As artists develop in their art and style, they are also impacted by their environment and observations of the world around them.  This is the case with Emigdio Vasquez, Sr. and his son “Higgy” (Emigdio, Jr.), who have both drawn from within and without to create their own signatures in the world of art.  So when Higgy, an accomplished multi-media visual artist and musician, undertook the renovation of his father’s mural on the 400 block of Cypress Street in Old Towne, he set down his own brush and took up his father’s.

Often called the “Godfather of Chicano Art,” the senior Emigdio painted murals and studio pieces reflecting his Latino heritage.  His work includes more than 400 oil paintings and 22 murals in six central Orange County cities.

The mural on Cypress Street, a portion of which is featured in this issue, Emigdio Sr. painted in 1979 for his Master’s Degree thesis project while studying classical painting at California State University, Fullerton.  Encompassing an L-shape on two walls of a garage and running 60 feet long and 9 feet high, the mural tells the story of the once bustling Cypress Street barrio he called home.

“My father was a painter and documentarian of his time and place, who felt compassion for generations of working class Hispanics, and he depicted them and their worlds in his work,” says Higgy, who worked six and sometimes seven days a week for eight months to restore the mural of his father, whose health was failing at the time.

Abram Moya, Jr. is a social surrealism watercolorist, who knew Emigdio Sr. for 30 years and considers him his mentor.  “Emigdio elevated Chicano art,” says Moya.  “He was a realist painter with a mastery of color, technique and composition. Murals and gallery work are completely different and challenging, yet he did both very well. His son, Higgy, is a successful artist in his own right.”

The side of the mural that faces Cypress Street reveals a snapshot of daily life in the neighborhood from the 1940s to 1970s.  Using people who lived there as models, Emigdio Sr. portrayed daily life in the barrio, including the Cypress Street Market, a zoot suiter, striking laborers and low-riders in a 1940’s classic car.  The other half of the mural depicts Chicano history, including a large, stunning Aztec warrior, a revolutionary, immigrant farm workers who picked oranges, spinach and tomatoes, a railroad worker, a silver miner and labor leader Cesar Chavez.

Restoration of the mural began after Chapman University bought the apartment complex where the mural was painted.  “When the university was approached about purchasing the triplex on Cypress Street where the mural is located, school officials knew that the building was special, because it featured the historic mural,” says Kris Olsen, Vice President of Campus Planning & Operations for Chapman University.  “We knew that we had a responsibility to care for the mural, so we began by gathering as much information as we could about the artist and the impetus behind his painting it, including consulting with members of the Orange Barrio Historical Society.  We were also happy to discover that Emigdio Vasquez’s son, Higgy, was available to speak with us and interested in restoring the mural, which had experienced significant deterioration and decay over the years.  Now the mural is fully restored.”

“I spent years watching my father paint, noting the authority in his style and his techniques,” says Higgy, who was 12 when his father created the mural on Cypress Street.  “Because murals are so labor intensive and filling in some of the color was an easy task for a novice, my father gave me the opportunity to paint.”

Restoring the mural has given Higgy a deeper understanding and appreciation of his father’s work and the communities and people it portrayed.  “My father took his experience from his time, and although I also grew up in the same neighborhood—I lived in a backhouse of my grandma’s house just down the street from the mural—I’ve never experienced the type of racism that existed back in his day.”

While restoring the mural and staying true to the original painting was a rewarding experience that reminded Higgy of his roots, it was a challenging undertaking.  “There were entire sections of the mural missing with holes in the wall, multiple layers of decay on the mural, including the paint and varnish, and the plaster was coming off,” he says.  “The mural was greatly faded with years of sun and weather exposure.”

Higgy developed a process of grouting with stucco patch that saved most of the under-painting so he was able to see the faded images and use them to repaint.  “Most of the faces were intact, because they were higher up on the wall and there was fascia protecting them, which was important, because faces are the hardest to recreate, and my dad had a special technique of painting them,” says Higgy, who is proud to have for the most part preserved Emigdio Sr.’s work on the mural.  “My father was aware and happy that the mural was being restored prior to his passing in 2014.”

When it comes to preserving heritage, Orange is unique in keeping history alive for future generations, notes Lizeth Ramirez, archivist and reference librarian for the Orange Public Library & History Center, which recently received the $10,000 grant, Latino Americans: 500 Years of History, from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.  The grant will fund the library’s “Latino Americans: Shared Orange Heritage” project, which includes a program on January 14th about Emigdio and his work.

“Emigdio is an integral part of our city’s history,” says Ramirez.  “His murals provide a visual representation of the Chicano cultural heritage that is so important to the area, and the fact that the Cypress Street mural is now restored and vibrant offers an even stronger connection to the past.”

Higgy plans to restore more of Emigdio Sr.’s murals and recently restored a 40-foot mural at Irvine Valley College.  “My father’s contribution was capturing historical as well as daily life moments in time that would have otherwise been lost.  I’m glad to be able to use my skills to keep those moments alive.”

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“Chicano Art and Expression in Orange” featuring Emigdio Vasquez’s life and work will be held on January 14, 2016, 7 pm at the Orange Public Library & History Center.  A similar event will be held at Santa Ana College in March.

During 2014, a documentary was produced by Chapman University, with producer/Cable Ace Director, Katherine Bowers, about the restoration of the     mural.  “The Cypress St. Mural, El Proletariado de Atzlan” features the life and times of Emigdio Vasquez and the restoration of the Cypress Street mural by his son, Higgy Vasquez (‘A brush that paints twice’).  Watch the documentary at:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0PZ23Ev4FI.