The Flame of Reflection, a sculpture built by artists Emilio Flores Garcia and Gini Garcia, has temporarily lost its spark as it is stored away because of construction on the Texas A&M University-San Antonio campus.
The sculpture was originally created to be exhibited and lit for the Commemorative Week of San Antonio’s Tricentennial Celebration. The week began May 1, 2018, with the Day of Reflection. The week celebrated the 300th anniversary of the establishment of the original Mission San Antonio de Valero, now known as the Alamo, located downtown.
Emilio Flores Garcia got to see the celebration surrounding his and Gini Garcia’s work in action.
“It was some years ago, I don’t remember all the details,” Emilio Flores Garcia said. “…It was very beautiful. I was very honored to be part of that celebration of the 300-year city. As you know, San Antonio is a city with a lot of history.”
It was originally exhibited in Main Plaza for six days and then gifted to A&M-San Antonio from the San Antonio Tricentennial Commission. It was displayed on the first floor of the Central Academic Building until it was moved in late 2024 or early 2025.
The sculpture is currently stored near the building in an HVAC area out of students’ sight. According to an email from Iris Castillo, the senior administrative coordinator at A&M-San Antonio, the permanent location of the sculpture is under review because of construction on campus.
She assures the sculpture can withstand the weather, and Emilio Flores Garcia confirms the sculpture was built to be displayed outside, and he doesn’t mind the temporary placement. Castillo said storage options were limited, and the HVAC area was the best place to do so.
Emilio Flores Garcia said he wasn’t originally selected for consideration to work on the tricentennial project when he applied. He explained the city of San Antonio was struggling to communicate with another artist before reaching out to commission him in late March 2018 for an undisclosed amount.
He took the offer and invited Gini Garcia, a glass artist, to work with him. She proposed the initial idea of applying for the project when the opportunity opened up. They were left with about one month to complete the piece.
“I had like the last weeks of March and the whole of April to make it,” Emilio Flores Garcia said. “The really challenging part was to finish it on time. We finished on the morning of the installation day.”
Emilio Flores Garcia contributed to the main shape of the sculpture.
“I tried to meet the occasion but also stay true to what I was doing,” Emilio Flores Garcia said. “What I focus a lot on doing is the fragmentation of organic matter and how it creates this pattern of rhythm…”
He began carving the shape of the sculpture from a block of high-densitypolyfoam. He then used gloves to apply micro concrete around the polyfoam, a technique he never experimented with before this project, and applied acrylic paint on top. Emilio Flores Garcia then constructed the metal frame to mount the structure on.
Gini Garcia is currently working on a new project and was unable to share her experience, but Emilio Flores Garcia said she worked on the blown glass. The varying shapes represent the candles lit on the Day of Reflection.
The sculpture also included a gas installation so Ron Nirenberg, the mayor at the time, could light it with a real flame during the celebration in front of the San Fernando Cathedral.
The finished piece is 12 feet high and five feet long.
Emilio Flores Garcia is originally from Monterrey, Mexico, the same city where he met Gini Garcia. After visiting a few places around the world, he moved to San Antonio in 2010 and spent four years living there. He then returned in 2018 to take on the Flame of Reflection and other projects. Despite not originally being from the city, he shares that he had a great experience at the ceremony.
“It was not just me at that moment,” Emilio Flores Garcia said. “There was a lot of violence and insecurity from the war on drugs in Mexico, and a lot of Mexican nationals have moved to Texas.… I was part of a community there, but we felt very welcomed by San Antonio. And then being an artist and being able to showcase my art there was great.”
Emilio Flores Garcia said he believes the Flame of Reflection is important for students of A&M-San Antonio to see because it represents 300 years of the city’s history, something longer than the existence of the United States, the country in which the city is located.
“It’s important to commemorate that long history for local people and then just to celebrate art.” Emilio Flores Garcia said. “It’s important to have a thing or piece that is not only a historic mark, but is also a creative expression.”