[ambient music] [suspenseful music] [object dragging] [light music] - I was named Alejandro Rubio by my mother, Guy Rubio.

And I grew up in the West Side of San Antonio in the Mirasol housing projects.

Living across the street from my cousins and my tías , my aunts, I learned the value of community.

In most of my early works, I depict community members, my friends, my neighbors, my cousins.

In early drawings to this day reminds me of a very difficult and sometimes violent past.

[light music continues] I believe art saves lives, and my life was saved by images of my neighborhood and my family.

[children singing indistinctly] These characters were real.

They were part of my life.

And life was what I was celebrating through the work.

[light music continues] [traffic humming] [birds singing] [poignant music] The most painful memory at this time back in 1987 was an incident that happened at the housing projects on December 25th, Christmas Eve.

Right over there is where I got shot Christmas Eve, 1987.

[gunshot ringing] I felt my energy falling away from my body.

I thought of my mother and my family and how hurt she would be to lose her only son.

I felt regret for not living to my full potential, and I asked her for forgiveness.

I fought for every breath, but it seems the universe was not done with me.

[vocalist humming] [vocalist continues humming] [enchanting guitar music] The Lechuza was an image that I had grown up with all my life.

Stories from my mother saying, "There's a Lechuza in the tree, so you have to be very careful.

Beware."

And yet sometimes I didn't heed those warnings, not until one day that I saw and felt a Lechuza for myself.

Her symbol creates dread and fear in a lot of my family and my friends, but I feel that her story should bring a message of hope, "for you have been warned," my mother would say, "and now you have the opportunity to change your directions in your life because you heard that Lechuza in the tree, and you felt that there should be a change in your direction."

[gentle guitar music] I sketch constantly.

I want to document this life.

And these histories have to be told, documented, and preserved.

Now that I'm older, I feel it's important for me to share my experience with young students so they too can know the power of art.

[gentle guitar music continues] And I hope that my work will inspire them to continue.

I'm honoring my grandfather and my mother.

Their stories live on in my work, as one day I hope to leave a legend and a legacy of La Familia Rubio for San Antonio.

[gentle guitar music continues] [gentle guitar music continues]