Furr High School is starting Hispanic Heritage Month off with an artistic spark. The students collaborated with local artist Robert Ramos to make the “Future Forward” mural.

Students at Furr shared their ideas, emotions, and wants with Ramos, and he turned their themes of justice, diversity, empowerment, and past, present, and future into the finished product. Student Bianca de la Cruz helped document the making of the mural and was satisfied that environmental justice was included to help show how “we can help preserve our world.” Ramos acknowledged the importance of including events both current and past in the mural.

“Our past makes us who we are,” Ramos said. “We don’t need to be pigeonholed into what we were, and we can be better.”

Furr Principal Tammie Moran sees the therapeutic value in art after their community was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The painting was started in the summer and is now on display at Furr.

“This mural is a sense of pride,” Moran said. “There was a lot going on during COVID-19, and art is almost like therapy, so the kids had an opportunity to think about it and what they wanted to add. It was a way for them to get their emotions out. I wanted to give them every opportunity to get their emotions out and feel better any way that they could, and what better way than through art?”