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Armando Minjarez

Address: 1000 W. Patterson Ave
Ulysses, KS 67880

About this Exploration:

         The mural at Grant County Civic Center crafted by Armando

Sometimes you see his work around Grant County, and sometimes you don’t.

 

Armando Minjarez is a 2005 Ulysses High School graduate and prolific artist. His works include two of the header images on this website, one mural depicting Grant County’s industries and another mural displaying Ulysses’ 2009 Centennial on the side of country barn.

 

Armando’s world as he knew it flipped upside down and around when he started his sophomore year at Ulysses High School coming from Mexico. All he knew and all he had was his mother and brothers. With the requirement to adjust to a new school, new people, and new community, he also had to maneuver in a new culture: small town culture, American culture. Armando says it was the hardest time of his life.

 

It was hard making friends across the language barrier and pushing into hard and fast high school cliques. Unlike anything else he was receiving from his peers, art was the thing he could do without needing approval from anyone else.

 

As he always had, he flourished in this area. Along with art, he began forming relationships with his teachers who mentored him in his abilities and fostered his skills. His art, English, choir and math teachers were sources of strong support for Armando.

 

After high school, Armando was awarded an art scholarship to a local junior college. While there, he became involved with a grassroots leadership organization that focuses on making local social change. Armando found great success in this organization and after graduating with his associate’s degree, Armando became a community organizer for Sunflower Community Action. His main goal was to begin a Southwest Kansas Chapter for the sake of keeping decision-makers accountable in their local community. After 2½ years of dedication, Armando and his team accomplished established the chapter.  

 

During this time, he also was the National Youth Chair for the GI Forum and mentored by a Ulysses couple in this role.

 

Currently, Armando is pursuing a Bachelor’s of Art from K-State and afterwards, wants to attend architecture school in New York City to study Sustainable Living.

 

Armando says this about his time in Ulysses: “I can only hope that the work I have done in Ulysses, whether it was a mural, a recital or a new chapter for social change, will bring the citizens of Ulysses closer together into a new era of enlightenment and peaceful living.”

 

Armando is proof of how the people of Ulysses can cultivate and prepare a life of care and change.