Unpacking a Legacy

San Antonio is still coming to terms with the lasting impact of Jesse Treviño as an artist and community pillar

BY MARCO AQUINO

Even a month after the funeral mass of Jesse Treviño, San Antonio is still lamenting the loss of the beloved and influential visual artist known for his photorealistic paintings and largescale public art projects.

Friends and associates of the late Treviño, who died Feb. 13 at age 76 after a battle with cancer, said he had an outsize impact on the San Antonio community because he was part of the community. His legacy is that of an icon, a mentor and a creator of work that spoke to a public broader than just those who visited galleries or collected his work.

Treviño lost his right arm while serving in the Vietnam conflict. While face-down in a rice paddy, he vowed to return to his hometown and paint those dearest to him. Once he returned to San Antonio, he began painting with his left hand despite facing tremendous hurdles.

Among Treviño’s best known work is The

Spirit of Healing, a 93-foot mosaic mural on the facade of the Christus Santa Rosa Hospital, which he completed in 1997. His La Veladora of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a four-story, three-dimensional ceramic mural at the Guadalupe Theatre become a celebrated West Side landmark after its 2003 completion.

Although several of Treviño’s works have been acquired by the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum, those close to him said his deepest impact remains in the community in which he grew up — a community with whom he continues to resonate as an artist, individual and eager teacher.

“He was really regarded as a hometown hero,” said Ruben C. Cordova, who curated the first comprehensive retrospective for Treviño at the Museo Alameda in 2009.

“He wanted to paint photorealistically, because people could understand that; people could relate to it,” Cordova continued. “And because he could really render what he saw in a photograph, people marveled at that. To think he had begun as a right-hand painter and then started painting with his left hand, that’s even harder to believe.”

In preparation for the 2009 retrospective, Cordova remembers Treviño as being reluctant to talk about his work. With days ticking down before its opening, the curator finally corralled him, forced him to sit down and open up about his creative process.

Far from being unable to articulate his work process, it became clear Treviño remembered every detail of every work that he made. Cordova described the painter as being “very precise” and possessing a “sharp mind.”

Credit is still due

Among the most astonishing works in the Museo Alameda’s retrospective was a largescale painting of the artist’s mother titled Señora Dolores Treviño. In it, Treviño depicts the family matriarch as she holds a basket full of laundry in the backyard of her modest home. The painting’s grand scale 25

23 appears to elevate the status of a domestic worker.

“I think what he wanted to do was capture the lived experience of his mother,” Cordova said. “It was important to him to paint her daily life.”

Cordova said depicting daily life is a tradition that could be traced back to French 19th century painting, when artists such as Jean Désiré Corbet began breaking away from conventions and academic painting to forge the Realism movement. Later, the Chicano movement created demand for dignified images of Latinos in which they could be seen taking pride in the work they conducted.

Despite Alamo City art lovers’ appreciation of Treviño, he still hasn’t received the credit he’s due, Cordova said.

“He is a cultural hero in San Antonio but not as well known outside of San Antonio,” he added. “He really should be in local and national museums.”

West Side Pride

Jimmy Leflore managed the City of San Antonio Public Arts Programs for more than 20 years.

One of the first major projects he remembers working on was Treviño’s Veladora sculpture at the Guadalupe Theater. When it was approved in the early 2000s, city officials were just starting to recognize the positive community impact of public art, Leflore said. For years prior, it had also been difficult to win city approval for the use of religious iconography on public buildings.

In that way, Treviño’s creation broke ground on two fronts.

“I don’t think that was lost on Jesse,” Leflore said. “I think he understood this was a bold statement he was making.”

Along with the city’s eventual backing of the project came the approval of the surrounding West Side, community that still hadn’t begun to get its full recognition as a significant cultural center of San Antonio.

“That project was a major milestone in helping establish the West Side culture as part of the San Antonio brand,” Leflore added. “People from all over go out of their way to see that sculpture.”

Leflore says he was impressed by Treviño’s ability to execute at such a grand scale, whether it be with paint brush or ceramic tile.

“I immediately understood his vision was at the level of a master artist,” Laflore said. “He loved his family, and he loved his hometown. He saw the beauty of Chicano people, and he was able to communicate that so that his own people and others could see it.”

Painting La Raza

Joe Lopez, known for his paintings of Mexican Americans and roosters, a symbol of strength in Mexican American culture, sees Treviño’s significance as that of a mentor — not just to him but an entire community.

For years, Lopez owned the Gallista Gallery on South Flores Street, a spot that showcased his own work as well as that of emerging San Antonio artists.

He frequented the same frame shop as Treviño and eventually befriended the revered painter.

Lopez was born with only one arm and saw Treviño as an inspiration for his ability to overcome obstacles.

“But besides that, he was painting about La Raza,” Lopez said. “When you see something that you can relate to, it makes you feel good. We were so proud of him that he wasn’t ashamed of painting these things. It was like saying, ‘Don’t forget where you came from.’”

Lopez credits Treviño for teaching him how to hang a painting properly and helping him to develop professionally.

“I started poniendole mas, and I became more professional,” Lopez said.

Lopez he also appreciated Treviño’s ability to adopt a sense of humor even when facing adversity — something he’s tried to channel. Lopez said he and his mentor often joked that they could save money if they bought gloves together.

