River Pierce Foundation 2024 Wall Calendar

Photographer Gaebril Velasco showcases historic buildings from the San Ygnacio Historic District and environs, including Los Corralitos Ranch and Rancho San Francisco. Gaebril Velasco is no stranger to intrigue. His great-great-grandfather was the Mexican dissident journalist and poet Andrés Calcáneo Díaz whose adult life was plagued with persecution by Porfirio Díaz and who is finally assassinated in 1914 in the chaotic years after the Mexican Revolution. However, his son Jose Alfonso Calcáneo, born in 1910, lives a relatively quiet life safe from political chaos and becomes a doctor servicing Webb and Zapata Counties until his death in 1991. His cousin Jose Carlos Becerra was also a celebrated Mexican poet whose work earns him a Guggenheim award to travel, but Becerra's promise is cut short in 1970 by a fatal car accident in Brindisi en route to Greece. With this heritage in hand, Velasco continues witnessing the quiet power of daily life. "First starting my career in photography within the Laredo community/sister city along the border, I do my best to act fast and never hesitate to make every frame count. For the last twenty-three years behind a lens, I have learned to capture everyday life on the streets, active demolition zones, crime scene environments, and even areas of conflict, both local and international." Recent publishings involve political issues surrounding South Texas, as well as murder trials of the state. "I am a photographer, I will take pictures of whatever I want and will never stop taking pictures until the last day of my life."