I was first introduced to the exquisite artwork of José Cisneros, the eminent and internationally renowned artist of the Spanish Borderlands from El Paso, Texas, by my good friend, mentor, and muse Dr. Félix D. Almaraz Jr. I first got to meet José Cisneros at the annual conference of the Texas State Historical Association in Austin, Texas, in the mid-1990s. I vividly remember him as a quiet, modest, and humble man, and with a good sense of humor. He was about eighty-five years old, but he never looked his age, and I was forty-nine.
In this photograph, to my left is José Cisneros, and next to him is his wife Vicenta, and next to her is their eldest daughter Inés. I asked Dr. Almaráz to take this photograph with my camera at a Mexican Restaurant on the East side of Austin, Texas, on East Sixth Street. During the day, we participated in the annual Texas State Historical Association conference. Obviously, we are having fun and looking quite complacent after enjoying a hearty meal.
In 1971, Texas Western Press, out of the University of Texas at El Paso, published Monograph No. 30, of their Southwestern Studies in his honor. It is a collection of thirty of his drawings and the monograph is entitled, Riders of the Border, and consists of 64 pages. Shortly after the monograph came out, José Cisernos sent me an autographed copy.
In our personal library, I have four of his books, which contain priceless illustrations, and are collectors’ items. Besides the first book mentioned above, the second book was published in 1984 by the University of Texas at El Paso, and is entitled, Riders Across the Centuries: Horsemen of the Spanish Borderlands, and consists of 200 pages. Fourteen years later, in 1998, the Hidalgo County Historical Museum published, Borderlands: The Heritage of the Lower Río Grande through the Art of José Cisneros, and it consists of 159 pages. The two historians who wrote the text were Drs. Félix D. Almaraz, Jr., and Hubert J. Miller.
And, a year later, Sundance Press published, Cisneros 2000: Faces of the Borderlands, and was co-authored with Dr. Félix D. Almaraz, Jr., and it consisted of 164 pages. By this time, the very talented and gifted artist was ninety years old and had developed degenerative eye disease, but his artistic spirit remained undimmed. When the book first came out, First Lady Laura W. Bush attended the reception to honor José Cisneros at the Mexican Arte Museum in Austin.
José Cisneros was born on Monday, April 18, 1910, to Fernando Cisneros and Juanita Barragán in the Mexican state of Durango. Born with color blindness, José was nonetheless a precocious child and started drawing at a very early age. His box of color pencils was marked so that he could read their colors. Due to the turmoils of the Mexican Revolution, when José was fifteen years old, his family moved to northern Mexico and eventually crossed the Río Grande into El Paso, Texas. He acquired his meticulous precision in the depiction of his illustrations by reading, doing research, and by corresponding with other artists and scholars.
His passion and love for his marvelous drawings lasted him a lifetime. And his drawings have been exhibited at the Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio and at St. Mary’s University, the Humanities Research Center in Austin, the Palace of the Governor in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as well as in other venues all over the Southwest and all over the United States. Moreover, his priceless illustrations have graced the walls of the White House, the Texas state capitol, Spanish embassies, and many magazines, newspapers, monographs, and over 200 books, including all of Dr. Almaraz’s award-winning books.
His accolades are too numerous to mention in this essay, but here is a small sample of some of them:
__Pope John Paul II bestowed knighthood for the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in 1990.
__King Juan Carlos of Spain presented a special knighthood honor in 1993.
__The University of Texas at Austin awarded him a Paisano Residence Fellowship of six months at the J. Frank Dobie Ranch near Austin in 1969, with a monthly stipend to cover living expenses.
__The El Paso County Historical Society inducted him into the El Paso Hall of Honor in 1972.
__The Western Writers of America honored him with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Owen Wister Award in 1997.
__President George W. Bush honored him with the National Humanities Medal in 2002.
José Cisneros and his wife Vicenta had five beautiful daughters. On Saturday morning, November 14, 2009, José went to his eternal reward at the age of 99. I am proud and, indeed, very fortunate and blessed to have personally known him and to be considered among his friends.
El Profe Quezada