Building on last year’s mural at the historic Martin Hotel, this year’s design again honors the vital role of women as caregivers in Winnemucca, especially within the Basque diaspora community.
Speaking with Ana Mari Smith last year left a lasting impression on me. Her father was already working in the American West, so her mother traveled alone from Pamplona in 1959 with eight of their children in hopes of democracy. I picture that woman carrying her children across the Atlantic and more than 5,000 miles with remarkable courage, and I cannot help but feel deep admiration. This mural represents that woman and stands for the thousands of women who placed themselves in such extraordinary circumstances and, throughout history, received little to no recognition.
To continue building on the collective conceptual dialogue we began last year, I have been honored to invite two Nevada artists to paint on the wall this year— artists whose work, in one way or another, is deeply connected to Basque communities and the experiences of migration: Zoe Bray and Alex Arciniega. As an individual reflection, I have asked them to consider what is in their suitcase, understanding the suitcase as a powerful metaphor for transnational identity, memory, and a sense of belonging through a gendered perspective. In her suitcase, Zoe Bray has portrayed a woman engaged in the sheep camp lifestyle, though her background has stayed in the shadow of the Basque sheepherder of the American West.
Alex has created a dual landscape of the Pyrenees and Winnemucca Mountain, connected by the flight of swallows, which symbolize a gendered history of Basque migration across the Pyrenees to work in espadrille-making, the shoes the dancers from Winnemucca actually use for their performances.
This Project would not have been possible without the testimony of Ana Mari Smith...
The help of Justin and Pete...
The warmth of the Basque community and the support of The Martin Hotel. And the camaraderie among the artists participating in this year’s event...
And the management of Michelle Hamond and Erick Brooks, who have organized the Winnemucca Main Street Murals & Music Festival 2026.
