Chicano Visions
Cheech Marin
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2002 Bulfinch Press
ISBN: 0821228056

American Painters on the Verge. An an exhibition of the finest in Hispanic culture, religion & politics.

Cheech Marin is one of my favorite comedians & actors, he is also a director & a musician. I knew he has been a long time champion of Chicano artists, so I was thrilled when he decided to share these visions with us.

Chicago Visions is a glorious feast for the eyes, containing the inevitable hair-raising violence, pulsing cityscapes & sun bleached field labors, as well as the beauty that is before us. There are ethereal visions of heaven & hell, mythology, hot nights, community events, rich family life, & portraits, wrought in pristine “primitive”, sleek “photorealism”, & dark complexities -- all give us insights into the Chicano experience, both female & male.

We can spend hours discussing the merits of each painting: their composition, impact & style, whether they are “good art”, however at the end of his Introduction, Cheech Marin reminds us that “...it is the lone art lover standing in front of a great painting with his jaw dropped, transported to a place both timeless and immediate, that provides the ultimate validation for this new movement in art. For more than twenty years, Chicago painters have done that for me. I pass along this world with love and affection, y con amore, carino y besos.”

Our guides to these Chicano Visions are:

Max Benavidez who writes about Chicano Art: Culture, Myth and Sensibility; The Roots of a Migrant Consciousness; The Precursors; A Phantom Culture Come to Life; The Birth of the Chicano Sensibility; Entering the Future Tense, & Healing The Wounds.

Tere Romo who writes of Mestiza Aesthetics and Chicana Painterly Visions, bringing words to women's worlds.

Constance Cortez who writes Aztláan in Tejas: Chicano/a Art from the Third Coast, introducing Texas artists.

The artists include:
Carlos Almaraz
Patssi Valdez
Frank Romero
Marta Sánchez
Eloy Torrez
Diane Gamboa
César Martinez
George Yepes
John Valadez
Jesse Treviño
Leo Limón
Gronk
Carmen Lomez Garza
Mel Casas
David Botello
Chaz Bojórquez
Margaret Garcia.

My favorites?
All of Patssi Valdez's, especially Room on the Verge
All of Jesse Treviño's, especially Los Piscadores
Marta Sánchez's La Danza
Wayne Alaniz Healy's Beautiful Downtown Boyle Heights
Margaret Garcia's Janine at 39
Leo Limón's Cup of Tochtli
Gilbert Lujan's Blue Dog
John Valadez's Beto's Vacation
Heck! The whole book! Well worth every cent of the price of admission.
(02/01/04)

Rebecca