The moment Miguel Valverde Castillo stepped inside El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus (the Sacred Heart of the Church of Jesus) in Ruidosa, Texas, he envisioned a heart hanging from one of the church’s high archways. Valverde, a muralist from Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, Mexico, was invited by Friends of the Ruidosa Church, to install a temporary art piece inside the adobe structure.
“Latido de Luz” hanging inside El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus (the Sacred Heart of the Church of Jesus) in Ruidosa, Texas. Photo: Sarah M. Vasquez
Friends of Ruidosa Church is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to restore and preserve the historic church in the border town, 46 miles southwest of Marfa. The church was constructed by the citizens with adobe bricks in 1915 and was the place for weddings, funerals, and Sunday Mass. It started to deteriorate as the population began to decline in the mid-1950s, but Presidio County was given the deed to the property from the Catholic Diocese of El Paso, which was then deeded to Friends of Ruidosa Church in 2020. The organization raises money and hosts events, such as adobe brick-making, for its restoration efforts. Since 2021, they have also hosted a Community Day at the site, inviting residents — both past and present — for a day of tamales, music, and a large-scale work created by a different artist each year.
In selecting the artist, board member Clara Benson said they always try to find a balance that honors the history of the religious and sacred place with what the artist wants to do. For Community Day in 2022, Benson reached out to Presidio resident Liz Rohana, who suggested Valverde, who she knew through her uncle, Carlos Rohana, the director of the Museo Regional de Ojinaga.
“I feel like even though his artwork is very pronounced in Ojinaga, still a lot of people from this area really didn’t know about him,” Rohana said.
Valverde has produced large-scale works in various mediums around the world. He painted the mural, Semillas del Cosmos (The Origin of the Cosmos), which stands at 29.5 feet for the Weltmuseum Wien in Vienna. There’s a line of musical instrument sculptures that are over 24 feet tall, that include a saxophone, an accordion, and a guitar, in Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico.
“Latido de Luz” illuminates the inside El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus during sunset in Ruidosa, Texas. Photo: Sarah M. Vasquez
Latido de Luz, the illuminated heart he designed for the Ruidosa church, is smaller in comparison as it stands at 9.5 feet, but the heart’s journey from its creation to its transport across the border was no small feat. Valverde learned during his initial visit to Ruidosa that the sculpture would hang inside the church during Community Day. The lack of doors would allow people to view the West Texas sunset through it, so he knew he wanted to incorporate light with the piece.
“The main concern after that was how on earth are we going to pull off this large scale piece in such a short time,” said Benson. Valverde’s first visit was in June. Community Day is held in November.
But Valverde got to work. One of his first ideas was to create the heart out of ocotillo stems, but there are restrictions to carrying that plant into the U.S., so he simplified the idea. The final iteration was built with wood and outlined with plastic LED lights. He used a steel structure to support the movement.
The heart was built in his studio in Chihuahua, so it required a lot of logistics to move it through the port of entry in Presidio and then to the church in Ruidosa. There was a crack in the frame that needed to be repaired, and Valverde had to add additional structural backing. Valverde and members of Friends of the Ruidosa Church worked with officials on both sides of the border to move the fragile piece in the back of a pickup truck.
After the installation, seeing the piece illuminate inside the church for the first time was much better than any of them had imagined. While Valverde updated the organization with photos of the fabrication process, Benson said it still didn’t prepare her for that moment.
Latido de Luz inside Do Right Hall in Marfa. Photo: Sarah M. Vasquez
“We were all basically in tears because so much work had gone into that,” Benson said.
To provide everyone with the full visual experience, the back of the church was closed off during Community Day, preventing people from parking and blocking the view. Residents from the area — even former residents who traveled from as far as New Mexico — gathered inside the church to watch the sunset paint the sky with cotton candy pinks and blues while the heart brightened the inside of the church with its red lighting. It was magical for Rohana to see the amount of people gathered that evening.
“I felt very emotional to see it was a combination of all of these towns. I was like this is how we should be living every day,” Rohana said. “I think it was such a spectacular event.”
Latido de Luz hung inside the church for about a month and was then moved to Marfa as part of a show featuring Valverde’s paintings and other illuminated pieces at Do Right Hall. Friends of the Ruidosa Church produced that event with Buck Johnston and Camp Bosworth of Wrong Marfa to provide a viewing opportunity inside another adobe church as well as potentially sell the piece. Proceeds of the sale went towards Friends of the Ruidosa Church.
The piece now hangs inside Otherside Marfa, an event space behind the digital art gallery, Glitch Marfa. Stephen McKeon, co-owner of Glitch and Otherside, was the one to purchase it after he saw it inside Do Right Hall, providing it a permanent home in a public space.
Miguel Valverde Castillo stands in front of “Latido de Luz” in its permanent home at Otherside. Photo: Sarah M. Vasquez
“The heart was moving from many places,” said Valverde. “A heart beats. A heart moves. And the heart was moving until now. Now it’s at the last place, but I’m so happy because the heart is in Marfa.”
