This Cali-raised artist is building a community of Latinx creatives in Memphis

For the last month, Francisco Flores had been on a search for pupusas, circular flatbreads stuffed with your choice of meat, cheese or veggies. He hoped to secure a vendor that sells El Salvador's national dish for his first Por Vida Fest.

The festival on Sept. 24 at Neighborhood Print Co. was in honor of his cousin Justin Flores, who was robbed and killed in Memphis in November. He hopes to encapsulate all the things he and his cousin loved: hip hop, art, pupusas and being Latino.

Flores, 33, is a Salvadoran graphic designer and graffiti artist blending the Chicanx subcultural art forms with Memphis pride and curating a community of young Latinx artists.

"This is going to be a celebration of life and a celebration of Hispanic heritage and culture," he said about the festival. More than 100 people attended the event for an evening of art, food, music and remembrance.

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Finding community in Memphis

In search of a lower cost of living, Flores and his family moved from the suburbs of Los Angeles to the Memphis area in 2007. He settled into Memphis just fine, but he knew finding an artistic community like the one he had back home would take more work.

Raised in San Fernando Valley, an area that's 42% Hispanic, Flores' work became the product of the Chicanx graffiti art scene. Elements of style he thought were universal, however, he quickly learned were regional. As far as he knew, styles like the Olde English letters adopted by Latinx youth subcultures in Southern California were a lot harder to come by in Memphis.

"My work really is inspired by Hispanic and Latin culture, aiming towards the Latin culture," he said. "I do a lot of big line work, a lot of big lettering, typography. And I like to make the stuff that I grew up with that were around this household that I saw illustrated. I'll use them with my own little style."

Soon, Flores came to realize that there wasn't a shortage of Latinx art in the city: the manifestations of rasquachismo — Chicanx cultural expressions made using materials at hand — just looked different than what he remembers growing up.

"I definitely did see a couple of murals here in town that were more like fine art. There were a couple of spots out on Winchester that had like, like restaurants or the mercadito with a mural along the side. And that was like more traditional art," he said.

He points to other Latinx graffiti artists such as Sombie, whom he met while working on his "Nuevo Cero Uno" Paint Memphis-commissioned mural near Carolina Watershed.

"I kind of wanted to have a little bit of Spanish in the mix. You always see the 901 around, but no one really does it in Spanish," he said. "Because Spanish heritage, man, we need to keep that alive around here. It's starting to pop off, so I think it's important to just do more of this stuff around here. We need more. There's a lot of good Spanish-speaking artists around here that need to have the spotlight."

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Collaborating with Memphis artists

While fashioning his niche in a new city, Flores found new opportunities to collaborate with local artists, which pushed him to formalize his work.

"I met a couple of the locals that were into the graffiti scene as well as the hip hop scene, and I started connecting with photographers and artists around here," he said. "I started getting a little bit more serious about the graphic design world."

In pursuit of an education and career in art, Flores moved to Nashville and graduated from The Arts Institute of Tennessee with a degree in graphic design in 2015.

While Flores works in construction, he hopes to pursue art full time in the near future.

Connecting with Memphis artists has allowed him to blend inherently Californian aesthetics with the pride of his new home. Upon the birth of his child and return to Memphis, Flores began a creative partnership with photographer Hugo Lopez. As the two grew in their artistic abilities, they decided to turn their talent into a collaborative project, launching Mala Leche.

"Mala leche" translates to spoiled milk or, more figuratively, "bad seed." With a widely negative connotation, they chose the name for his design brand to signify the desire to stand out and influence others. For the pair, "mala leche" was about forging a path contradictory to their parents' and societal expectations.

"I was definitely not going to be a doctor, not going to be a dentist like my mom wanted me to," Flores said. "I knew that I had to be an artist. I knew it no matter what my mom said, even if it caused disappointment."

As the child of an immigrant, the privilege of being able to create is not lost on him. He notes that oftentimes first-generation Americans feel an immense pressure to achieve a standard set forth by their families.

"I was raised here. It's easy for me to get to where I'm at. It wasn't easy for my mom," he said. "My mom was born and raised in a clay shack in the middle of the jungle in El Salvador. For her to live in a two-story house and in Bartlett is insane for her."

As the brand grew, Flores began to produce work under the moniker "Mala Leche."

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Por Vida and beyond

With a background in skateboarding, Flores also started a skate lifestyle brand, Blossom Creative Co., which launched at Por Vida Fest.

With younger artists of color, Flores sees a similar willingness to break the mold. He also hoped to accomplish that with the festival. The event hosted eight Latinx vendors including Lemonaide, Shira Mae Studios, Noventa Minutos, a Mala Vibraz '90s-style photo booth and three barbers giving haircuts on the spot.

"I noticed that the talent is there. A lot of these barbers are, they're chopping up amazing stuff, and they're not spotlighted the way they need to. Just creating a platform [for young artists] is a big thing," Flores said.

Cinthia Serna, founder of Lemonaide and Flores' family friend, was a vendor at Por Vida Fest. Since she started selling custom resin accessories in 2020, Flores has helped her move from an online business to booths and festivals.

While attending an Art Bazaar event where Flores typically has a booth selling stickers, shirts and other Mala Leche branded items, Serna was inspired to grow her business.

"That's when he was just talking to me a little bit about my art and wanting to do a possible collab in the future, and I was really excited about that," she said. "And he just really gave me that encouragement. He said, 'You know, it looks hard but it really isn't.'"

Serna said that Flores introducing her to David Yancy III, the local artist behind Art Bazaar, made any anxiety she had about scaling her business "so much easier from there on out just because he really allowed me to kind of explore it."

Serna said she's glad that the event was a bilingual affair for people of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy in Memphis.

"My mom has never gone to any events of mine. I think it's really more of she's just a little bit afraid to be around a lot of people, especially with the language barrier. So this event was the first one that she actually attended, and I felt so happy because I could tell she was so comfortable," she said. "That's the hope that I have for Memphis, honestly, is just through art or whatever other proactive or productive methods that we can, to get people to come out and do stuff. That's when I really hope for just to have a place where anyone from anywhere can come together. Especially the Hispanic community."

The event also featured live musical performances from local Memphis artists and DJs. The food, after much deliberation to find a vendor, was a family affair with his mom's pupusas and family friends' frutas preparadas, agua frescas and tamales.

The Latinx community Flores was brought up around is starkly different than the one in Memphis, but that's precisely what motivates him to bridge and blend his experiences.

Flores said since having his son, he's seen his work as a way to cement Latinx culture in Memphis for future generations.

"Coming from LA alone is so different, so combining those two is my thing. Just having that feel of both cultures is important for me to keep alive," he said. "Not just for me — for my kid."

Flores plans to continue to hold more community-building events, like Por Vida Fest and skate sessions with Bloom Blossom Co.

"You just got to do the best you can with what you got, and I believe that we're on the right track. Honestly, I believe that the arts are getting there, and the Hispanic culture is getting bigger, so it's inevitable. I think it's going to happen and I'm very, very happy to be part of this," he said. "This art movement, this, whatever it is, that's happening with Memphis and the Hispanics, it's moving. Something's happening. So I just feel like my kid is probably gonna grow up being an artist, hopefully in this community."

Astrid Kayembe covers South Memphis, Whitehaven and Westwood. She can be reached at astrid.kayembe@commercialappeal.com, (901) 304-7929 or on Twitter @astridkayembe_.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis arts: Francisco Flores, Mala Leche put focus on Latinx artists