Para leer este artículo en español, haga clic aquí.
As she looked up at the larger-than-life image of her father displayed in a brightly colored mural on Jefferson Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts, Maria González teared up.
"When I first saw it, I thought — I didn't appreciate none of what he did for the culture," she said. "I just thought, 'okay, dad's just getting dressed and going to his music thing, you know?' But now seeing this, I'm so proud of him."
The mural, created by artist Vincent Ballentine for Common Wealth Murals, features Miguel "Pico de Oro" González, a troubadour born in Cidra Puerto Rico, but who lived in Springfield most of his adult life and raised two children with his wife Dolores González. She died in 2012. He died on his birthday in 2020. They were married for 50 years.
"Mom worked hard getting his clothes ready for all of his events. My mom was so beautiful," González said.
Britt Ruhe, director of Common Wealth Murals, which has collaborated on projects across the city and the region, said community members brainstormed ideas about what mural they would like to see in the city's North End.
"The idea to have a mural that honors Miguel González and his contributions to the neighborhood came from a community listening session," she said.
Ward 1 City Councilor Maria Pérez initiated the community listening session. She knew González for many years due to a partnership he had with Perez's late husband Freddy Moreno.
"Together they created the group 'En Punto de Plena,' which highlighted bomba y plena and other musica jibara, from the mountains of Puerto Rico," Pérez said. "They both strongly believed in preserving the cultural traditions of Puerto Rico and teaching it to younger generations."
Tasked with painting González' image, artist Vincent Ballentine, took to Google.
"I found a lot from YouTube of him [performing]... and as far as his portrait is concerned, it's like a mixture of about three different photographs and images of him," he said.
There are also images of his musicians on the bottom right corner of the mural. Several men in different gradients of purple playing various instruments.
"Adding his musicians kind of really dials in like, ok, well, he was "El Pico de Oro,' but he performed with them," he said. "One of them stopped by and he was delighted to see himself in the mural, so it made it an amazing experience for me too."
A mural reveal was held on Saturday so that González's children, grandchildren and sisters could see it. Musicians played some of his favorite pieces and local leaders shared experiences of working with him.
State Rep. Carlos González, D- Springfield, said he was honored to work with González and his band "Asi Canta La Montaña" every holiday for 8 years for the community parrandón navideño, an annual celebration of Puerto Rican traditions between Christmas and New Year's held in the city.
"He was not just a fantastic musician, but he also was a great gardener and grew flowers and vegetables and even a flamboyan, which no one else could keep alive here in this climate, but he did," he said, referring to a tree with vibrant red flowers that is used in a lot of Puerto Rican imagery and can be seen in the mural as well.
Before the celebration began Maria González and her brother took a moment to look at the mural and take in the magnitude of what their dad meant to them.
"I was a daddy's girl. I'm still a daddy's girl. I was spoiled. I was his baby and he was the best father," she said.
González said she still has all of the songs he wrote and will treasure them for a lifetime.
"I saved them because I said, this is special. He wrote from his heart. And now I see that. I didn't see that before," she said. "To me he was just my dad, always going to play somewhere, always singing and performing. But now I understand he wanted to preserve that culture, not just for me and my brother and our family, but for the neighborhood, for the future generations. "
