The Late Vocalist And Percussionist Player Cecilio Jóse Negrón Jr. To Be Featured In Mural At The Art Intersection Outdoor Gallery In Milwaukee's Near West Side Neighborhood

Mural showing Negrón Jr. playing the congas will be among 10 canvass art murals to be displayed next week at the Art Intersection Outdoor Gallery, and 6 additional murals will be added at a later date at the outdoor gallery.

By H. Nelson Goodson 

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

June 3, 2026

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - On Wednesday, Derrick Cainion, the Founder and curator for the Art Intersection Outdoor MKE organization confirmed to Hispanic News Network U.S.A. (HNNUSA) that next week, at least 10 art mural canvases (painted in polytab mural cloths) will be installed at the Art Intersection Outdoor Gallery located at N. 35 Street and W. Vliet Street in the Near West Side neighborhood in Milwaukee. One of those canvas murals will include the late vocalist, conga and percussionist player Cecilio Jóse Negrón Jr., 47, who past away in May 2023. According to the Milwaukee Medical Examiner's Office report, Negrón Jr. died of natural causes citing cause of death "Acute Mayocardial Infarct" due to acute coronary artery thrombus and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Negrón Jr. was well known for his love of drums, Latin Jazz and Salsa music. He was the charismatic co-founder percussionist/vocalist for the band De La Buena and on occassion played the Guiro (serrated gourd and played by scraping a stick along its surface) and Bongos (one of a pair of small tuned drums, played by beating with the fingers) along side with his father Cecilio J. Negrón, 73, at local events, who is also a well known local percussionist with the band Caché MKE.

Also in the Negrón Jr. canvas mural, other Latinos and Latinas will be featured by artist Rozalia Hernández-Singh.

A remembrance gathering for Negrón Jr. is scheduled for June 17, 2026 at 3542 W. Vliet Street from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Art Intersection Outdoor Gallery in Milwaukee.

Vacant Dr. Filiberto And Carmen Murguia School Campus Building In The Southside Demolished

The Dr. Filiberto and Carmen Murguia vacant school campus has been demolished at the 1600 S. 36 Street, according to City of Milwaukee records.

By H. Nelson Goodson 

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

June 1, 2026

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - According to City of Milwaukee property assessment records, the vacant Dr. Filiberto and Carmen Murguia Campus (previously a charter school) property was bought by the United Community Center (UCC) in 2023 for $1,300,000, and in March of 2026, both the UCC and D&H Demolition applied for a permit to raze the school and day care vacant building. It has taken at least 3 months to completely demolished the condemned building.

The UCC has not announced any major development project for the property at the 1600 block of S. 36 Street (formerly the Dr. Filiberto and Carmen Murguia Campus) in the Southside.

The campus building had previous owners, in 2010, the Centro Hispano (Council for the Spanish Speaking Inc. - also known as the Spanish Center) renamed the school building as the Filiberto and Carmen Murguia Campus after its former Director Filiberto Murguia, 78, retired. (HNNUSA article link: http://hispanicnewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2010/10/spanish-center-renames-high-school.html)

In 2003, when Dr. Murguia retired from the Centro Hispano, he left a $5,000,000 operating budget. But by 2015 to 2017, when Toni Rivera-Joachin was the executive director, the Centro Hispano lost several major federal funding sources, which led to laying off more than 88 employees, which the Centro Hispano would never recover and it eventually closed operations. (HNNUSA article link: http://hispanicnewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-dr-filiberto-carmen-murguia-campus.html)

Another unfortunate situation where a community as a whole allows a non-profit organization to eventually cease to exist and the loss of community services become a thing of the past, which tragically affects the community it served.

The end of the Dr. Filiberto and Carmen Murguia legacy was inevitable due to those that followed failed to maintain federal funding sources to keep the Centro Hispano and its services afloat.

Sign of the times!