Lopez points out that those who look closely enough at Treviño’s painting of his mother will see that she actually holds a large fruit basket rather than a laundry basket.

“People who have lived through humble times will recognize these small details,” he said.

‘Familiar faces’

Although painter Vincent Valdez now resides in Houston, he remains one of the Alamo City’s most-recognizable visual artists. He credits Treviño’s work for inspiring his own. Further, representation was a key part of that influence.

“As a child, I kept a scrapbook filled with local newspaper clippings of works by Cesar Martinez and Jesse Treviño,” Valdez said. “Their works were the very first time I saw familiar faces and communities like my own represented as American painting. Their works filled the void and carried me through childhood in ways that European and American art history books could not.”

Martinez, Valdez’s aforementioned inspiration, met Treviño in 1971. He remembers the painter’s masterful use of tools and described him a disciplined master whose creations were “very well calculated.”

Although Treviño’s work depicted Mexican Americans and Mexican American culture, perhaps one of the most significant aspects of it is that it can viewed as universal, Martinez said, unlocking perhaps one of the most vital clues as to why he remains a beloved San Antonio icon.

“We all work from a cultural viewpoint, but all cultures have parallels.” Martinez said. “I think Jesse was able to parlay that into a universal understanding of his work but also of our own culture.”

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Dig It

San Antonio-tied Brian Villalobos plays archaeologist in Cannes-bound TV series Groundbreaking

BY KIKO MARTINEZ

When actor and one-time San Antonio resident Brian Villalobos got a call from director Patrick William Smith a couple years ago asking him if he would be interested in auditioning for a TV series he was making, the pitch included a description of the show as “Indiana Jones meets The Office.”

If that wasn’t intriguing enough, Smith told him they would be shooting in Ireland.

“I was like, ‘I don’t know what that means, and it sort of makes my brain short circuit, but that sounds incredible,’” Villalobos, 42, told the Current during a recent interview.

“Also, did you say Ireland?”

So began Villalobos’ involvement in the comedy mockumentary series Groundbreaking. It follows a team of “astoundingly unsuccessful archaeologists” who travel to the fictional Irish town of St. Quinn, where they’re hired by a developer to survey the land to make sure a construction project won’t destroy anything historic buried in the area.

During their excavation, the team, which includes Villalobos’ character Goose, inadvertently discover an ancient Celtic secret that triggers a series of mysterious events.

“When I read the script, it felt like a throwback to those ’80s and ’90s adventure stories with a lot of heart,” Villalobos said. “I hesitate to say Steven Spielberg and Richard Donner and The Goonies, but it was that kind of feeling.”

Groundbreaking will make its world premiere on April 18 at the Cannes International

Series Festival, aka Canneseries, in Cannes, France, which runs separately from the Cannes Film Festival. The first episode will screen in the short form competition.

Villalobos is a graduate of Saint Mary’s Hall and is currently living in the Austin area. Full disclosure: He was also a writer and associate editor at the Current from 2005 to 2012.

Once Villalobos auditioned and landed the role, he packed his bags in summer of 2021 and made the trip to Connemara, a region in Western Ireland. The cast and production team finished filming the first full season in a month’s time. Now, they’re hoping Canneseries screening can land a distributor.

During our interview, Villalobos talked about his character’s role on the archaeology team and the most challenging aspect of shooting outdoors in Ireland. He also explained the significance of a landmark in the series dubbed Sex Tree.

Tell me about your character, Goose. The way Goose was described to me was that he’s like your favorite history teacher from high school. He’s the historian of the team. When [the team] gets to a dig, he’s the one that knows all the background. He also has a caretaker role and wants to make sure everyone is happy. The team has a lot of passion, and they love what they do, but they just haven’t found anything yet.

You say they haven’t found anything, but in the trailer, Goose is seen very proudly unearthing a lot of used condoms.

(Laughs.) Yes, in his desperate search for something of note, he finds a tree and starts digging around it and unearths decades of used condoms. Ever the optimist, he’s like, “Well, there’s a story here.” There’s been a lot of condom activity at that tree, which he immediately dubs Sex Tree. Goose is also a cartographer, so he makes a map that looks like one you would see in The Lord of the Rings or at the beginning of an A.A. Milne Winnie the Pooh book. The map he makes has all these landmarks that are significant to the story, and then right in the middle of it is Sex Tree.

The series features an international cast, but you’re the only American actor, correct?

Yeah, I’m the only American in the cast. Going into [production], I was like, “By default, I’m the most boring person here.” I waltzed into [the audition] and was like, “What accent do you want me to use?” Patrick was like, “No, you’re American.” I was like, “Oh, OK. Cool.”

What was it like shooting in Ireland?

It was breathtaking. The Irish countryside is mindbogglingly beautiful. There’s just so much history. At the same time, we lost so many production days to rain. I want to stress that Ireland is amazing beyond description, but there are also these things — these small, Irish mosquito-gnats — called midges. During one scene, these midges were just bouncing off our faces. I could hear them thwacking on the camera lens. It got so bad, we had to call it a day. We were rained out, and we were midged out.

Will you be in Cannes for the festival?

My wife and my kids, we’re all going. I went to Ireland to shoot [Groundbreaking] and couldn’t take them. I don’t think it would’ve gone over well if I was like, “See you later! I’m going to the French Riviera!”