Watching Over the Fun
Ignacio Gomez discovered his gift for art as a boy, hiding under his bunk bed.
The toddler took cover there one day in the mid-’40s, sneaking a chance to experiment with his favorite uncle’s fountain pen and inkwell set, off limits for a child who could make a mess. Ignoring his mother’s calls as he watched her feet go back and forth, the East L.A. kid took pains in his hiding place to copy his uncle’s calligraphy.
Gomez didn’t hide his talent as a kindergartner at Breed Street School in Boyle Heights, where he drew a terrific tree displayed on the wall of a supportive principal. Gomez, whose latest work will be on display Sunday at the 12th annual Fiesta Broadway L.A. in downtown Los Angeles, eventually forged a lucrative career as a commercial artist and illustrator, buying a home in Glendale and putting four children of his own through college.
Education remains a top theme of the award-winning artist. Gomez, 59, was selected to create an angelic figure for this daylong festival, billed as the country’s largest Cinco de Mayo event, drawing as many as half a million people.
His six-foot “L.A. Fiesta Angel” will be showcased along with a pantheon of 20 similar celestial bodies from the city’s ongoing public works project called A Community of Angels. Fiesta organizers said this is the first time a set of these colorful cherubs, currently scattered at more than 120 sites throughout the city, will be gathered in one place before they are auctioned in May to benefit youth programs.
The project’s theme--”giving kids a chance to soar”--ties in nicely with the festival’s family atmosphere. Fiesta Broadway L.A. features themed pavilions, festival booths and a smorgasbord of traditional cooking in a unique food court. For those interested in more worldly celebrities, the festival offers its usual mile-long lineup of Latino performers.
The all-day extravaganza serves up 36 square blocks of food and entertainment from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. It’s also free, making it the best show biz bargain in town.
Serving as ceremonial king and queen of the festivities will be Oscar de la Hoya, the champion boxer-cum-crooner nicknamed “Golden Boy,” and Paulina Rubio, Mexico’s sassy blond vocalist who got her start in the early 1980s with Timbiriche, the coed bubble-gum group conceived by Televisa. She’s known as “La Chica Dorada,” which means Golden Girl, what else?
Artists from the U.S. and Latin America will perform nonstop on five concert stages. They include respected pop veterans such as Mexico’s Jose Jose and Cuban-born Jon Secada, as well as newcomers such as MDO, inheritors of Menudo’s teeny-bopper legacy.
Musically, the festival truly has something for everybody: Grupo Limite, the hot norteno sextet from Monterey, Mexico; Moenia, the international techno-pop trio; Pablo Montero, the ranchera singer and soap opera star from Torreon, Coahuila; and Rabanes, a Panamanian rock band with an eclectic rhythmic mix of folklore, rap and reggae.
Also on the bill: Priscila y Sus Balas de Plata, Azul Azul, Jose Julian, Natalia Oreiro, El Simbolo, Yari More, Sergio Goyri, Nassiri, Conexion Latina and Mariachi Sol de America. And many more, as the pitch goes.
Eight youth mariachi groups, all finalists from McDonald’s Festival Juvenil del Mariachi, are scheduled to kick off the main stage show. They were selected in October from among 30 competing groups from throughout Southern California, part of an effort to encourage youngsters to explore their culture through music.
Which brings us back to Gomez, the angel artist who found his childhood muse in the form of his artistic uncle, Ben Aranda. Uncle Ben worked as a waiter at upscale restaurants, Gomez recalled, then spent Sundays doing oil paintings of desert scenes. He took his young nephew under his wing, teaching the dyslexic boy about Norman Rockwell and Vincent van Gogh from a set of encyclopedias.
Gomez remembers others who encouraged him along the way. Like that elementary school principal who was so impressed with his artistic skills he called his mother in for a meeting. Or the African American co-worker who insisted Gomez, just out of Roosevelt High, was too talented to be illustrating technical manuals for jet planes.
“Gomez, you’re starting to like the money,” the co-worker warned before driving his young friend to enroll at L.A. Trade Tech.
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Gomez later worked overtime to afford tuition at Art Center College of Design. In 1966, his studies were interrupted by the draft, but not his compulsion to paint. Stationed stateside, Gomez drew murals with military themes, including a series documenting the American soldier from World War I to Vietnam.
Back in civilian life, he completed that degree in advertising design. Imelda, his wife of 34 years, is also an artist who teaches computer classes to elementary students in Glendale.
Fittingly, Gomez designed his fiesta angel to celebrate both fun and learning. Viewed from the front, it depicts a young boy and girl dancing in traditional Mexican costumes, adorned with real lace, silk flowers and an earring. From behind, the children are seen in school clothing with books and backpacks.
Art and culture spread their wings on Sunday. And nobody needs to hide under the bed.
* Fiesta Broadway L.A., Broadway District, downtown L.A., 11 a.m. Free. (310) 914-0015.