to be able to do this on a daily basis.”<\/p>\n
Perez’s artwork features girls, cars, flowers and other imagery inspired by Chicano culture.<\/p>\n
“I illustrate girls, cars, flowers \u2014 anything that really relates to Chicano iconography that people can really recognize,” she said.<\/p>\n
One of Perez’s biggest collaborations began with a mural she designed at a McDonald’s on Pacific Avenue in Stockton.<\/p>\n
The company liked her work and asked her to design a product.<\/p>\n
“Because they liked the work so much, they said, ‘Hey, can you also do some product design?'” Perez said. “And I said, ‘Yes, of course.'”<\/p>\n
The result was a limited-edition McDonald’s cup created for Hispanic Heritage Month.<\/p>\n
Then came another surprise: McDonald’s asked Perez to appear in the commercial promoting the collaboration.<\/p>\n
“Then they said, ‘We have a little bit of extra in the budget. Do you want to be in the commercial?'” Perez said. “And I said, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s crazy. Okay, yeah!'”<\/p>\n
The McDonald’s commercial isn’t Perez’s first time in front of the camera.<\/p>\n
She also appeared in a Modelo campaign highlighting her work as an artist.<\/p>\n
“They were just highlighting me as an artist and a drink in between,” Perez said.<\/p>\n
Perez’s “Hey Ruca” brand is sold online and in stores at national retailer Zumiez.<\/p>\n
“It’s so cool to see the brands that I grew up with, these giants, sitting on the same shelf as me,” she said.<\/p>\n
Despite her growing list of national collaborations, Perez said Sacramento remains a major source of inspiration.<\/p>\n
She credits her parents with introducing her to Chicano art and the Royal Chicano Air Force, the Sacramento-based collective established in the 1970s.<\/p>\n
The group used art, murals, and posters as a form of activism, including work connected to the United Farm Workers movement.<\/p>\n
“I am most familiar with Chicano art because of my parents introducing me to the RCAF, or the Royal Chicano Air Force, that was established in Sacramento back in the ’70s,” Perez said. “It was really inspiring to see all those colors and pictures.”<\/p>\n
Perez’s artwork draws on that history while looking toward the future.<\/p>\n
“This style of art is important to me because it keeps the concept of nostalgia within the Chicano community alive,” she said.<\/p>\n
Perez is now working on releasing her first hard copy magazine and is an ambassador for Ford.<\/p>\n
This story was produced as part of our 2026 Project CommUNITY special for Hispanic Heritage Month.<\/p>\n
See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From childhood drawings to McDonald’s cups: Sacramento artist takes Chicano art to national brands SACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 For…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[47245,184,7,283,189784,163855,189792,21541,13559,189791,9514,189785,5344,34672,189787,189789,788,158190,104053,88804,121,189786,123,6707,128,42196,122,4820,189788,483,38682,1968,189790],"class_list":["post-485418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-artwork","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-car","tag-cecelia-perez","tag-chicano-art","tag-childhood-drawing","tag-commercial","tag-flower","tag-ford-ambassador","tag-girl","tag-hey-ruca","tag-hispanic-heritage-month","tag-mcdonald","tag-mcdonalds-cup","tag-modelo-campaign","tag-mural","tag-national-brand","tag-pacific-avenue","tag-royal-chicano-air-force","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-artist","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-king","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-sacramento-native","tag-sacramento-news","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-smithsonian-folklife-festival","tag-stockton","tag-united-farm-workers","tag-work","tag-zumiez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}