Emigdio Vasquez
Emigdio Vasquez

At the age of 10, Rosemary Vasquez Tuthill began accompanying her father, Emigdio Vasquez, when he sold his art.

“My job was to keep an eye on things if he left for a few minutes,” says Vasquez Tuthill, who today is an oil painter and muralist.  “At the time, I saw people drawn to his work, but it wasn’t until I reached adulthood that I understood his art’s significance and his incredible talent.”

Considered one of the fathers of the Chicano Art Movement and a self-identified social-realist painter, Vasquez, who passed away in 2014, was a prolific Orange-based artist, who grew up in Old Towne’s historic Cypress Street Barrio.  Over his lifetime, Vasquez created more than 30 large-scale murals throughout Central and North Orange County and painted more than 400 easel oil paintings.

Vasquez’s artwork depicts the Chicano cultural movement, featuring local people and places, as well as historic imagery from Mexican and Mexican-American history.  Some of his work shows the Cypress Street Barrio.  One of his most recognized murals is the “Legacy of Cesar Chavez,” located at Santa Ana College.

Hispanic Rembrandt

“My father’s work, which dates back to the late 1950s, was infectious and appealed to a wide variety of people,” says Vasquez Tuthill, who went on to represent her father and study under him.  “Everyone on Cypress Street knew him; his influence spread throughout many communities.  I consider him the Hispanic Rembrandt.”

Though his murals were well known during his lifetime, Vasquez’s work didn’t get the attention from the art world that many believed it deserved.  To spread the word about Vasquez’s art and honor it, in 2013, Chapman University partnered with the Orange Barrio Historical Society and local artist Higgy Vasquez, Emigdio’s son, to restore one of his father’s murals (“El Proletariado de Aztlan”), located on a Chapman property on North Cypress Street.

Currently, the university is one of 70 institutions in Southern California participating in an initiative by the Getty Museum.  Through January 5, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA is featuring exhibits throughout Southern California focused on Latin American and Latino art.

Chapman’s contribution to this broad-reaching initiative is “MyBarrio: Emigdio Vasquez and Chicana/o Identity in Orange County.”  Included in this project is the Cypress Street mural, as well as the “My Barrio Murals” free app that documents all of Emigdio Vasquez’s known murals, providing locations to facilitate finding the works and information about them.  On campus, they’ve installed an exhibit of Vasquez’s easel paintings in the Guggenheim Gallery and a timeline exhibition including documentary material in the Henley Galleria.  Higgy Vasquez is also creating a new mural (shown above) in the Moulton Hall Courtyard that celebrates Chapman’s history by connecting the university and surrounding neighborhoods.

Vasquez Recognition Overdue

“My father would have been over the moon about being a part of a Getty exhibit,” says Vasquez Tuthill, who represented her father and his work from 1992 until his passing in 2014.  “Chapman is showcasing some of his best pieces, which are focused on his local neighborhood.  Many people have said that a show of this magnitude was a long time coming for him.”

The fact that Vasquez’s art and its significance to the Chicano art movement wasn’t as widely known as many thought it should be encouraged the project, according to Chapman University Art History professor Denise Johnson.  “Soon after some colleagues and I discussed how Emigdio’s art had been underrepresented, we received the solicitation for project proposals for the Getty Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative. We jumped at the opportunity to highlight his work.”

Johnson and others* in Chapman’s art department decided to pair Vasquez’s easel paintings with the work of other contemporary Latina/o artists,* using Chapman’s El Proletariado de Aztlan mural as a launching point for Vasquez’s themes.

Gerald Padilla is a professor of ethnic studies at Fullerton community college for the last 46 years.  He was a good friend to Vasquez, whom he met in 1972 and lived with for a time.

“I look at art from a cultural perspective,” says Padilla.  “The fact that Chapman partnered with the Getty to recognize Emigdio’s work is incredibly meaningful.  By recognizing Emigdio, they are recognizing a community and honoring the fact that he came through the barrio experience and emerged a successful, respected artist.”

El Barrio De Orange, 1965

The painting featured in this issue on the inside front cover, “El Barrio De Orange, 1965,” depicts the Cypress Street Barrio during Emigdio’s time.  “The two structures on the left in the foreground are shanty type buildings that have since been replaced,” says Johnson.  “They were thrown up in the early 1900s for the migrant orange pickers to live in.”

The man in the painting is walking toward an iconic building that is still standing—the Cypress Street Market.  “The little market was a lifeline to the Orange barrio,” says Johnson.  “It provided the essential ingredients of their lives, including tortillas and avocados, which they couldn’t find at larger markets at that time.  The store also extended credit to residents, so they could eat between paychecks.”

In the lower left hand corner of the painting is a trashcan with some debris, notes Johnson.  “Such details are indicative of Vasquez’s work.  He depicted places that were lived in and loved.  His portraits were equally intimate and involved, featuring the topographical mapping of the subjects’ lives, including their wrinkles.”

Vasquez Tuthill feels that her father’s work appeals to a wide cross-section of people, because his subjects are accessible and his themes are universal.

“The people and places my father depicted are enjoyed by people from all walks of life, because the images are easily understood and they contain commonalities that tie us together,” she says.  “We all have elderly grandparents and relatives who struggled to make ends meet and keep the family going.  His work reaches so many people, because they see their families and histories in the paintings.”

Joshua Correa is a Placentia fine artist and board member of the Yorba Linda Arts Alliance Foundation.  Though he never met Vasquez, he was influenced by his murals.  “I believe it’s important to capture the history of the artists who impact a certain area,” he says.  “Emigdio's influence was wider than the murals he painted, because of the vast numbers of students who copied his work and how his art influenced the work they would produce.”

Continuing and Preserving the Legacy

For much of her adult life, Vasquez Tuthill worked as an engineer technician in the aerospace industry.  She painted occasionally, but had seen her father struggle as an artist and felt she needed to focus on another career.  In 2007, she began helping her father, who struggled with Alzheimer’s.  At the time, her husband gave her an easel and suggested she start painting with her father.

“At first I resisted, but in 2010, I started painting with my father,” she says.  “He sat behind me as I worked, and I knew I was sitting with an industry giant.  Despite the dementia, he told me his secrets, including how to mix colors and layer paints.”

When she was laid off in 2014, Vasquez Tuthill decided to become a professional artist.  She does her own commissioned and historical work and shares her love of art by conducting paint parties, where she leads painters to create their own masterpieces.  In addition, she is currently restoring a two-piece mural of her father’s that was originally used as a backdrop at the Orange County Fair in 1989.

“The mural consists of two 24-feet long by 10-feet tall canvases showing several scenes, including a portrayal of the Spanish and Aztec conflict and how it influenced Mexico,” she says.  “The mural is turning out really well.  I feel like my father is still behind my shoulder watching me work.  When completed, the mural will be housed by the Heritage Museum of Orange County in Santa Ana.”

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* In addition to Denise Johnson, the Chapman University team responsible for curating the “MyBarrio: Emigdio Vasquez and Chicana/o Identity in Orange County” project includes: Natalie Lawler, Marcus Herse, Lindsay Shen and Wendy Salmond.

* The exhibition of Vasquez’s easel paintings includes works by eight contemporary artists: Ramiro Gomez, Ken Gonzales-Day, Cynthia Herrera, Dulce Soledad Ibarra, Patrick Martinez, Shizu Saldamando, Alejandro Sanchez and Ana Serrano.

Article Published in the
Nov / Dec 17 edition of the Old Towne Orange Plaza Review
Written by Julie Bawden-Davis Images provided by Higgy Vasquez
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