November 19 - January 14, 2022
From Laredo Center for the Arts:
“Artist Statement
“During the early 1970s when I began activities as an artist, I was very much involved in the Chicano political movement. My closest friends were Chicano activists and we shared ideas about our politics and culture. Culturally, there was very little information about us. It was important to know who we were….no Chicano Studies at universities, or anything like that, existed at that time. We unwittingly started to invent that for ourselves out of need. We figured correctly that it would all, one day, be formalized.
It was all about defining ourselves for ourselves, self-determination in every sense, culturally, politically and whatever else. As an artist, a cultural exploration at all levels became my mission. To this day, I continue to do that. I work in many different modes of expression to do justice to the diverse themes I pursue. I’ve never confined myself by matters of style, with style being a superficial conceit. I like to think that I have contributed to both art and culture in general and specifically in defining Chicanos as a unique contemporary culture.
I was born and raised in Laredo, Texas of immigrant parents from Northern Mexico, and I had the unique experience of spending time at my family ranch, Los Garzas, in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon. Things I took for granted at the time are now gone forever, but they are etched in my memory and are another dimension of insight I have been privy to.””
Reception: November 19, 2021 | 6–9 pm
500 San Agustin
Laredo, 78040 TX
956-725-1715
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