RICARDO ROMO’S TEJANO REPORT 2.17.23 – JESSE TREVIÑO, AN ENORMOUS LOSS

Jesse Treviño: The Latino Art Community Suffers an Enormous Loss

By Dr. Ricardo Romo

Jesse Treviño, one of America’s premier Latino artists, passed away on February 13, 2023 in San Antonio, Texas. He was 76 years old. Treviño had been ill for the past year following a surgery for cancer. His monumental tile mosaic sculptures and murals are among the city’s best known works of art. Several of his paintings of the Westside of San Antonio were selected to be included in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and San Antonio Museum of Art during the 1990s, making him among the first Latino artists to receive such prestigious recognition.

Treviño devoted his life to chronicling the Mexican American experience. His paintings focused largely on a narrative about his love and appreciation for his community, family, culture, and history. A large painting of his mother hanging the family wash on the clothesline behind their Westside home hangs in the San Antonio Museum of Art. A painting of his seven brothers in front of the family home is in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. But his artwork also has a personal narrative. Treviño included himself in the “The New Chapa Lion,” a mural depicting a family of lions that he attributed to the famed pharmacy, Chapa Drugs, which in the early 1900s had a large lion painted on the sidewall of the pharmacy. I argue that this mural is also a personal statement–Treviño had the heart of a lion, he was a fighter, he was brave, and he was proud and protective of his Chicano community.

Jesse Treviño was born in Monterrey, Mexico and came to the United States as a young child. His father, Juan Treviño, immigrated from Monterrey, Mexico to the United States in the late 1920s. Juan Treviño drove trucks and repaired cars for a living. He worked as a mechanic in San Antonio when he first met his future wife Dolores in the nearby city of New Braunfels. Following their marriage in the mid 1930s, Juan and Dolores moved to Monterrey, Mexico where most of the Treviño’s twelve children, including Jesse, were born.

Juan Treviño and his growing family moved back to San Antonio in 1951 and bought a house on Monterey Street in the Westside neighborhood of Prospect Hill. Dating back to the turn of the century, the Prospect Hill community had been popular with German, Italian, and Lebanese families. In the years after World War II, the neighborhood became a popular destination for middle class Latinos. Prospect Hill emerged as one of few integrated neighborhoods in the city.

Prospect Hill at this time was a quiet neighborhood with modest but elegant homes. Latinos began moving into Prospect Hill in the mid 1940s, and by the 1950s they represented nearly half of the residents in the community. Among the first Latino families to buy homes in Prospect Hill were the parents of Lionel Sosa, founder of the nation’s largest Latino advertising firm; Jorge Cortez, whose family developed the nationally recognized Mi Tierra restaurant enterprise; and the family of San Antonio Mayor and U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Henry Cisneros. Years later when Lionel Sosa headed his advertising agency, he bought several of Treviño’s paintings for the agency office, including the famed Treviño portrait of the San Antonio Mexican Theater, the Alameda.

My own family moved to Prospect Hill in 1950, and we lived on Monterey Street, as did Jesse Treviño, Henry Cisneros, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Cleto Rodriguez, and artist Rolando Briseno. I was a few years older, but Treviño and I both attended Sacred Heart Catholic Church and Fox Tech Vocational High School.

Treviño began drawing as a young child, and his interest in art and design led him to Fox Tech where his older brothers had attended. Treviño’s early years were formative and important to his development as an artist. During his first year at Fox Tech High School, Treviño painted a portrait of Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson that he titled simply “LBJ” (1962).

After finishing high school in 1965, Treviño headed East to the prestigious Art Students League of New York on a scholarship. His mentors and teachers there included some of America’s finest portrait painters. Additionally, he studied alongside some of the brightest young artists in the nation. In the 1960s, New York was considered among the top three places in the world to pursue the study and practice of art. However, Treviño’s stay in New York lasted less than a year, ending when he was drafted into the United States Armed Services.

