Mexican Muralist Inspires Students

With a few strokes of charcoal, some swipes of red and green paint and memories from his past, Raul Anguiano tells an intertwining history of Mexican art, Mayan culture and his own life.

“This is a universal language,” says the soft-spoken 86-year-old artist from Guadalajara. “Art is the way that I have always expressed myself to the world.”

Since August, Anguiano could be found giving history lessons in the East Los Angeles College auditorium. He doesn’t use any textbooks, just brushes, some cans of paint and a 68-foot-long, 13-foot-high canvas.

“Lots of space, lots to say,” Anguiano said of the opportunity.

The finished product is scheduled to be unveiled at East Los Angeles College on Tuesday, which is also Anguiano’s 87th birthday.

Anguiano is revered as one of the great Mexican muralists and portrait painters alive today. A member of the third generation of post-revolutionary painters, Anguiano has worked with such greats as Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera, all of whom are featured in his newest mural.

“These are my friends and alumni of my generation,” said Anguiano, sporting his traditional painting garb, a beige fisherman’s hat and his dark-rimmed glasses. “This is not just a tribute to Mexican art. It is a tribute to the people that made Mexican art what it is today. I wish they could see this.”

But, of course, they can’t.

“He’s been dead for a long time,” said Anguiano, pointing to a picture of Rivera. “So has he,” he added about Orozco.

But in the mural in the foyer of the Ingalls Auditorium and Edison Performing Arts Center, all his painting buddies are full of life, as inspiring as when Anguiano first met them.

Anguiano shows no signs of slowing down, even after completing the largest project of his career. He moves up and down a two-story scaffolding as if he were at least 50 years younger. He never asks for help getting up the steps and has the memory most students wish they had, especially during exams.

“You have to exercise the mind, and the body will follow,” said Anguiano, who makes his home in Huntington Beach and the wealthy community of Coyoacan in Mexico City. “It’s not really a secret to living long, but I just want to learn something new every day.”

He has painted and taught art since he learned to walk and pick up a crayon. Since he was 17, he has supported himself by painting or teaching. At times it was a rough life--but an honest one, he said.

Anguiano has illustrated many books and lectured and taught art in the United States, Mexico and Europe. His work has been featured in more than 100 shows throughout the world; numerous pieces are in permanent collections around the world, including museums in China, Poland and the Vatican. In the beginning, like all good artists, Anguiano first had to learn how to draw. His first drawing, a torero, or bullfighter, is pictured in the East Los Angeles College mural. He drew the little bullfighter when he was just 4 years old, playing with crayons and a piece of scratch paper.

Many symbols of his life are strewn throughout the mural. The painting’s centerpiece is a reproduction of a photo taken in 1949, during an expedition where Anguiano and U.S. explorer Carlos Frey discovered the Bonampak ruins in Chiapas. This life-changing experience spills out onto the rest of the canvas.

The first part of the mural starts with a Mayan scribe, followed closely by a black-and-white portrait of Anguiano as a baby accompanied by his parents. The last piece of the mural is a recent portrait of his wife, Brigita, and their dog, Tajin. Other pieces of Mexican art include a crucifix, a controversial mural by Siqueiros about the oppression of Mexicans in the United States, and portraits of villagers during Anguiano’s travels in Chiapas.

The cost of producing the mural is $200,000, funded through donations and fund-raising efforts by the East Los Angeles College Foundation. Preserving and protecting it will cost even more, said Sal Varela, foundation chairman.

“Commissioning this mural continues East Los Angeles College’s commitment to bring art to the community,” said college President Ernest Moreno. “It should be here. This is the perfect place for it.”

Anguiano’s life and work have inspired many in the East Los Angeles art community. Students, faculty and others who stop by the auditorium address him as el maestro, or the teacher.

Many have sought his advice on art projects, from portraits to ceramics. Anguiano enjoys talking to the young artists. Almost every day he tears himself away from the mural to lecture students on styles and techniques.

Patricia Morales is taking full advantage of her time with el maestro.

Since the beginning of the project, Morales, a fine arts major at the college, has helped Anguiano in many ways: picking up lunch, cleaning brushes, buying paints. Part of the satisfaction is simply being in his presence.

“It’s incredible just being here,” said Morales, 25, of Commerce. “Just watching him is an experience in itself, but he lets us critique him also. He says it is better to have more than one set of eyes.”

Indeed, she and other students have spotted some things the old painter had missed.

“We have actually found some mistakes, and he was grateful,” Morales said. “So I guess we are also learning how to become maestros also.”