Al Rendón
San Antonio Tejano cultural photographer (career from the 1970s onward). Documented in the H&H corpus through the Mi Tierra Café / Cortez family 75th-anniversary materials and the Witte Museum’s 2023–2024 retrospective — not as an H&H employee.
H&H-relevant thread
- September 2016 — Nuestra Cultura · 75 Años Cortez-family anniversary at Mi Tierra Café. The painted portrait of Pedro and Cruz Cortez in front of the storefront (with the Master Chef Coffee wall sign visible) appears in Edible San Antonio Issue 18 and on anniversary lanyard press passes attributed to Rendón’s photography.
- 2023–2024 — Witte Museum exhibit Mi Cultura — Bringing Shadows Into the Light: The Photography of Al Rendón (2 September 2023 – 27 May 2024) displayed Rendón’s working press pass from that 2016 celebration (HH-REF-2024-0001) among his career press passes and cameras.
Rendón’s broader work (Selena portraits, charreada, concert photography) is outside the H&H scope except where it documents Master Chef signage in Cortez-family iconography.
Open questions
- Painter vs. photographer — the sepia Cortez portrait may be Rendón’s photograph of another artist’s painting, or his own stylized treatment; painting credit TBD.
- Master Chef sign color — the 2016 artwork renders the sign green while 1950s B&W storefront photos show the standard MASTER CHEF COFFEE sign; see Master Chef Coffee § Open questions.
See also
- Witte Museum — 2023–2024 retrospective venue
- Mi Tierra Café — documented Master Chef customer
- HH-LIB-2016-0001 — Edible San Antonio Issue 18 — 2016 Cortez portrait publication
- HH-REF-2024-0001 — 2016 lanyard pass at Witte — Rendón press pass on exhibit
- Cortez Family