RICARDO ROMO’S TEJANO REPORT 07.03.25 BRILLIANCE OF ÁNGEL RODRÍGUEZ-DÍAZ

The Brilliance of Latino Artist Ángel Rodríguez-Díaz

Among the major acquisitions by the prestigious Smithsonian American Art Museum in the 1990s was an Ángel Rodríguez-Diaz painting of famed Latina novelist Sandra Cisneros. Rodríguez-Díaz painted Cisneros in a black Mexican dress decorated with sequins and embroidery, and she “holds a patterned rebozo that snakes around her bejeweled arms.”

Art historian and curator Jonathan Yorba wrote, “Standing against a dramatic sky, Cisneros strikes a confident poise.” Her pose, added another Smithsonian commentary, “reminiscent of historic European portraiture, proclaims that she will endure in her native landscape.”

Ángel Rodríguez-Díaz was born in Puerto Rico in 1955 and moved to New York City in 1978 to attend Hunter College. In 1996, he moved to San Antonio to be with his partner Rolando Briseño, who was also a recognized Latino artist. Rodríguez-Díaz grew up in a humble setting in Santurce, a suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico. His father was an itinerant day laborer who collected sand from the beach to sell at construction sites. Rodríguez-Díaz was raised in a musical and artistic family. His mother, who died young at 31, was only 17 when Rodríguez-Díaz was born. He was the eldest child, and, after his mother’s death, he became head of the household responsible for cooking and taking care of his brothers and sisters.

Encouraged by his mother, Rodríguez-Díaz had developed an interest in art and Latino music at a young age. He loved to sing and became a superb dancer as a teen. Rodríguez-Díaz won his first art contest in the seventh grade and completed his first commission while still in high school. He earned a BFA from the University of Puerto Rico in 1978, then moved to New York to attend graduate school. Because all of his classes in Puerto Rico were in Spanish, he did not learn English until he moved to New York City. He initially enrolled at New York City University, but completed his MFA at Hunter College in 1982.

A major art professor at Hunter College believed that painting was dead and discouraged Rodríguez-Díaz from developing painting skills. Although becoming a recognized artist is difficult for most young artists, New York City attracts thousands of artists annually and is one of the principal world cities for artists to test their ability to make a living in the arts. Rodríguez-Díaz remained confident in his abilities, and following the completion of his MFA, he decided to remain in New York City with the dream of becoming a fulltime artist.

For a time Rodríguez-Díaz worked as a commercial artist painting mannequins in the Fashion District. In 1989, he met San Antonio native Rolando Briseño at an exhibit at the New York Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art [MOCHA]. Briseño had moved from San Antonio to New York City in 1970 to study and remained there after completing his studies. After losing his New York City studio and home in a fire, Briseño lived with fellow artist Pedro Lujan and Pedro’s wife Leah Gitter in their SoHo loft.

Briseño introduced his new friend Ángel Rodríguez-Díaz to Pedro and Leah Gitter. Gitter took an interest in Ángel’s paintings and, aware of his financial struggles, bought six works, mostly his self-portraits. Harriett and I were able to see some of Rodríguez-Díaz’s early New York City works at the home of Pedro Lujan and Leah Gitter this Spring.
In 1993 Rodríguez-Díaz received a grant to study in Mexico. Although he worked mainly in Cuernavaca, Rodríguez-Díaz’s love of the ocean took him and Briseño often to the coastal city of Veracruz. In 1995, Rodríguez-Díaz moved to San Antonio at the encouragement of his partner Rolando Briseño. Together they bought an abandoned grocery store, and Rodríguez-Díaz relocated his studio permanently to San Antonio. In 2000, Harriett and I met Rodríguez-Díaz when he and Briseño hosted us for dinner. On that occasion, we first saw his Goddess triptych paintings.

At a party in San Antonio in 1995, Rodríguez-Díaz met the writer Sandra Cisneros. He took an instant liking to her and asked if he could paint her. She agreed and they arranged to meet in New York City. The painting was completed in New York City where Cisneros had time to visit with Rodríguez-Díaz during visits with her New York editors.

During the same period, 1997, Rodríguez-Díaz also painted a series of small oil paintings of Sandra Cisneros’s “body parts.” Cisneros’s ear with a crown earring is titled “Pero Sigo Siendo el Rey, ” and a painting titled “Choker Around Your” shows only her neck with a necklace and her lips and chin. The “body parts” paintings belong to Dr. Rafael and Sandra Guerra.

Artpace selected Rodríguez-Díaz-Díaz in 1998 for one of its prestigious residencies. At Artpace Rodríguez-Díaz built an enormous installation with night lights and tall curtains [constructed by Sandra Guerra]. In one of his paintings in the Artpace exhibit, Rodríguez-Díaz paired the Alamo with the battleship Maine as symbolic pretexts for U.S. wars of conquest. The painting was featured in a large exhibit, “Ángel Rodríguez-Díaz: A Retrospective [1982-2014]” curated by Dr. Ruben Cordova. I missed that exhibit, but I saw several of the paintings featured in the exhibit at the home of Dr. Rafael and Sandra Guerra.

The passing of Rodríguez-Díaz on March 31, 2023 left me sad that I had missed opportunities to know him better. In determining to write about him, I sought out several individuals who knew him best and who had collected his work. These individuals included his partner Rolando Briseño, collectors Dr. Rafael and Sandra Guerra, Pedro Lujan and Leah Gitter, and artist Richard Arredondo.

The Guerras were longtime friends and patrons of Rodríguez-Díaz. In the summer of 1996, Dr. Guerra purchased the “End of the Journey” painting at Rodriguerz’s studio on Houston Street. Harriett and I took delight in seeing several outstanding pieces at their home. I especially enjoyed viewing his triptych of Sandra Guerra with her two sisters. In this painting Sandra is “Faith” and her two sisters represent “Hope” and “Charity.”

Visiting with Briseño recently, we saw several large and beautiful works, “Self-portrait #3,” “Ana Paula,” and “In The Mirror of Your…Mil Mascaras.” Rodríguez-Díaz engaged many of his artist friends in his artistic endeavors. In the home of artist Richard Arredondo, we were excited to see one of Rodríguez-Díaz’s major pieces from the exhibition “Santos y Pecadores” (Saints and Sinners), which opened at the Beeville, Texas Art Museum in 2004. The Beeville solo exhibition featured 49 works by Rodríguez-Díaz painted between 1993 and 2003. Arredondo, who was friends with Rodríguez-Díaz, posed for a painting that featured him in “El Sueño De Ser Santo [The Dream of Being a Saint].” Arredondo told us that as a child he attended Catholic school and often thought of growing up to be a saint.

Rodríguez-Díaz’s paintings are finding their way to important museums. The Smithsonian and the National Mexican Museum each have one of his Sandra Cisneros portraits. The San Antonio Museum of Art [SAMA] acquired his Goddess triptych, “The Myth of Venus,” “La Yemaya,” and “Primavera” completed between the years 1991-1994. Two of these paintings were donated to SAMA by Sandra Cisneros with the stipulation that SAMA purchase the third one. Rodríguez-Díaz is a celebrated painter and sculptor known for his technically masterful, conceptually rich portraits and public installations. Ricky Armendariz, artist and professor of art at the University of Texas at San Antonio, knew Ángel well and noted upon Diaz’s death in 2023, “He was literally one of the most talented — technically and conceptually — artists that I’ve ever met, bar none.” Armendariz explained that Rodríguez-Díaz’s art work “was hard hitting at times. His work was about identity, pain and loss.”

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Copyright 2025 by Ricardo Romo. All photo credits as indicated above.