Hugo Ximello-Salido at work on a new mural at the Consulate of Mexico in Kansas City (photo by Pete Dulin)
An intriguing mural took shape in February as Mexican American artist Hugo Ximello-Salido painted at the Consulate of Mexico in downtown Kansas City. Carefully, he transferred dabs of blue and white paint to two office walls The work is a recent addition to the consulate’s three-year-old mural program.
Born and raised in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, Ximello-Salido lived in Kansas City for 17 years and is known for works blending Mexican folkloric symbols with contemporary social themes within Mexico’s cultural heritage. During 2023-2025, he exhibited work extensively at the Consulate of Mexico in Kansas City, Kansas City Kansas Community College, Kansas City Artists Coalition, and other venues. His documentary MUXE: The Language of Art & Culture, exploring gender fluidity in Oaxacan culture, screened at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Ximello-Salido’s art installation at the consulate taps deep into Mexico’s roots, diverse cultural identity and many Indigenous languages. He was “inspired by the celebration of life through native peoples’ cosmology.”
Dating to the 1830s, he notes, “Before the invasion of the Anáhuac (La conquista), there were just over 400 Indigenous tribes thriving in this land throughout Mexico. After the invasion only 68 tribes remained.”
The design of his mural pays homage to talavera, a renowned style of earthenware with ties to Puebla, Mexico. Talavera’s origins and early influences draw from European techniques and artistry dating to the 16th century. Becoming its own revered pottery style, Mexican talavera was formed from Indigenous materials, craftsmanship, patterns and colors, such as its distinctive blue-and-white palette. Using those colors, Ximello-Salido’s subject matter in the mural focuses on 68 nationally recognized Indigenous peoples in Mexico. The names of their languages, such as Zapoteco, Tsotsil, Totonaco and Huave, are incorporated into the mural.
The peoples used different languages and cultural views to describe their own interpretation of the world, nature, and even gender-sexuality, Ximello-Salido explained. Deities, for example, weren’t strictly male or female, depending on a people’s culture and their language.
“The expression of these beings through language played an important role in agriculture and life then as determined by the stars,” Ximello-Salido added.
Mirrors within the murals symbolize the perception of human movement within Indigenous cultures. People moved to hunt, live and relocate from town to town. Symbolic eyes suggest the cosmology and observatories used by ancient peoples in Mexico, who “were way more advanced in astrology and astronomy than European civilizations” at the time.
“This mural, much of my practice, and my documentary is linked to gender fluidity,” Ximello-Salido said. “This is connected directly with the Zapotec pre-Hispanic culture of how gender duality was experienced, seen and practiced. They correlated themselves to other tribes and nature using different languages,”
Ximello-Salido considered the mural project a means to “rescue Indigenous ways of thinking and a way of life. We teach ourselves through art and learn about our roots.”
Residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Ximello-Salido operates his gallery Hugo Gabán when not developing public art projects or exhibiting work throughout the U.S. In spring, the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque purchased his mixed-media artwork on a cello, The Intricate Soul of Alebrijes, for display as his fourth public art installation, succeeding his mural work in Kansas City.
According to Cónsul Soileh Padilla Mayer, whose diplomatic career brought her to Kansas City in 2022, existing murals throughout downtown Kansas City inspired the consulate’s mural program. The Cónsul established the program in 2023 so the artwork would remain in place. Murals by Pedro Trueba, Vicente Medellín, Mauricio Zúñiga, Liz Vargas and Giselle Garza grace office walls. Trueba’s vibrant triptych mural in the Cónsul’s office illustrates the iconic Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City and similar buildings in Mexico.
“They are in conversation with each other,” said Padilla Mayer.
Another five commissioned mural projects are planned for completion by fall 2026. Once finished, the consulate will host a public event in September 2026 on Mexican Independence Day to showcase 11 murals reflecting the richness of Mexican culture. The consulate’s upper floor also features a gallery of rotating work by Mexican artists.
Art has its place here, even in a government building that conducts official services.
“The consulate is a place for people to come for birth certificates, passports and visas. It is a government place to go,” said Padilla Mayer. “We want it to also be a place people can go for art and cultural activities. We want to bring all people, not just Mexicans, from across the continent here to our gallery, where different conversations take place.” For more information, www.hugosalido.com.
