Family Roots

Painted with the Doña Ana County Resilience Leaders as part of the 100% New Mexico initiative, Family Roots is a mural about the generations that hold a family together — a child deep in her book, a mother with a little one, grandparents watching over, and a graduate looking toward what comes next, all beneath the pink Organ Mountains.

Chile plants, a roadrunner, and a backyard swing root the scene in southern New Mexico, while branches weave through every figure — the limbs of one family tree. Every generation grows from the one before it, and community is what holds the roots together. The design grew from community surveys that named family, community, education, and culture as what mattered most — and the finished wall, near Booker T. Washington Elementary, was dedicated with a community ribbon-cutting in August 2022.