top of page

Review of Lovers & Fighters, Prints by Latino Artists in the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) Collection, Round II

Chris Karr

Updated: Jan 30

Round II out of Four in Lovers & Fighters: Prints by Latino Artists in the SAMA Collection invites viewers into a rich dialogue of icons in Latino culture, and is currently on display at SAMA’s Golden Gallery. The museum, located in downtown San Antonio, has a history of exhibiting Latino art. Back in 1985, former Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller and Robert K. Winn donated extensive collections of Latin American art to the museum. The prints featured in Lovers & Fighters come from SAMA’s collection, and more recent contributions to the collection were generously donated by Harriet and Ricardo Romo.


Lovers & Fighters consists of artworks that investigate iconic imagery in Latino culture, from the influential figures in Latino history to popular symbols. Most of the artworks on display in the different rounds of the exhibit are prints. Printmaking is integral to modern and contemporary Latino art history. The Taller de Gráfica Popular (“Popular Graphic Art Workshop”), founded in Mexico City in 1937, involved some of Mexico’s most prominent artists who conveyed leftist political stances in their artwork, such as José Guadalupe Posada Aguilar and Leopoldo Méndez. In the 1960s, Chicano artists adopted printmaking to represent their culture and activism regarding various human rights issues. Printmaking is convenient for its reproducibility and is still used by Chicano artists (and other Latino artists) to convey narratives that reflect nuances of personal and cultural experience.

Delilah Montoya, American, born 1955, Los Dos Corazones, 2007, Screen print, Image: 16 × 19 1/8 in. (40.6 × 48.6 cm); Sheet: 22 1/8 × 29 in. (56.2 × 73.7 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of Ricardo and Harriett Romo, 2012.31.44 © Delilah Montoya 


Delilah Montoya’s Los Dos Corazones pays homage to Luis Jiménez, who died in 2006 after an accident in his art studio. Montoya holds a locket that Jiménez gifted her and juxtaposes the locket with charms that were also gifts, and petals of roses. Inside the heart-shaped locket is a photo of Jiménez, who sports a calm expression. This screenprint is nostalgic, recalling the memory of a Chicano artist who boldly sculpts the Mexican American experience in the United States Southwest in ways that invite controversy and respect.


Richard Duardo (American, 1952-2014), Che, 2011, Screen print (HPM), 20 ¾ x 19 ½ in. (52.7 x 49.5 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of Ricardo and Harriet Romo, 2013.15.34 © Estate of Richard Duardo


Richard Duardo’s Che recalls the likeness of Che Guevara, who was a revolutionary Marxist that helped Fidel Castro overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Che Guevara (his real name was Ernesto Guevara de la Serna) carried his revolutionary ideals and guerilla tactics to Congo and Bolivia, but was eventually found and killed in Bolivia in an operation backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It's important to note that Che Guevara drew inspiration from Simón Bolívar, a predecessor who led revolutions in South America. Although heavily involved in Cuba’s Revolution, Che was born in Argentina.


Duardo immortalizes the icon, who sports a beret with the communist star front and center. Che looks beyond the viewer, above our heads, and into a different future. Duardo’s screen print references an iconic photo of Che that was taken by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda on March 5, 1960. The background of bright red evokes the passion and sacrifice associated with revolution. Meanwhile, Che’s green shirt hints at hope, renewal, and perhaps a vision of a more just future, led by himself, to be less influenced by dictatorship and more equitable for the masses.


Sonia Romero (American, born 1980), Sacred Heart, 2013, Screen print, 32 ¾ x 45 ½ in. (83.2 x 115.6 cm), San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of Ricardo and Harriet Romo, 2015.7.44 © Sonia Romero


Sonia Romero’s Sacred Heart is rich with symbolism. A man, representing an anonymous composite of the Chicano community, pulls at his shirt to reveal a sacred heart—a heart pierced by chains, with flames rising above it. The sacred heart is a motif frequently used in Mexican culture to embody resilience, and traces its origins to Europe. In Mexican folk art, the sacred heart also represents the love of Jesus Christ, playing a key role in syncretic traditions that blend Indigenous and Catholic spiritual beliefs. This fusion reflects the idea of sacrifice, which is significant in both cultural contexts, both through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and those of indigenous captives in pre-Columbian Mexico.


The cultural syncretism of the print radiates from the sacred heart, extending throughout the man's body. On his chest, Romero juxtaposes a variety of symbols, including an Aztec ollin, a skull, a bird with a serpent in its mouth, and silhouettes of women—one in profile, adorned with Aztec-inspired earrings. The viewer witnesses an inner landscape, where the man’s body acts as the container of his culture.


The simplicity of the silkscreen’s plain blue background contrasts sharply with the man, who is filled with symbols. This stark contrast emphasizes Romero's belief in the body as a landscape, transforming it into a space where cultural identity and heritage are both carried and revealed.


The artworks of Lovers & Fighters embrace the power of love and resilience while also shedding light on the ongoing struggle for social justice and cultural identity within the Latino community through popular figures and symbols. The artworks I discuss have different intentions; Montoya’s Los Dos Corazones honors a Chicano art icon; Duardo’s Che immortalizes a Cuban revolutionary; and Romero’s Sacred Heart conveys the body as the inner landscape of one’s icons.



Round II of Lovers & Fighters: Prints by Latino Artists in the SAMA Collection is on display at the San Antonio Museum of Art until October 20, 2024.


0 comments

Comments


bottom of page