Last month saw a landmark exhibit of the art of Fernando Barragan at the Jean Deleage Art Gallery in Boyle Heights, California. Barragan’s fellow artist Jimmy Centeno curated the exhibit, and I'm pleased to share his thoughts on Barragan’s work. A fuller appreciation appears in CounterPunch, with a Spanish text also available.  — Vicky Hamlin

An invitation to paint a protest instead became the first Guernica manifestation by a Chicano artist. Fernando Barragan’s masterpiece No Somos Animales is a daring raw canvas mural depicting violence, pain, and anger in Chican@/Latin@ communities.

Barragan stands in front of his monochrome black-and-white canvas. He moves close to the microphone as everyone waits for him to share some insight. Barragan’s voice begins to crackle with emotion. His eyes turn watery and his voice ties up into knots. He goes speechless! He raises his hand and points to the painting hanging behind him, with tears rolling down his cheeks, choked up with feelings he manages to squeeze out: “This is why I paint!” The tears and the speechless moment testify to Barragan’s love, care, and concern for his community.

The wall-size canvas links Chican@ experiences in US history: the expatriation of hundreds of thousands of Chican@s and Mexican families to México during the Great Depression in the 1930s, the Operation Wetback in 1954 that repeated the racist removal of Mexicans and Chican@s from U.S soil. Barragan’s brushes are first soaked with the pueblo’s sweat and dipped in heart before returning to the canvas.