{"id":395483,"date":"2026-08-02T12:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T12:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/395483\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T12:13:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T12:13:15","slug":"market-square-dedicates-the-spirit-within-a-155-foot-mural-honoring-the-women-who-shaped-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/395483\/","title":{"rendered":"Market Square dedicates \u2018The Spirit Within,\u2019 a 155-foot mural honoring the women who shaped it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for\u00a0TPR Today<\/a>, Texas Public Radio’s newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.<\/p>\n

A public dedication was held Saturday morning to honor a new mural at Market Square Downtown. The 155-foot-long and 18-foot-tall mural is entitled \u201cThe Spirit Within\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hailey Marmolejo is one of the mural\u2019s two lead artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mural is a representation of women and the work that they’ve done throughout the history of Market Square. Every element of the mural is female or symbolic of female, even down to the constellations they’re all different, women constellations,\u201d she told TPR.<\/p>\n

The mural\u2019s intricate design includes representations of Indigenous women, Spaniards, Tejanas and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s like the story of San Antonio along with the story of Market Square. We also have these birds representing the Chili Queens who were the originators of Market Square.<\/p>\n

They’re the ones that would come out and make chili, and everybody would come and buy their chili, and that’s really how Market Square got started,\u201d Marmolejo said.<\/p>\n

\"Co-lead<\/p>\n

Jerry Clayton<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

Texas Public Radio <\/p>\n

Co-lead artist Hailey Marmolejo stands in front of the newly dedicated mural at Market Square<\/p>\n

She said \u201ca lot of blood, sweat and tears\u201d went into creating the mural, along with co-lead artist Ashleigh Garza.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s just an absolute honor to have my work on these walls, and I’m truly grateful and taken aback every time I go by it still. So I just thank you so much to the city and to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/p>\n

Jerry Clayton<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

Texas Public Radio<\/p>\n

Some of the figures, including The Chili Queens, depicted as birds in “The Spirit Within” mural. <\/p>\n

The art is part of a series brought by San Anto Cultural Arts in conjunction with the City of San Antonio. They have placed almost 70 murals in different areas of the city<\/p>\n

\"Cuauhtli<\/p>\n

Jerry Clayton<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

Texas Public Radio<\/p>\n

Cuauhtli Reyna with San Anto Cultural Arts speaks at the dedication ceremony for “The Spirit Within”.<\/p>\n

Cuauhtli Reyna is with San Anto Cultural Arts. He said the murals all connect with the heritage of San Antonio<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are community murals. So wherever that community meets for this mural, it’s their voice and their identity that’s displayed on the wall.”<\/p>\n

Work on \u201cThe Spirit Within\u201d mural was completed in 2022, but construction in the area delayed the dedication until now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for\u00a0TPR Today, Texas Public Radio’s newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-395483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}