Click here to read the official Moo-cho Caliente Press Release
Moo-cho Calientewas one of many colorful CowParade displays found throughout San Antonio during 2002. Created by Elias San Miguel, Moo-cho Calientewas sponsored by Rob and Mary Ann Flatley, owners of the two prominent San Antonio restaurants Le Peep Café located on Blanco Road and on Stone Oak Parkway.
Moo-cho Caliente was displayed at their Blanco Road location during the CowParade exhibition.
Afterwards, Moo-cho Caliente became part of an auction which supported the American Cancer Society. It was purchased by Tino and Millie Duran of "La Prensa" Newspaper, who donated it to "Any Baby Can" in San Antonio. Today it is proudly displayed in their office at 217 Howard Street.
"I was very anxious to get Moo-cho Caliente. I carefully loaded the cow sculpture on my truck. People would honk their horns as we drove home with it."
"Since my studio was upstairs, I couldn’t mooooooove Moo-cho Caliente up the stairs so I painted in my living room. After sculpting the chili peppers horns out of fiberglass, I gave it a good coat of gesso before starting to paint. I was excited about painting the different and vibrant colors of the large variety of chili peppers. My hand was getting hot! (ha-ha)."
"By this time I had painted about 100 chili peppers and was almost ready to start painting the serape and the Alamo. The goal was to make Moo-cho Caliente look “HOT” for San Antonio ."
“Designed especially for CowParade San Antonio, my chili pepper design is entitled “Moo-cho Caliente”. It is a celebration of dancing color with reds, greens, oranges, yellows and purples, the colors of Mexico. The strong colors are vibrant, full of laughter and life and are my favorite colors on my palette. I added a serape to represent San Antonio ’s colorful festivals with the Alamo design on it, focusing on the spirit of our historic Alamo city. The cow’s horns are sculpted and painted as chili peppers, the ears are painted as leaves and the head is painted guacamole green progressing to a dark color for strong value contrasts and intensity.”
