During his 20-plus years as a customer support analyst and logistics coordinator in the auto manufacturing industry, Gabriel Treviño was unwittingly training for his dream job: first full-time production manager for the Brownsville Society for the Performing Arts.
About the time he went to work for a Brownsville company making components for steering wheels to be manufactured in Mexico and shipped back to the United States, Treviño was also in the process of becoming a visual artist.
In the late 1990 the Brownsville native was studying art under the late Carlos Gomez, head of the art department for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and its previous incarnation, UT Brownsville-Texas Southmost College. Treviño had his first solo exhibition at the university around the same time he took the job with Breed Technologies (founded by the inventor of vehicle air bags) in Brownsville.
He kept painting. Treviño and Gomez became friends and started doing shows together at the Historic Brownsville Museum and local galleries. The Brownsville Latin Jazz Festival, founded by BSPA founder George Ramirez, turned out to be an important catalyst in Treviño’s artistic growth once he started showing there in 2005.
“My goodness, it blew my mind,” he said.
Treviño met artist Toni Hudson, who was already showing at the festival, and was introduced to Ramirez, who encouraged Treviño to bring his work.
“I got hooked right away,” he said. “I just wanted to be a part of it. For me the flavor of the Latin music was a big connection to what I was producing as an artist. I thought it went very well. Plus, having visuals in a festival like that made it even better I thought.”
Treviño was making a name for himself with exhibitions, including an annual show at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, and making a good living handling Chrysler steering-wheel accounts. Then in 2020, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and changes wrought by the U.S. Canada Mexico Trade Agreement, Treviño’s employer moved to Mexico and he found himself unemployed.
“This affected a lot of companies throughout the region,” he said.
Treviño was in limbo. Nobody locally was hiring in his field. When he saw BSPA was looking for someone to be its first full-time production manager, Treviño knew just the guy for the job: Gabriel Treviño.
“I just knew it,” he said. “It fit so well. I just needed to explain to them.”
Treviño closed the deal. He was offered the job on Jan. 3 went to work Jan. 15. Treviño’s office shares headquarters with KXIQ 105.1 FM in the Lone Star National Bank building on Boca Chica Boulevard. Ramirez launched the low-power, educational, non-commercial community radio station in 2017.
Treviño thinks the organizational skills he developed over two decades putting together countless art shows and events will serve him well in his new role. He’ll be in charge of keeping the station on the air, troubleshooting technical issues, and is also gearing up to air podcasts and interviews with local performing artists. KXIQ’s deeply eclectic, non-curated playlist — the product of Ramirez’s wide-ranging musical tastes — will stay as it is, he said.
“There hasn’t been any talk about touching that playlist,” Treviño said. “It is a beautiful playlist. I listen to it all day here at work. I’m blown away by the stuff it plays.”
He’ll also be in charge of maintaining BSPA’s social media platforms, updating the website, and organizing BSPA happenings. Treviño’s first big event is the Brownsville Guitar Ensemble Festival & Competition scheduled for March 25-26.
“BSPA is bringing world-class performers to Brownsville and also giving local talent the opportunity to be part of it,” he said. “That’s the beautiful thing about it.”
Treviño said he grew up in Brownsville never having seen a painting in a museum or gallery until after graduating from high school. A trip to the Smithsonian American Art Museum floored him. So now he pushes parents to take their kids to see art shows, now that they’re here to be seen at venues such as BMFA.
“Let them develop their creativity through these shows so that we can become a better community,” Treviño said. “Those are the kinds of things that enrich a community: the arts and performing arts.”
His main focus in the new job “is to make sure that the community benefits from me being here,” he said.
BSPA President Michael Quantz said having Treviño onboard as production manager is the keystone to the organization’s future. BSPA’s board did an excellent job finding resources to support the nonprofit through the pandemic, though plenty of details still need attention, he said.
“Besides the great positive attitude, business experience and technical skills Gabriel brings to our efforts, his ability to attend to our massive number of day-to-day matters lets us expand everything we do,” Quantz said. “We can connect to our community in more and better ways.”
Board members will be able to focus more on long-term resource building, and BSPA will be able to improve the world-class music events it’s known for, he said. The organization’s main sponsors, Brownsville Public Utilities Board, the city of Brownsville and Lone Star National Bank have generously supported BSPA and made it possible to hire Treviño “during a time when most performing arts organizations couldn’t even think of hiring,” Quantz said.
“We are hugely grateful to be in this position and to have Gabriel’s talents working with us on our mission,” he said.
