el Don /SANTA ANA COLLEGE • MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014/eldonnews.org
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el Don /SANTA ANA COLLEGE • MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014/eldonnews.org
EMIGDIO VASQUEZ, 1939-2014
4
MASTER'S LEGACY
Luis Valdez and Fred Ross. Just
as important, however, I decided
Hall of Fame alumnus and
to include anonymous images
celebrated muralist Emigdio
of people from the working
Vasquez, whose work adorns
class, the people loved by Cesar
the lobby of the Cesar Chavez
Chavez,” Mr. Vasquez said in his
Building, died Aug. 9 in an
artist’s description of perhaps
assisted living home in Newport his most renowned work.
Beach of pneumonia, his
Mr. Vasquez was born in Jefamily announced.
rome, a mining town in Arizona,
Mr. Vasquez, who had been
in 1939.
suffering from dementia
His family moved to Orange
brought on by complications
County in the 1940s, when jobs
from Alzheimer’s disease, was 75. dried up after a mine closure.
“There is a message in every
He completed his Associate
one of those murals and that
of Arts degree in Santa Ana Colreally influenced me to be more
lege after graduating from
proud of my heritage,” SAC
Orange High School.
Art Gallery Coordinator Carol
Mr. Vasquez transferred to
McCabe said.
California State University FulShe met Mr. Vasquez in 1997,
lerton, to complete his bachelor’s
when the Godfather of Chicaand master’s degrees.
no Art in Orange County was
Drawing from the influence of
completing the Legacy of Cesar
Mexico’s muralista art moveChavez at Santa Ana College.
ment pioneered by Diego Rivera,
“I have depicted Cesar Chavez
Jose Orozco and David Alfaro
surrounded by some of his
Siqueiros, Mr. Vasquez’s intense
compatriots in the farm workers’ brush strokes, detailed recremovement, like Dolores Huerta, ations of faces both famous and
BY LIZ MONROY / el Don
lesser known with emphasis on
the anonymous working class,
captured the country’s evolution
through the lens of the California experience.
His social realist style and
documentation of barrio life
exposed the cultural and racial
divide in Orange County. Tribute to Chicano Working Class,
Mr. Vasquez master’s project,
was asociated with gang activity
by the District Attorney’s office
when it sought injunctions.
The misinterpretation upset
Mr. Vasquez, who has more than
20 murals in buildings across
the county, including Disneyland, Cal State Fullerton and Orange Country Transit Authority.
“Life holds harsh realities.
Many of these appear on my
canvasses. Translating elements
of beauty and struggle is important to me,” Mr. Vasquez said
in an artist statement for the
California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives at the University
of California, Santa Barbara.
THE MURALIST
LIFE & DEATH
1997: Returns to his
alma mater to paint “The
Legacy of Cesar Chavez,”
one of his best- known
works.
2004: Inducted into the
Santa Ana College Hall
of Fame
2013: By mayoral
proclamation, May 25 is
Emigdio Vasquez Day in
Santa Ana.