During Hispanic Heritage Month, the work of two Latina artists is highlighting how neighborhood-rooted art can create access, belonging and a stronger sense of place across Houston.

Claudia Cepeda Ortega and Roni Cabrera grew up in Houston-area neighborhoods where arts opportunities could feel far away. Their experiences shaped their understanding of what it means when creativity, representation and opportunity seem more accessible somewhere else.

Today, both artists are working to change that experience for the next generation. Through community design, Spanish-language theater, public art and a mobile art studio, Cepeda and Cabrera are creating opportunities for Houstonians to experience and shape art in their own neighborhoods while seeing their histories, families and cultures reflected in Houston’s creative life. Their work reflects a broader movement supported by Houston in Color, which strengthens artists and cultural organizations preserving and advancing Houston’s diverse cultural traditions.

From Wanting to Leave to Reimagining Home

Cepeda was born in Mexico and moved with her family to the Cloverleaf/Galena Park area in 1992. Growing up, she remembers her community as having limited resources and opportunities for youth. She also grew up with the idea that success might eventually mean leaving for a better neighborhood. That perspective changed over time. While studying architecture at the University of Houston, Cepeda discovered community design and began exploring how creativity could strengthen neighborhood identity and pride. Through Spanish-language theater with Grupo de Teatro Somos Todos, Cepeda has performed in productions addressing issues affecting Latino families. 

Following one performance about domestic violence, a teenager told her she had seen her own life reflected onstage and sought information about available support. The experience reinforced the importance of representation and the ways people can connect with art when they recognize themselves and their experiences within it. That idea also shaped CRATE Houston, the collaborative Cepeda helped form in 2020. Its first project took her to Eastex Jensen, where residents across generations shared stories about the neighborhood’s history and hopes for its future. For Cepeda, community members are an essential part of telling the stories that shape their neighborhoods.

Bringing Art to Eastex Jensen

Cabrera grew up in Eastex Jensen, an experience that now informs her work through Art in the Heart. Her focus is on removing barriers that can prevent families from participating in the arts. Those barriers can include transportation, cost, language and simply not feeling that an arts space was created with them in mind. That led Cabrera to consider how arts organizations could bring creative opportunities directly into neighborhoods rather than requiring families to travel to them. The result was the Art Bus, a mobile arts space designed to provide free creative experiences directly in Houston communities. For more than a year, Art in the Heart has been working toward a renovated version of the Art Bus to better serve Eastex Jensen, District H, Precinct 2 and other communities across Houston. 

Ten years ago, the new bus was shaped with community input. Cabrera and the Art in the Heart team held listening sessions with neighborhood residents, officials and people who benefited from the original Art Bus to understand what they wanted from a mobile arts space. The result is designed not simply to bring art into a neighborhood, but to reflect the people it serves. Children, parents, grandparents and neighbors are encouraged to create together. The community-based listening process earned Art in the Heart a national $100,000 recognition. 

Art in the Heart will unveil the new Art Bus during a Grand Reveal on September 19 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Art House, 3405 Turner Dr., Houston, TX 77093. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 11 a.m.

During Hispanic Heritage Month, the work of Cepeda and Cabrera also offers a local connection to the ways heritage is carried through language, family memory, neighborhood stories, visual traditions and the spaces people create together. For both artists, the goal extends beyond bringing more art into Houston neighborhoods. It is about helping children growing up in places such as Cloverleaf, Galena Park and Eastex Jensen see creativity, belonging and possibility within the communities they already call home.