Upload in Progress - interviews should be uploaded by the end of July 2026
Rotulistas, literally Spanish for “sign painters,” are some of the most ubiquitous and thus important artists in modern southwest history, yet their accomplishments and legacy have hardly been charted. El Paso is unique in the United States in terms of the continued prevalence of hand-done signage. Despite the availability of a more predictable, “cleaner-looking” computer-made, vinyl signage solution, rotulistas here continue to have clients in an industry that has become almost entirely digitized elsewhere. It is easy to find extensive swaths of El Paso shops in areas like the Segundo Barrio, along Alameda Avenue, and when driving out to Montana Vista, all with hand-painted signage. Sometimes wonky, sometimes exquisite, always a decidedly human breath of fresh air, rotulistas of varying skill level provide bright, reasonably-priced signage for everything from "fix flats” auto garages to wheeled popsicle carts. Not only that, the artform is being embraced by a new generation that assigns high value to an anti-corporate, handmade aesthetic (Zohran Mamdani’s 2025 campaign design was no accident). El Paso’s hand done lettering is also attributed to the border city’s proximity to Mexico—Not just geographically, but also culturally. Mexican talleres de rotulistas, or sign painting workshop/studios are a common site throughout that country.
These oral history interviews with El Paso rotulistas include information about the tools of the trade: estuches filled with1-Shot Paint, punchers, perforators, chalk dust bags (aka “muñecas"), and squirrel-hair quills; instruction on techniques; using projectors, and feature anecdotes interspersed throughout by practitioners—from both retired “old timers” who worked in the 1960s thru 1990s (the pre-computer age), and from “Legacy” rotulistas, the new generation of El Paseñxs. The latter market their talents on Instagram and hold rotulista workshops as well as drink-and-draw workshop events. Rotulistas: Sign Painters of El Paso is a three-part project by Anne M. Giangiulio, UTEP Professor of Graphic Design, that begins with this repository of sign painter stories, in their own words, through UTEP’s Institute of Oral History. It will become an exhibit at the El Paso Museum of History that will begin in July, 2026, and finally, all culminate in a book by the same name. Rotulistas: Sign Painters of El Paso will be published by UTEP Press in 2027.