First Fridays

At Café Corazón, we embrace community and creativity. Join us every First Friday at Café Corazón Crossroads from Spring through Fall to discover unique local vendors showcasing their goods.

Gallery Showings

Our La Galeria backroom is a canvas for local artists, with free exhibition opportunities every two months—simply email us to secure your spot and be part of our thriving artistic community.

Our Artists

 Our Paintings

dulcinea herrera

Each painting at Café Corazón represents various Latinx figures who have contributed to Latinx culture through social justice, art, and politics. Each individual on our walls comes from a different Latin American country or has Latinx lineage. We want to showcase that Latinx people come from various backgrounds and that we stand with their adversity.

About

New Mexico native and Kansas City-based artist, Dulcinea Herrera started painting and digital design at the age of fourteen. Due to Dulcinea Argentinian, Mexican, and Mescalero Apache heritage she engages in visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, and majestic women of color. She also ranges from abstract art, paintings still lives, website design, and digital design.

Our Murals

Rodrigo Alvarez and Isaac Tapia


Mujer- Café Corazón Westport

This mural is an homage to the beauty, color, and the arresting passion of Latinx culture. It stands for the strength of the people from all the different Latin countries that have found their way to Kansas City and made it home. It represents the heart of the Latin culture that beats on no matter where it finds itself. It is a celebration of community.

The images in our mural from left to right:

The turquoise foreground is the skyline of Kansas City, the dark blue skyline behind it is Mexico City. The flowers around Frida Khalo are from left to right: The Ceibo Flower which is the national flower of Argentina and Uruguay. Above that is the Cattleya Orchid which is the national flower of Brazil. Behind Frida’s head is the Blue Passion Flower, the national flower of Paraguay. The large flower to her right is the Dahlia which is Mexico’s national flower. The skyline in dark blue in the right foreground is Buenos Aires and the turquoise skyline behind it is that of Asunción.

Raíces-Café Corazón Crossroads

This work honors the indigenous roots of coffee, yerba mate, and blue corn. The mural reminds viewers that these plants are gifts from Indigenous populations and their origins should never be forgotten. The woman centered on the mural is protecting these gifts, with much caution.  Indigenous cultures have always centered on sharing and community, but it is those values and kindness that colonizers throughout the years have exploited and broken a sense of trust. She reminds us, you can look, but you can’t touch; you can taste, but you can’t take. The gaze is a powerful reclamation tool, carefully looking over everyone that walks in and around her space. 

Café Corazón features these three items, yerba mate, coffee and corn as a representation of where our raíces come from on the mural. Corn has come to symbolize life, abundance, and sustenance for many indigenous groups across mesoamerica. The corn on the mural is a blue corn, just like the pinole/ Tarahumara maiz azul that Café Corazón uses.  Yerba mate is also special to South America as it has prevailed colonization as one of the drinks originally consumed by the Guarani community. The coffee and mate beans can be hard to distinguish, but if you look closely, the mate beans have leaves attached to them, while the coffee bean plants don’t. Behind the woman’s head is an Aztec calendar, which represents the passage of time, eternity, and continuity. The vibrant blue background invokes joy and welcoming warmth, while simultaneously being a part of the “tree” that is formed through the roots into the leaves. If you walk down the coffee bar, you’ll see that even there, there are leaves floating away from the tree, pedacitos del árbol, messengers of the rich history and culture that they come from– their raíces. 

The mural is an homage to the divinity found in reconnecting with nature and your cultural roots. A fusion of the past and present,  a Latin culture that beats no matter where it finds itself, a celebration of community; that is what Raices represents.

About

IT-RA Icons is a collaboration of Kansas City Muralist Isaac Tapia and Rodrigo Alvarez. The Duo began working together in the summer of 2017 and since then, they have painted  over 30 Murals in the KC metro area. Their diverse body of work is united by vibrant colors, evolving designs, and themes that celebrate their communities and honor their identities as artists who migrated to the US at a very young age.

"We paint to celebrate our communities and honor the sacrifices of our families. Our murals combine brilliant colors and fantastical imagery to portray the importance of diversity and highlight everyone’s potential. with our art, we seek to help others recognize their ability to overcome any obstacle put in front of them; regardless of who they are, where they come from, and what language they speak."

ISAAC TAPIA was born in Mexico, where he lived until moving to the U.S. when he was 9. He graduated from Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts in 2010 and studied at the Kansas City Art Institute. In his solo artwork, Isaac focuses on portraits that celebrate important members of his community. He paints primarily with oils but also enjoys watercolors and drawing. Aside from the aforementioned interest in portraits, he also enjoys painting landscapes on occasions.

RODRIGO "RICO" ALVAREZ was born in Rivera, Uruguay in 1988 and moved to Kansas City in October of 2002. He graduated from the Paseo Academy Of Fine and Performing Arts in May of 2007 and studied graphic design at Metropolitan Community College. In his solo artwork, Rodrigo explores the persistence and relentless force of Mother Earth by fusing organic figures into metal sculptures. By bending, melting, and bracing commonly used metals into harmonic organisms he hopes to portray the balance, power and adaptability of nature.

Contact: ITRAICONS@gmail.com

website: ITRAICONS.COM

Instagram: @itraicons

facebook: FACEBOOK.COM/ITRAKC