Brownsville City Limits

The black and white photo in Carlos Mancillas' hands-tattered, scotch-taped, inscribed with faded ink-shows six artists in their youth, hovering around their teacher. That was 1977.

In the years after the photo was taken, seven of the boys lived in a one-bedroom apartment-a studio space that doubled as a notorious party house. They would stay up into the early morning, painting scenes from their Brownsville youths. Their teacher, Jorge Truan, was never far away.

Art came first. Sleep (and girls) came second.

But, all too predictably, the group dispersed. Marriages and full-time jobs forced artistic goals onto the backburner. Independently, each wondered: what happened to those guys?

And then, unexpectedly, Truan died of cancer in 1992.

"We were shocked, Evaristo Angel Valerio said. "This was a man who shaped all of our lives-as artists and as people."

Sixteen years after Truan's death, the group is back together to pay a final tribute to its muse. On Wednesday, the self-named Brownsville City Limits collective will exhibit work at the Narciso Martinez Cultural Center in San Benito. Without Truan, they say, the work wouldn't exist.

The exhibit is appropriately named "Estoy Encandilando Otra Vez," or as Valerio translates, "I'm Back in the Groove Again."

Truan began teaching the boys in elementary school, and eventually coaxed them into attending Texas Southmost College and later Texas A & I University in Kingsville.

"In the mid-70s I was lost," said Jorge Castorena, "And then Jorge asked me to come into his room. He showed me these incredible paintings-all of this great Chicano art-and it opened my eyes."

During the years of the Chicano Movement, their friends took the streets, marching and holding protests. But the boys of Brownsville City Limits expressed themselves on canvas.

Their work ranges from self-portraits to depictions of migrant laborers-all imbued with the iconography of the Chicano Movement. In one piece, Mancillas adds the face of Cesar Chavez to a painted version of the 1977 group photo.

The work hints at the breadth of the artists' influences. Under Truan they studied Italian Futurism and German Expressionism, among other 20th century techniques, which now shape their own work.

In both content and medium, though, the work diverges from tradition. Castorena's landscapes might borrow from Cezanne, but Castorena adds sand to oil, changing the texture of the piece entirely.

The experimentation is reminiscent of the group's early days, when the boys challenged each other to push artistic bounds.

"Those days were so sweet," Mancillas said, and the other men nod.

Outside of an old TSC studio, the men gather to discuss their coming exhibition. The plants around the building-now flowering in early spring-were originally planted by Truan. The building where the group photo was taken in ‘77 remains unchanged.

Before they restaged the old portrait, Valerio waxed nostalgic.

"It's all still here," he said. "This is where it all happened."

 "Estoy Encandilando Otra Vez" exhibit by the Brownsville City Limits

When: Wednesday

Where: the Narciso Martinez Cultural Center, 225 East Stenger, San Benito

For more information: (956) 361-0110