- Benjamin Francisco
Hernandez--Q-VO, Firme Magazine,
- features and
printed articales.CopyrightBenjamin F. Hernandez 2010
El arte
de Edward Gonzales
Nuevo
Mexico's Past, Present and Future.
By Benjamin Francisco
Hernandez
A beautiful Southwestern
native print entitled Su Primer Libro hangs in the library of
the National Hispanic University in San Jose, California. A young
Chicana sits on a sofa with her grandfather. They are sharing
her first book. The grandfather is dressed in blue denim overalls,
which were typical attire for New Mexican men in the early 1940s.
I was so moved by the artwork that I began to inquire about the
artist.
The artist is Edward Gonzales of New Mexico. Edward Gonzales illustrated
two children's literature books authored by Rudolfo Anaya. The
book titles are Farolitos for Abuelo and The Farolitos of Christmas,
which received the Tomas Rivera Award for positive Latino imagery
in children's literature. My subsequent interview with Edward
Gonzales revealed many insights about him. Edward states, "I
think that a lot of us share the same background." Edward's
paternal grandparents were from Northern New Mexico. "My
dad was originally from a little land grant village established
around 1780, called Sena," relates Edward. From Santa Fe,
Sena is northeast towards Las Vegas, New Mexico, on the high road
to Denver, Colorado. In the 1940s, his father a veteran of World
War II settled in Los Angeles, California.
Edward Gonzales
was born in Los Angeles on August 20, 1947. A year later, his
family moved back to New Mexico. "My father didn't want us
growing up not knowing our heritage," says Edward. "We
still have some distant relatives, second and third cousins who
remained in the L.A. area." His grandmother would take the
train into Albuquerque, New Mexico, to take care of Edward and
the other grandchildren because both parents worked. "One
day she brought me some colored pencils and paper to occupy me
because my older brother was in school," recalls Edward.
"She brought me a little comic book, she used to call it
El Pato Loco. I started copying all of the pages of the old Daffy
Duck comic book. My grandmother was amazed because I was only
four years old yet she said I had a talent."
"My grandmother
was very spiritual," expands Edward. "Her name was Remedios,
which means remedies. She was a curandera--a holistic healer and
a member of the Guadalupana Society. Every night she stayed with
us she'd kneel in front of her makeshift altar with candles all
around and she would pray the rosary. She was responsible for
my first contact with art. She was the first person in my life
to see my artistic talent and encouraged me to develop it."
When Edward's father got a clerical job with the Veteran's Hospital,
the family financial situation improved. The family moved from
the very poorest part of town, the east San Jose area of Albuquerque
to the other side of town the northwest valley. "It was more
rural there," says Edward. "We had orchards and farmers
nearby. There were always the railroad tracks behind us. Although
the north valley area was considered impoverished, we liked it
there. It was a mixed neighborhood. There were some Anglos, but
the majority of us were Chicanos from all parts of New Mexico
who were looking for work.
"I attended
La Luz Elementary School," Edward remembers. "I stayed
in the area and went to Garfield Junior High School and the Valley
High School." Fortunately for Edward, Valley High had a very
strong art program. "I excelled in art. We were lucky to
have an art teacher who was really into art. At that time they
would hold annual art exhibitions. I entered many categories:
Abstract Art, Figurative Art, Landscape, Sculpture and Printmaking.
"I loved all kinds of art," admits Edward. "When
I was in grade school I read all of the art books in the local
neighborhood library. I always saw merit in many types of art.
I was well read in art history. In eighth grade, I was given an
aptitude test from some East Coast college. I scored exceptionally
high in this area. I scored the equivalent of graduate level knowledge
of Art History because I was self-educated in art. I could have
a discussion with someone about ancient art or different art periods,
like the Baroque. I still have that interest in reading biographies
about artists."
One of Edward's
earliest motivations as an artist growing up in the Southwest
was his search for art that reflected art other than cowboys and
Indians. During his youth, the many art museums throughout New
Mexico and the Southwest contained famous imagery, paintings,
sculpture, textiles and ceramics that reflected Western and Native
American art themes. However, the few Mexican or Spanish artistic
themes revolved around church or religious art images, chile peppers
or stereotypical "lazy Mexican men leaning against the cactus
dressed in a colorful poncho and straw hat sombrero." In
the '50s and '60s, stereotypical derogatory and racist images
of Mexican culture were quite prevalent. The galleries in Santa
Fe even today have very poor representation of Chicano or Mexican
art. It is still dominated by the cowboy, the Indian or the landscape.
"It was my emphasis to focus on Chicano culture," Edward
states. "When I was in college, the Chicano Movement was
under way," Edward recalls. "Then I was drafted and
sent to Vietnam. When I returned, I still had this idea that the
Movement was going strong. I felt that I wanted to continue. New
Mexico has one of the highest dropout rates in the nation. Two
out of five Chicanos drop out of school here. All of the screaming
and yelling and protesting may have been over, but I still saw
that we Chicanos had to address the problem."
"I had a different
perception from the L.A. experience of what it means to be a Chicano
artist," admits Edward. "I wasn't really hip with the
L.A. Chicano mural movement. I feel some of them really missed
the point of the Movimiento, which should have been a continuation
of the social needs and the cultural support. We shouldn't have
gone away from that. That's essentially why I'm still here because
I don't want to go away. My perception of art is that there is
beauty in the ordinary. There is beauty in the commonplace. There
is a sense of aesthetics that I am attempting to portray. Beauty
can be transmitted in a universal way." "Recently I
got an e-mail from a young man who was part of a dance troupe
from Ireland," Edward relates. "He was staying at a
motel here in Albuquerque. A private hotel owner here in Albuquerque
said that he really loved my art and he ordered special prints
for each of his rooms. The Irish dancer said that he loved my
artwork because it reminded him of his own rural homeland. Art
is a universal acknowledgement."
"I see the
world as ethnic more than racial," Edward continues. "Viewing
the world as ethnic we are all more alike than we are different.
That is my perspective of the world and art. I have come to this
perspective through the years. I didn't always feel this way.
There has always been some conflict between the Native Americans
and the Chicanos in terms of art, history and culture. There is
always a love-hate relationship and a deeper connection that exists
between us."
"It is a very
odd mixed bag," says Edward. "I always get these reminders
that we are a lot closer to the Indios than even we ourselves
realize. Many of the Chicanos out here are half-Indian. One of
my Chicano students from Northern New Mexico Community College
once invited all of his tios and tias from the Santa Clara Pueblo.
The guy's mother was Indian and his dad was Chicano." Another
Pueblo artist who does these outrageous prayer feather-dream catcher
arrangements wanted to trade some of his art for my prints. His
mother was Pueblo Indian and his dad a Chicano from Tierra Amarillo.
"One of the
unfortunate results of the Chicano and African American Movements
was that it pushed people into choosing a single identity,"
believes Edward. "There is a big Spanish Movement. There
is another faction out here referred to as the Genizaros. They
are the descendants of the Spanish and Native Americans. Eventually
the term was adapted to refer to the captured Indians that became
Hispanicized. The word originally comes from a Spanish word that
means the Turks. The Comanche were wearing cotton turbans and
so the early Spanish explorers referred to them as Genizaros because
the Comanches headgear reminded them of the Turkish mercenary
soldiers. The definition of Mestizo refers to the mix between
Mexican Indios and Spanish." Edward Gonzales continues to
capture Latino and indigenous images in his prints and paintings.
The vibrant colors, warmth and nostalgia of his art intrigue young
and old.
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