Behind the wheel of a library bus

Old church bus transformed by volunteers with images of immigrants, shelves of books

Artist and writer Regina Moya migrated from her home in Mexico City to San Antonio in 2003, shortly after marrying her husband, Juan Fernández. Since then, she’s become a passionate advocate for refugees and migrants in the U.S. and around the world.

That passion can be seen in her latest work, transforming the exterior of what had been a white, peeling 1995 Ford E-350 bus with north of 200,000 miles on it into a rainbow coalition of faceless refugees and migrants. The bus is now a little library on wheels that sits in the parking lot of the San Antonio Mennonite Church in King William.

“I feel strongly about how migration is being handled all over the world,” she said. “I’m a migrant myself, and I’ve met many asylum-seekers that the church has helped. They’re wonderful people.”

She named the bus La Peregrina (The Pilgrim) to reflect the church’s work caring for refugees and migrants.

Moya volunteered to take on the project, working on it from September until midOctober. Although not a congregant at the church, she and the pastor are acquaintances.

This isn’t Moya’s first work to address the plight of migrants and refugees. In 2019, she displayed a large skull covered in bright orange butterflies during the city’s Day of the Dead festival in La Villita.

The decision to keep the images of migrants faceless was deliberate. “I wanted the faces to not have eyes, noses or mouths so they represent the faceless migrants who are often on the move in search of a better life,” she said.

She also has painted plenty of monarch butterflies, which, because of their annual migration from the U.S. and Canada to California and Mexico, have become symbolic of migrants and refugees.

“Every time you hear

about migration stories they’re always so sad and so devastating,” she said. “For me, I wanted the bus to be a joyful expression of what migration could look like from all over the world.”

As she was painting the truck, people from the neighborhood would stop and ask if they or their children could help paint. Moya welcomed them in small, pandemic-safe groups, and she estimated that as many as 50 people were involved in the five-week project.

“I outlined the figures in chalk and told the kids they could choose the face color, their clothes and the backgrounds,” she said.

She also allowed the volunteers to pick one face to add their own personal touch. Her daughter Isabel, for example, painted hers with a ponytail like the one she wears. Another face wears the same kind of glasses as the painter.

One volunteer estimated he worked about 14 hours scraping, sanding and painting the bus.

Once the paint job was complete, church members converted the inside into a cozy little library by removing the seats and outfitting it with bamboo flooring, a couch, rocking chair and table, and shelving for books.

The books hew to the theme of the bus and include stories of migrants, self-help and spirituality. There’s not a Grisham in the bunch.

Anyone visiting the church plaza is welcome to peruse the books, reading there or checking them out on the honor system.

For now the bus sits in the church parking lot, which, since the pandemic began, has been turned into an outdoor community gathering place, with food trucks that serve coffee and pupusas, a flatbread from El Salvador. There also is a small stage for concerts.

The bus itself has a long history of aiding refugees. Back when immigration across the border

was surging, it was used to ferry 20 to 25 people a night from the downtown bus station to the church.

Helping immigrants, Mennonite Church pastor John Garland said, is a prime mission of the church.

“We see Christianity as a pilgrim religion,” he said. “We see ourselves as helping these pilgrims, these incredible examples of loving, self-sacrificing faith.”

With new migration policies and COVID-19 closing the border

to migrants, the bus wasn’t needed as desperately, so church members decided it was time to do something different with it.

With the outside finished, Moya said she’s thinking about removing the carpeted ceiling and painting the inside walls and ceiling.

“Maybe I’ll do a migration of butterflies,” she mused, her passion apparently not yet fully spent.

Photos by Billy Calzada / Staff photographer Artist Regina Moya migrated from Mexico to San Antonio in 2003. Since then, she has been concerned about the plight of refugees and migrants.

Isabel Fernandez, 8, sits in the cozy little library on wheels that has been outfitted with a couch, rocking chair and table, and shelving for books.

Billy Calzada / Staff photographer “La Peregrina” is a repurposed Ford E-350 bus painted by artist Regina Moya. It’s parked at the San Antonio Mennonite Church in King William.

As many as 50 people were involved in painting the bus. Some even added personal touches to the immigrant portraits.

The books in the little library on wheels hew to the its theme; migrants, self-help and spirituality are among the topics.