Episode 123 – Mark Beltran – El Honcho

Today I had the pleasure of talking to a local artist who has had a successful career as an illustrator/designer, my guest for episode 123 was the talented Mark Beltran aka El Honcho.  Mark grew up in the Imperial Valley, mainly in El Centro.  After stumbling on a copy of Photoshop, Mark started playing around with it.  Most of his crew growing up were musicians and he wasn’t that good at playing instruments, so to feel a little more useful to his friends he decided he would make flyers and even start a website to help his friends promote some of their gigs.  After a while Daniel from Bujwah noticed some of his work and he asked Mark if he was willing to help him out with a couple of things at Bujwah, and this is when he first thought he could make designing a career.  Here is where he also found other artists who had made design as a career, people like Ernesto Yerena.  Mark eventually decided to move out of the Valley because at that time he felt that if he wanted to make this a career he had to move to a big city.  He’s had the opportunity to work for companies like Lyft, Men’s Wearhouse and Action Bronson.  One of his biggest and my favorite project he worked on was for Listos California, he was contacted so he could work on a project for the Imperial Valley to help promote safety during the pandemic.  In order to reach to hispanics who might not speak Spanish he created the informational posters as if it was a loteria card.  This project was only meant to be shown in the Imperial Valley, but due to its success it was run all over California.  Don’t forget to follow Mark on his Instagram page and check out his website to learn more about some of his projects.  You can now listen to episode 121 with Victor Shamu Navarro on Anchor, Spotify, Google Podcast and Apple Podcast.  You can also watch this and other episodes on our YouTube Channel.  Huge thanks to my Anchor Sponsors Camilo Garcia, Jake, Dents on Border, Castillo Bookkeeping, Sergio’s Tacos and Hotdogs and David Gastelum.

Picture courtesy of Mark Beltran

Listen to Que Pasa Calexico Podcast!! Find all episodes on AnchorSpotifyGoogle Podcast, and Apple Podcast. You may also watch this and all my episodes of Que Pasa Calexico!! on my YouTube Channel.

This episode is sponsored by Anchor: The easiest way to Make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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