With a new mural on a closed Avenue B liquor store’s roll-down gate, legendary Loisaida graffiti muralist Antonio Garcia, a.k.a. Chico, recently paid his respects to the woman who made so many of his memorial murals possible. The owner of the liquor store at the northwest corner of Houston St. and Avenue B, she let him use the property’s Houston St. wall over the years to paint murals honoring everyone from singer Celia Cruz to Pope John Paul II. Chico always knew her just as “Mom.” She was a hard-working woman, and generously gave credit to customers, he said. Chico moved to Tampa last year, but returns to the neighborhood occasionally to do commissioned mural work.