Anthony Head’s biography, Spirit: The Life and Art of Jesse Treviño, best tells the Treviño story. Head described Treviño’s Vietnam service and his return after being wounded from the war as the beginning of a tortured experience extending from many months to many years. Head wrote: “Under heavy fire, Treviño sustained life-threatening injuries.” Treviño injuries were devastating. He seriously injured his right arm, which was his painting arm, and his right hand. Eventually his arm was amputated below the elbow, but Head wrote, “Jesse had already started training himself to live left-handed—especially as an artist.” Few major painters in history have had to overcome greater physical challenges than Jesse Treviño.

In 1977, Treviño created the well-known drugstore painting “Progreso” as part of his Westside series. This series included several oil and acrylic paintings of life in the Chicano neighborhoods on the Westside of San Antonio during that period. His best known paintings of that era include “Raspa Man,” “La Cita Lounge,” and “Liria’s Lounge.” The “Progreso” painting, purchased by public relations guru Lionel Sosa in the 1980s, became part of Lionel and Kathy Sosa’s private collection.

In the early 1990s, Treviño’s good friend Jorge Cortez, owner of the well known Mi Tierra Mexican Restaurant in San Antonio, began talking with Treviño about a monumental mural on the nine story wall of Christus Santa Rosa Hospital. His friend, Dr. Carlos Orozco, was instrumental in helping to secure funds for the mural. Treviño always loved gigantic art and proposed painting a mural on the entire nine story hospital wall facing south that could be viewed from the elevated I-35 Highway.

Instead of a painted mural, Treviño created a huge mosaic tile mural, the “Spirit of Healing,” a masterpiece constructed on nine floors of the hospital which is one of the most visible murals in Texas. The mural is a mammoth 93 by 43 foot wall that required thousands of small pieces of tile of 70 different colors. At its completion, the art piece was reputed to be the largest ceramic mural in America. The mural depicts a young boy (his son) holding a dove under the watchful protection of a guardian angel. Because of its central location near touristy Market Square and the busy I-35 corridor, this mural is viewed by millions every year.
In 1999, the Texas Diabetes Institute near the corner of Guadalupe and Zarzamora in San Antonio commissioned Treviño to paint a rendition of a Mexican American healer which he titled “La Curandera.” The Curandera, or faith healer, represented his culture, his community, and his faith. Treviño is also known for his monumental art mosaic tribute to the Virgin of Guadalupe, “Veladora,” located at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, considered the heart of the Westside. The 40-foot Veladora that Treviño created in 2003 is one of the most popular art pieces on the Westside.

Treviño’s portraits of San Antonio’s Westside heroes, including Congressman Henry B. Gonzales, community leader Ruben Munguia, and singer and dancer Rosita Fernandez, are favorites among many collectors. Treviño painted and created murals for more than fifty years and is considered one of the great art treasures of Texas. In addition to being an outstanding artist, Jesse Treviño is an inspiration to individuals of all ages and backgrounds who are challenged by difficult circumstances in their quest for achievement and success.

The National Hispanic Hall of Fame honored Treviño in 2021 with its annual Lifetime Achievement Award. Anthony Head, the author of the definitive book on Jesse Treviño, told Matt Joyce of Texas Highways magazine that the Treviño story is one “of sheer determination to follow a dream. When he was at his lowest, Jesse found faith in himself to continue working. He simply was not going to be denied the life he always wanted to live.” My more than 40 years of friendship with Treviño has allowed me to understand his purpose and to appreciate his art and inspiration from close up. He was a true fighter. He never gave up, and he got up many times after being knocked down. He fought the good fight. His life of overcoming challenges is a lesson for us all.

Jesse Treviño has left San Antonio and beyond a bountiful archive of artistic creations that promote positive images of the Chicano community. Jesse Treviño’s determination and success in overcoming devastating life experiences establish him as an heroic model for future generations.

_______________________________________

Copyright 2023 by Ricardo  Romo. All photo credits as noted above.