San Francisco Public Library
Grove Street Entrance
This art work of charchoal and pastel on paper and canvas is by Enrique Chagoya. It was a gift from the Mexican consulate in San Francisco.
Measuring 160 inches square, the mural contains some thirty names of prominent Latino American writers and poets who have made important contributions to literature. They include Claribel Alegria, Isabel Allende, Jorge Amado, Manlio Argueta, Miguel Angel Asturias, Mario Benedetti, Jorge Luis Borges, Lydia Cabrera, Alejo Carpentier, Rosario Castellanos, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Julio Cortazar, Ruben Dario, Rosario Ferre, Carlos Fuentes, Romulo Gallegos, Jorge Icaza, Sor Juana Inex de la Cruz, Jose Lezama Lima, Jose Marti, Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, Elena Poniatowska, Roberto Sosa, Luisa Valenzuela, Cesar Vallejo, and Mario Vargas Llosa.
Enrique Chagoya (born in 1953) is a Mexican-born painter and print-maker. His subject is the changing nature of culture.
Chagoya was born in Mexico City in 1953. He was partly raised by an Amerindian nurse who taught him to respect the indigenous people of his country and their history. He studied economics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City in 1975.
In 1977, Chagoya immigrated to the United States, where he worked as a free-lance illustrator and graphic designer and for a time, in 1977, with farm laborers in Texas. In 1984, he earned a BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute and in 1987 an MFA at the University of California at Berkeley. He lives in San Francisco.
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