artist biography

Like many other first generation Mexican Americans, I was raised in a working class household. This meant a father who worked and a mother who stayed home to raise the kids. It also meant learning traditional values such as hard work, the importance of family and knowledge of one's history. But once outside of the house I was exposed to a wide variety of American influences. My favorite quickly became the skateboarding culture, and the punk rock music that was its aggressive soundtrack. On the outside they seemed to be completely separate worlds. But after many years of juggling the two cultures, I began to see some of the more subtle things they had in common.

• Culturally, skateboarding and punk rock had emerged from the D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) mentality. I also saw D.I.Y. skills in the uncanny Mexican ability to do great things with limited resources.


• Visually, the overabundance of skulls on skateboard graphics and album covers complemented the bloody designs of ancient Aztec art.


• Musically, the political awareness and defiant attitudes, which are found in punk rock music, echoed Mexican themes from revolution-era songs to current day narcocorridos.

These cultural similarities have helped me find a balance between two worlds that seem to be constantly at odds with each other. And in some ways they have helped me reconnect to my Mexican heritage. Over the years, the imagery and medium of my art has varied from urban landscape paintings, to political T-shirts and posters, calenders, and even into music. Yet it continues to be my unique interpretation of the Mexican American culture in which I live.