Ramón Del Castillo

 

 

Stevon Lucero, famed muralist and painter left us on November 28, 2021. He was loved by many for his artistic abilities, his mentorship and his lively community spirit.  As quoted in The Morenita Life, “The high mission of any art is, by its illusions, to foreshadow a higher universe reality, to crystalize the emotions of the time into the thought of eternity.”

 

He was one of the founders of the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council (CHAC) where he spent many hours, painting and conversing with community residents.  He was known for his Neo Pre-Columbian Aztec art work, as he painted motifs of Meso American deities, combined with contemporary cultural illustrations of community life and the many struggles that fellow human beings encounter.  Lucero is one of the Chicano artists whose work is catalogued by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.  Please visit his website at stevonlucero.com.

 

 

Una Despedida para el Maestro Stevon Lucero

 

Ramón Del Castillo

 

El Maestro.  He made

his time on this earth

a live long journey

to mentor youth

and fragmented

traumatized communities

suffering from colonialism

through the creation

of motifs

tearing down

false images

of la Raza,

replacing them with

la pachucada

batos sauves y firmes

strutting in a modern society

surrounded by

artistic meta realism,

preventing them

from becoming

Picasso’s of the western states

with one thousand

written and painted

masterpieces hanging

only from their minds;

an excerpt taken from

Maestro Lalo Delgado’s

famous poem, Stupid America.

 

Maestro Lucero’s murals

picturesque works of art

now hang in the minds

and hearts

of La Raza

telling stories

sharing pathways of resistance

spaces where poets and painters

conjoin

knowing that

words and pictures

can be used

to paint our presence

in the midst

of social obsolescence

portrayed by evil tricksters

displaying

people without faces

invisibility ad infinitum.

With a paint brush

in one hand

and an imagination

transcending idealism

in a make believe

yet real world

used to confuse

those unable to

transcend romanticism,

Maestro Lucero

took the spirits of La Raza

to visit Meso America

paintings with symbolism

about our indigeneity

kindling thoughts

feelings

yearnings

of a lost diaspora.

El Maestro

walked with la raza

into Tenochititlan,

and excavated

images of Quetzacoatl,

Tlaloc and Xochitquetzal,

mythical figurines

we are told

seen only by

the wise and old

believers with magical imaginations

able to comprehend hieroglyphics

confusing the blind

unable to see

through convoluted minds.

 

El Maestro’s murals

opened trapped doors

for the masses

coming out of

America’s education system

alienated from

their own beings

disjointed from

their historical cultures.

He challenged religions

that forbade

astral projection

to watch spirits glide

across fronteras

con puertas ceradas.  

 

He painted pathways

to Heaven

a spiritual place

where dreams

from all races

would appear

in a collage of magnificence

converting a distorted version

of reality painted

by those

who use money and power

to shape our existence

into a fictitious

garden of plenty.

Today, El Maestro Stevon Lucero

joins the Great Creator

ready to

paint the magical place

in a space

in another existence

with no resistance

where no borders exist

and our love for him

can persist.

Adios carnal.

¡Hasta el proximo!

¡Siempre su Hermano!

 

© 12/3/21 Dr. Ramón Del Castillo