“It’s all my life, in one mural,” Reynaldo “Guaracibo” Rodríguez says of his mural in Humboldt Park. “It’s the only one that is not political in my neighborhood. It is more personal.”
The detailed autobiographical painting features a baby drawn in shades blue, arms and legs pulled in around itself. That young child represents Rodriguez’s 27-year old son, who has autism.
The anatomical hearts on either side of the baby, in shades of deep red, pink and purple, signify the four heart attacks that Rodriguez survived.
The words “Seeds from our past” stretch over a nighttime image of Puerto Rico, Rodriguez’s native island. The moon rises behind three homes on stilts that stretch up a mountain. The first home is where Rodriguez was born. The second and third are the homes of his aunt and grandmother.
Banana leaves and flowers reach out between the images, as well as a flittering hummingbird and a yellow-orange hibiscus. An African drum, masks and a domed building represent the Spanish, African and indigenous cultures that comprise Puerto Rico.
A tree stretching across the top of the mural pulls the painting’s different facets together, Rodriguez says.
He painted the mural for his community, he says, “to show them that no matter what is going on in your life, there’s always gotta be something beautiful,” he says.
He had been kicking around ideas for the mural for 12 years. It was just a matter of finding the right wall. With the help of the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance, he found it at 2534 W. Division St. Since he painted the mural the business there has closed, and Rodriguez is waiting to see what happens next with the building.
Rodriguez came to Chicago with his mom in the 1990s, he says, and remembers the Chicago Bulls winning their NBA championships and the city filled with excitement. He knew this was where he wanted to be. He’s a self-taught mural buff whose artwork can be found in Brentano Elementary Math and Science Academy in Logan Square, on posters for events around Humboldt Park and elsewhere throughout the city.
Rodriguez, 54, has a heart condition that prompted his first heart attack when he was 27, he says. His second one followed at 32, than another at 40 and another at 51.
When he finished his mural he felt proud of what he’d accomplished despite his heart condition and the physical challenges he faces every day. This mural is a legacy that Rodriguez hopes will serve as inspiration for Chicago’s Puerto Rican community to persevere through hard times.
“Even though you have the worst thing in your life, life is beautiful. It’s a gift,” he says.
Rodriguez also sought to share the beauty of autism and the autism community, as inspired by his son.
“Sometimes kids and adults with autism are mistreated and they’re not valued,” he says. People can miss that those with autism are still “very smart, very creative, very affectionate and loving.”
Rodriguez works for After School Matters at the Puerto Rican Art Alliance, helping teens develop their painting. His office is in the Humboldt Park field house on the second floor, where “I have a little gallery for the students.” Twenty are in his class.
Rodriguez has another autobiographical work on display, an exhibit running through Nov. 26 at the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance titled “La Mudanza: Seeds from Our Past.” Like the mural, it tells stories from his life. The works are sculptures made of cardboard boxes that he collected during the pandemic.
“Everybody knows me by the murals and posters but this is the first time that I’ve done an exhibit completely made of cardboard,” he says.