With local food trucks, the Musa art gallery and Cultura Beer Garden offering their clientel a unique Laredo experience, the Pan American Courts is known for its hotel and cafe built in 1964.
It’s also known as an outdoor venue for local artists and musicians to host entertainment events, such as the monthly midtown block parties where you can find local merchants who offer products along with food truck owners and DJs.
On Sept. 16, the Pan American Courts, 3301 San Bernardo, hosted Noche de Fiesta in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, featuring local band Man Crush Monday. The band consists of Carlos Canseco and Curley Castillo.
“[We do this because] this is who we are, these are our roots,” Canseco said. “At the end of the day, we are Laredoans so we do it the way we like to do it with a little bit of what everyone else wants and we come up with creative ways on making it more than what Laredo has already. [The reason we play these songs is] to define our essence together.”
The band was introduced by friends Val and Chris, from Caffe Dolce, and have been performing there since late June. They currently play every other Thursday. Canseco said they enjoy playing rock, pop and contemporary music plus are currently working on bringing Spanish music to their audiences.
He also said they post updates and events on their website ManCrushMonday.com. Lately, the band has been working on releasing their first music video and creating original music.
Along with playing at local venues, Man Crush Monday spends time at Perfect Timing Studio, locally owned by Castillo. Canseco said they host events there to bring out local students to play.
“We have a recording studio where we focus on artist development, mastering, private lessons and we will soon be bringing summer classes,” he said.
Along with the beer garden, food trucks and other events hosted at the courts, co-owners Pancho Santos and Jorge López bring to Laredo their art gallery MUSA . The gallery is located behind Cultura Beer Garden.
“My friend Jorge and I started this space solely to expose our community to contemporary art happening around the state and across our border,” Santos said. “It’s an artist-run, non-traditional, non-commercial space that functions outside the confines of the gallery system. In a nutshell, it will provide contemporary artists a place to be experimental and free in their practice without limitations or without imposing community standards. We hope to show conceptual art, performance art, video installations, light installations, new media, contemporary paintings/sculpture, etc.”
For many patrons of the Pan American Courts, they come for the variety of entertainment.
“I like going because they have a really good collection of beer, the ambiance is really relaxing, the food offered is very good and they always have a good selection of live music,” local Sandy Dávila said.
Pan American Courts shares all events on social media, such as Facebook, where you can be notified of all latest events.
