Post-Revolutionary Mexico in the 1920s developed a vital tradition of
mural art that became a vehicle for education and political expression.
In the United States, New Deal arts programs provided for the painting
of murals in public buildings, but interest in the art form faded during
World War II and after.
With the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Hispanic
artists turned to murals as part of their heritage and began producing
works, especially in cities of California and Texas. El Paso is one of
those cities, with more than 100 murals having been documented by the early 1990s.
Miguel Juarez, a cultural arts historian, who had been involved in
arts projects for some years, interviewed the major artists of El Paso
murals, some of them long-time professional painters such as Manuel
Acosta and Mago Gandara, and others commanding groups of volunteers.
Many of artists were elementary and high school students.
Photographer Cynthia Farah, who took part in some of the interviews,
chronicled the murals beginning in 1979; some that she photographed are
now gone.
Their collection of interviews and art works serves as a tribute
to this particularly Hispanic artistic development of the El Paso border region.
Farah is the author of a previous Texas Western Press book,
"Literature and Landscape: Writers of the Southwest," and is the
director of the film studies program at the University of Texas at
El Paso.
ISBN 0-87404-236-4, Paper, $30.00
11x8, 225 pg., 25-40 color illus., biblio.
To order, write: Texas Western Press, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968-0633---or use the Texas Western Press toll-free number (for ordering only): (800) 488-3789---or order by e-mail