- Welcome back everybody.
You may remember that last month I went back
to my home state of Texas to meet artists
doing something truly extraordinary.
They're honoring all 19 fourth graders
and the two teachers gunned down
in Uvalde by creating individual murals of each victim.
While we were there, I came across another artist
we didn't get a chance to introduce you to.
So everybody meet, Tino Ortega.
(soft music)
Hi.
- Hi, how are you doing?
- You are doing an incredible job.
- Thank you, thank you.
- I'm Kelly. - I'm Tino.
- Tino, nice to see you.
- You're doing Jose?
- Yes.
- How did you get affiliated with this?
- Unica, the one that put all this together.
She recruited 21 artists all throughout Texas.
- Yeah.
- And so people from like San Antonio, Austin, Dallas.
- Corpus Christi I heard, yeah.
- Yeah.
- All over the place. - And then me from El Paso.
- But that's Texas, we all stick together. That's amazing.
So wait, so he played baseball then, right?
- Yeah, he loved baseball.
His coach told me he wasn't the best player,
but he had like that drive
- All team spirit. - Yeah.
- I love that all of the artists
like really paid attention to who they were.
- Yeah.
- And that's what brought it to life.
- Yeah.
- That's so important.
- The parents were here yesterday
and for me it's been really important
that the parents are a part of the mural process as well.
So this way they can be incorporated
into something positive throughout all this.
- Oh my God, this smile.
You have like perfected his smile.
Oh my gosh
- Thank you.
- It's like you feel like you know him from that smile.
That's a beautiful smile.
- Yeah.
- What a beautiful thing to help a family
memorialize their boy like this.
- Yeah.
- I'm just glad to be a part of it.
- Do you have children?
- Yeah, I have a daughter.
- You have a daughter? - Yeah.
And she's about the same age as all these kids as well.
- I have a daughter that's eight too.
How did you, I mean, to do this for someone
is so amazing, but like having a kid this age.
- Yeah, makes it. - That's tough.
- That's, whoo.
That's amazing.
Is this your first mural or did you?
- This is my second one.
- Who is the other child that you did?
- Jailah.
The family helped me paint it as well.
And you can see their signature right here.
- Yeah.
- So they were all involved in part of,
hopefully something positive out of all of this.
- Oh, what a change would be the thing.
So it's not in vain.
- Yeah.
- It's just a really, really special thing
you're doing for them.
'Cause you know, they could go visit grave sites
or they could come here.
And I hear a lot of the families are actually
coming here.
To see their beautiful little one
lit up like this.
I think they're cousins, aren't they?
- Yes, so they were actually cousins and their heads,
the way they're kind of tilted towards each other.
And their body stance, it kind of creates a heart.
So just to see like the two cousins just,
just create this sign of love.
- That's a lot of loss for one family.
- Yeah.
- Back in 2019, we had that mass shooting
in the Walmart in El Paso.
And from that instance I started doing
a similar project like this.
It wasn't with portraits, but it was the idea
of having 23 murals all throughout El Paso
just to kind of unify.
- So this isn't even your first.
That's a shame.
- No, it's not my first time doing this.
- Wow.
- I'm just glad to see so many people come out
and be involved and donate their time and their materials
and just be part of something positive here.
- Wouldn't it be beautiful
to never have to have another mural?
- Yeah.
- For this purpose.
Our hearts continue to go out to each
and every person impacted by the horrific tragedy in Uvalde.
If you wanna help consider supporting the Uvalde
CISD Moving Forward Foundation,
which is working to help build a brand new school
in Uvalde for those kids.
To donate use the QR code on your screen right now
or check out kellyclarksonshow.com for more information.