RELIGIOUS, CHICANO FERVOR : ACEVEDO GALLERY: A UNIQUE VISION

“We feel we’re not just a commercial business. We’re here to educate, too. We have a mission.”

Rita Acevedo spoke gently but fervently. Formerly an instructor in English and Chicano studies at San Diego State University, she now works full time with her artist-husband, who uses the professional name Mario Torero, operating Acevedo Gallery Internacional in Mission Hills (4010 Goldfinch Ave.).

Their gallery is an alternative to established institutions, dedicated to the propagation of their deeply felt religious values.

As Torero said, “We are serving the Lord!”

The couple were once estranged from Roman Catholicism but returned to the traditional faith of their families. Initially, they worked through religion as a couple to save their marriage. Then they discovered liberation theology, a contemporary movement that seeks to apply fundamental tenets of Christianity to the plight of disadvantaged people throughout the world, especially the Third World.

“It’s our belief,” Acevedo said, “that the liberation of the oppressed is also the liberation of the oppressor.

“We have a mission to help save the earth and save humanity.”

The practical, direct expression of such beliefs could be seen recently at Acevedo Gallery in the works of Domingo Ulloa. The exhibition, surveying nearly 40 years of the artist’s career, featured paintings of field workers in a social realist idiom. It also included vivid symbolic statements against racial injustice and war, gentle portraits and scenes of ordinary people relaxing.

The couple regard the vision of the classically trained Ulloa as a link between the European past and the multicultural future.

Two of the younger artists they represent are figurative sculptor Zarco Guerrero of Arizona and figurative and landscape painter Miguel Martinez of New Mexico. Exhibiting their works is a means for the gallery owners to fulfill their dream of taking Chicano art out into the world.

Torero is best known for the vast 40-by-60-foot mural “Picasso’s Eyes,” which he painted in 1978 on the southern facade of the Knights of Pythius Building.

“It stayed there for years,” he said, “staring and asking, ‘Where are the arts in San Diego?’ ”

Picasso’s rebuking eyes dramatically disappeared as a wrecker’s ball smashed into them during demolition to make way for Horton Plaza.

Torero would like to re-create the image on a wall downtown where the eyes could be seen from the bay. Now Picasso would get an eyeful as the arts, if not yet blossoming, have at least taken root and are budding in San Diego’s urban core.

Torero’s training in art has been more informal than formal, and his training as an art dealer has been acquired on the job.

His first teacher was his father, Guillermo Acevedo, who was so effective that, when his son enrolled at SDSU, the instructor said, “But you’re already an artist!” Nevertheless, Torero studied there and then at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland with Salvador Torres. His specialty is murals.

The antecedents for the present gallery were El Topo gallery, which the elder Acevedo opened in Old Town in 1973, followed in 1976 by the Acevedo Gallery downtown. Torero and Rita Acevedo later opened Solart Gallery in Golden Hill, and in 1980 moved Solart to 10th Avenue and E Street downtown. (Solart is now a community cultural center.) The current Acevedo Gallery opened in 1984 on Goldfinch.

El Topo gallery, in what was a daring move at the time, exhibited the works of many East Los Angeles artists here, where Chicano consciousness was still in its nascent stage. The most distinguished alumnus from those early years is probably Carlos Almaraz, who is much admired for creating an idiom that combines and goes beyond Chicano and European traditions of art.

The couple discovered the site for their current gallery by chance as they were taking their daughter to school at nearby St. Vincent’s School. They opened in July, 1984, simultaneously with a memorable group show of Chicano artists at the Maple Gallery.

“We wanted to show that there is a history to Chicano art, that there is an identity that goes back to the classic Mayans and Aztecs,” Rita Acevedo said. “Chicanos are not denying contemporary art but reasserting an older tradition. We’re involved with reidentifying ourselves and moving into the future with others, regardless of race and religion and background.

“We have plans. We want a new multicultural consciousness to grow out of Chicano consciousness.”

As part of their effort, the gallery is showing the works of painter Gary Hansmann. Though not a Chicano, he uses the image of the corrida, or bullfight, as a metaphor for the artist and the process of creation.

The couple’s attitudes are not those of the American mainstream, and Acevedo has admitted as much.

“We doubt that many people share our personal views, and we’ve noticed that some people have been upset by the works of Corita Kent,” she said. “They’ve stayed away from them during openings in the gallery.” The gallery will again exhibit some of the late social activist’s works in November.

“We have to recognize that most people are looking for pleasant things in their lives, not challenges,” she said. “But we have to say who we are to preserve our integrity and continue.”

However, Acevedo Gallery has developed a regular following.

“I think we have an exceptional clientele, I really do,” Rita Acevedo said proudly. “They’re young, professional people sincerely interested in art, especially women. They’re not so much collectors as people who want art for their homes. Many of them live in our neighborhood.

“We were disappointed at first when people hesitated to spend a few hundred dollars on a work of art. There’s an intellectual and emotional exchange that needs to take place. That’s important for me as a student and teacher of literature. I’m still involved in education.”