Art and Athletics: Ruben Rojas Bridges Crafts

For Ruben Rojas, art and athletics are bound by the same root: creative expression.

At least for him, an athlete-turned artist, murals and sports have a unique way of bringing people together, especially in favelas, in hoods, in low-income parts of cities.

“Before we wrote, we painted on walls, so my main medium started as murals and street art. And that’s how we spoke, right? We go back into these caves, and we some of these drawings and hieroglyphics and these stories and like, wow, what were they saying?” Rojas says on LatiNation’s Storytellers docu-series. “To me, storytelling is just being human—and sharing our truth.”

Rojas was born and raised in Los Angeles with Colombian parents.

Ruben Rojas

The son of immigrants, he initially used money to show off his achievement of the American Dream. He went to school to be a surgeon, pivoted to real estate, then finance, and grew the net worth to buy houses and boats and bikes, diamond watches and 26-inch rims for his truck.

But, in 2008, when he lost everything, he sat with himself grappling with his true purpose, with meaningful existence.

Instinctively, he turned to art.

“I painted words that were the total opposite of what I was feeling inside. I said: humble, responsible, worthy, love, joy, grateful, amor,” Rojas says. “Ultimately, what I was saying is I can choose who I want to be, and I can choose how I view the world. I never looked back. So, it’s the best decision I’ve ever made for myself.”

Even in those early days, his goal was simple: to spread hope, gratitude, and love.

Ruben Rojas painting. Photo by Miguel Rodriguez.

Over the last two decades, Rojas has become a well-known muralist and painter whose work covers the walls of Los Angeles—and some helmets of the NFL, too.

His athletic approach to art mirrors his artistic approach to athletics. It’s about craft.

“Go look at any favela or any hood or any low-income area in the world, and you’re going to see two things,” he says. “You’re going to see art (mostly people would call it graffiti) and you’re going to see people playing, kids playing, in front of this artwork. Basketball, football, soccer, whatever it is: it’s a physical way to express ourselves.”

No matter the project, Rojas encourages his audience to ‘live through love’, to wake up every day empowered, to push past the negativity and division that sours our feeds and approach life athletically, creatively, and lovingly.

“The stories that I’m telling right now [are] really inspiring people to choose love,” he says. “If you turn on the TV, if you look at advertising, twitter, social media, you’re mostly flooded with fear and negativity and insecurity and unworthiness and not-belonging, but the truth is there’s a lot of love. So, it’s about inspiring people to live though love.”

Today, he live in California with his wife and two children, Remy Love and River Love. Check out the whole interview on Storytellers.