Acclaimed contemporary visual artist and art educator Amado M. Peña Jr., a native Laredoan now of Nambé, New Mexico, was in Laredo recently to receive the key to the City from Mayor Victor Treviño and the Laredo City Council.
“It was a wonderful experience to see old friends, to be here with my nieces and my son, José Luis (Chepo), and to be back in my old neighborhood. Laredo was the beginning of my journey as an artist, where I was nurtured and mentored by my seventh-grade art teacher Graciela (Chita) Guerra and Martin High School art instructor José María Lozano. Their encouragement and the support of my parents were the inspiration to move forward and to work harder,” he said.
The son of María and Amado Peña Sr., the artist recalled that the drive to work harder as an artist did not come from a book.
“It came from hours in the studio,” he said, adding, “Outside of the art classroom, there wasn’t much support for the arts in Laredo in the 1960s. I knew eventually I would have to leave here to accomplish the vision I had for my life as an artist. Before I left Laredo, I taught art at Martin High in the same classroom where I had worked as a student,” he noted.
Peña completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965 from Texas A&I University and in 1971 a Master’s in Education and Art, also from Texas A&I.
Peña moved to Crystal City to establish art programs for the Crystal City Independent School District’s elementary, middle, and high schools. It was there in the early 1970s that his work turned to bold silk-screened political reflections that chronicled the plight of farmworkers – the inequities of their low wages and poor working conditions – which came to national attention via the United Farmworkers Movement in the late 1960s and the nascent Chicano Movement and La Raza Unida Party.
After a move to Austin in 1973, Peña taught art at Anderson High School for seven years. He stopped teaching in 1980 and established a studio and gallery, El Taller, on Austin’s historic downtown Sixth Street. He and his wife, J.B., moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1982, establishing the Peña Gallery. The gallery and work studio have relocated to the Peña’s ranch in Nambé, a 15-minute drive from Santa Fe.
