{"id":5230,"date":"2016-06-10T18:45:32","date_gmt":"2016-06-10T18:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=5230"},"modified":"2016-06-10T18:45:37","modified_gmt":"2016-06-10T18:45:37","slug":"utrgv-and-h-e-b-salute-hometown-hero-with-commemorative-murals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=5230","title":{"rendered":"UTRGV and H-E-B Salute Hometown Hero with Commemorative Murals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dolia<\/a>

Dolia Gonzalez, mother of Edinburg war hero Alfredo \u201cFreddy\u201d Gonzalez, reacts with tears and pride upon seeing the two completed murals of her son, painted by UTRGV graduate art student Ramiro Pe\u00f1a, during an unveiling ceremony on Friday, May 27, 2016, at the H-E-B on West Freddy Gonzalez Drive in Edinburg. With her is Bob Tellez, H-E-B director of retail operations for the border region. Photo: Paul Chouy\/UTRGV<\/p><\/div>\n

by Melissa Vasquez\/UTRGV<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

EDINBURG, TEXAS<\/strong> \u2013 For three-and-a-half months, UTRGV graduate art student Ramiro Pe\u00f1a has been perfecting two large-scale portraits honoring Edinburg hometown war hero Alfredo \u201cFreddy\u201d Gonzalez.<\/p>\n

On Friday, May 27, his art pieces \u2013 two 8-foot by 12-1\/2 foot murals recognizing Gonzalez\u2019s valor and sacrifice for his country \u2013 were unveiled at the Edinburg H-E-B on West Freddy Gonzalez Drive during a pre-Memorial Day celebration.<\/p>\n

Present to watch her son\u2019s image come to life before her eyes was 86-year-old Dolia Gonzalez.<\/p>\n

As the murals were unveiled, tears welled and her face was filled with pride.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was beautiful,\u201d Dolia said simply after the unveiling, as she stood for some time admiring her son\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

The images are suspended above the customer service desk, and the artist had been nervous about how people would react to his work; it was important to him to get it just right.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe response from the city and the community was awesome,\u201d Pe\u00f1a said. \u201cI feel really honored and blessed to have done this. I feel really good about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Dolia saw the vibrant murals \u2013 which feature her son\u2019s face, the Medal of Honor, the U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer USS Gonzalez named in his honor and other images \u2013 she could not help the emotions that overcame her during the unveiling.<\/p>\n

Freddy\u2019s mother, who is also an H-E-B employee, said she was greatly appreciative of the honor bestowed on her son, during a patriotic program coordinated by the grocery store as part of the Operation Appreciation Initiative. The H-E-B initiative recognizes millions of veterans living in Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he were here today, he would have said, \u2018Oh, mom, why are you making such a big fuss,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dolia was presented with smaller versions of the paintings, also created by Pe\u00f1a, as a keepsake.<\/p>\n

Freddy\u2019s childhood friend Pete Vela, former Mercedes football coach and Weslaco ISD athletic director, attended the event with Dolia. He, too, was emotional as he saw the murals and remembered his best friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a true patriot, and you don\u2019t find a lot of guys like Freddy Gonzalez. I still miss him,\u201d Vela said.<\/p>\n

The Edinburg H-E-B store commissioned Pe\u00f1a in fall 2015 to create the murals. Freddy Gonzalez, a U.S. Marine Corps platoon sergeant, was killed Feb. 4, 1968, at the Battle of Hue in Vietnam. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and in 1996 the USS Gonzalez was commissioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe commissioned Ramiro Pe\u00f1a to help us and I truly believe he did a marvelous job with that. We also enlisted the help of UTRGV. We could not have done this without their help,\u201d said Bob Tellez, H-E-B director of retail operations for the border region.<\/p>\n

From making sure the oil paints blended correctly to create just the right color for Gonzalez\u2019s skin tone, to building his own large canvas frames to specifications, Pe\u00f1a spent a lot sleepless nights thinking about one of the biggest art projects he has ever undertaken, and probably his most important.<\/p>\n

To complete this major task, Pe\u00f1a said, he worked weekends and after work, sometimes not getting home until 2 a.m. He admits that the closer he got to deadline, the more nervous he became.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was biting my nails at the end. The last thing I wanted to do was not get it right,\u201d he said.Family time was put on hold for Pe\u00f1a, as he missed out on birthday celebrations or simply helping his daughter with homework. He said he especially appreciates the support and love of his family during the entire process.<\/p>\n

His family, which includes wife Alma, son Noah, a UTRGV junior studying biology\/pre-med and currently interning in the Summer Internship Program at Johns Hopkins University, and daughter Valerie, a future student at the South Texas High School for Health Professions, pitched in to put the finishing touches on the murals. Alma, whom Pe\u00f1a calls his rock, helped him paint at times. She even ironed the creases out of the large pieces of canvas fabric.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlma is the rock who keeps everybody on task and keeps things going when I am not present. Once again, if it wasn\u2019t for her, I would not have been successful,\u201d Pe\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n

Now that he has some time, Pe\u00f1a plans to enjoy the summer with his family. He also will start on a new mural project, this one for the Dustin Michael Sekula Memorial Library, the public library for the City of Edinburg. That mural will feature Gonzalez, along with another hometown war hero, U.S. Army Private Pedro Cano. Cano was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for valor during World War II by President Barack Obama in February 2014. H-E-B has donated the materials for the library murals.<\/p>\n

Pe\u00f1a hopes to complete his graduate studies by fall 2017 and is interested in teaching at the secondary or college level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was definitely a test to see what kind of artist I will be in the future,\u201d Pe\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n

\"Dolia<\/a>

Dolia Gonzalez (center), mother of Edinburg war hero Alfredo \u201cFreddy\u201d Gonzalez, was present for the Friday unveiling of two murals by UTRGV graduate art student Ramiro Pe\u00f1a, on Friday, May 27, 2016, at the H-E-B on West Freddy Gonzalez Drive in Edinburg. Also at the event is the artist\u2019s wife, Alma Pe\u00f1a (right), who provided the support critical to complete his artworks. Photo: Paul Chouy\/UTRGV<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Melissa Vasquez\/UTRGV EDINBURG, TEXAS \u2013 For three-and-a-half months, UTRGV graduate art student Ramiro Pe\u00f1a has been perfecting two large-scale portraits honoring Edinburg hometown war hero Alfredo \u201cFreddy\u201d Gonzalez. On Friday, May 27, his art pieces \u2013 two 8-foot by 12-1\/2 foot murals recognizing Gonzalez\u2019s valor and sacrifice for his country \u2013 were unveiled at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5234,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230\/revisions\/5234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}