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10H Sunday, August 23, 1998
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San Antonio Express-News

Con Safo pushed its art into view of mainstream
Continued from 1H

X; whatever you say about me goes double for you.

The name suited the group. "It was an instigator," says Casas, an El Pasoan who came to San Antonio in 1961.  "By that I mean it was a radical group wanting to make its presence known.  Where I grew up, 'con safo' has a defiance to it.

"It also excuses what you're doing," Casas says. "Con safo, zafarse (to escape), salir (to get out). It's a very philosophical approach.  You say something 'con safo,' and you can't touch me because I have a way to get out of it."

The Con Safo movement attracted non-artists as well.  Ellen Riojas Clark, now a professor in the division of bicultural and bilingual studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, served as its secretary.

"I'm not an artist at all, but I was interested because I became friends with them and then because of the issues," recalls Clark, who was a student in the education department at Trinity University when she joined the group.  "I think that was part of what sparked my interest in bicultural studies."

Con Safo was struggling with "the whole issue of being Chicano artists in a world that did not view Chicano art as a genre," Clark says.  "You couldn't show in traditional galleries or museums.  You weren't taken in, so there was a lot of ground-breaking that had to be done."

In addition, the artists were trying to figure out "why they were painting outside the mainstream.  Why was it valid for them, and what did it mean?" she says.  "So the discussions then were those of political and social/cultural issues."

The group was also developing an inconography that came out of their experience as Americans of

[[image - painting]]
Special to the Express-News
'Señora Delores Treviñó is an acrylic on canvas done by Jesse Treviño in 1983. A retrospective of works by Trevino (below) was mounted by the Mexican Cultural Institute in 1991.
[[image - photograph]]

[[image - photograph]]
Mel Casas was all smiles at the opening reception for 1988 exhibit of his work

Mexican descent that presented images such as that of the pachuco, or zoot-suiter, as All-American.

Members produced politically charged work, such as Casas' painting "Brownies of the Southwest," a piece with a series of visual and literal puns that depicts a plate of cookies with Native American and Hispanic images in the forefront.

Con Safos posited "a manifesto of Chicano aesthetics showing Chicano art was rooted in a certain tradition of struggle, and way of life and struggle," says Tomas Ybarra Frausto, associate director of arts and humanities at the Rockefeller Foundation.  "But I think it's important to point out also that they were part of American art, and they should be recognized for their contribution to American art."

Frausto points, for example, to the pop-art movement.  "All the books that have been written about pop art never mention the contribution of groups like Con Safo," he says.

Since mainstream venues wouldn't show their work, the group had exhibits at community centers and conferences.  They also did exhibits in support of Cesar Chaves and the United Farm Workers. 
 
"It was almost better that way, because we took our stuff to the people," says Kathy Vargas, a photographer and director of the visual arts department at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center.  "It was the power to empower others, because when they saw their struggles and their day-to-day lives depicted with dignity, and when they saw themselves worthy of having good art made about them, they felt as if their struggles and their causes and their issues were being heard and given importance.

"And every now and then, one of us did sneak into a gallery with something.  And that took it just a little bit further.  That took it to an audience that may not have wanted to look at it, or may not have wanted to listen to it."

When they did do shows at universities and other in mainstream venues, it was on their terms.

"We would ask them not only to insure the paintings, but come and package them, transport them, pay for the catalog...(It was) unheard of," Jesse Almazan recalls.  "They wanted the artist to pay for everything, like they were doing you a favor.  We turned it around.  That was the Con Safo way."

Martinez joined the group because "there was safety in numbers," given the political/cultural climate.  He brought other artists into the fold, including Amado Peña and Carmen Lomas Garza,

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César Martinez (above) is shown in 1991 with his painting 'Mona Lupe.' He says he joined Con Safo because 'there was safety in numbers,' considering the climate in the '60s and '70s.  

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Kathy Vargas (left), shown working on a photograph in April 1983, says Con Safo 'let me see we need to do something for regular folks who aren't just about going to art galleries.'

who became known as the Kingsville School of the group because the had studied at Texa A&I — now a branch of Texas A&M — in the small South Texas town.

At the time, the series of vato/pachuco paintings Martinez is known for was a few years away.  Instead, he was interested in doing abstract art and going to New York.  But the Chicano movement got in the way.

When Martinez came to San Antonio, "I was really blown away by what the local artists were doing," he recalls. "I wasn't sure if I could top that.  I'm competitive and I said, 'This is tough.'"

He was particularly taken with the work of Con Safo members Roberto Rios and Jose Esquivel.

"They were doing very simple stuff, and yet with a cultural angle to it, and sometimes a political angle to it, especially in the case of Roberto Rios.  It was so understandable, and yet so sophisticated, and just so good that it blew me away.  I said 'How in the world am I going to come up with something like this?' So, actually, when I was in Con Safo, I'm not actually sure if I showed any artwork.  I was just exploring at the time," Martinez said.

Vargas joined the group in 1975, about eight months before Con Safo disbanded.

"I think I was 25 years old at the time, but I was a baby artist," she says.  "I had only been taking myself seriously as an artist for a year."  As a teen she had been politically involved, but in the early '70s she was doing rock 'n' roll photography and had gotten away from the community activism with which she grew up.  Joining Con Safo repoliticized her and changed the way she viewed art, Vargas says.

"I think I probably wouldn't be at the Guadalupe today if I hadn't been involved with the group.  It let me see we need to do something for regular folks who aren't just about going to art galleries," she says.  "It gave me a whole different take on art.  It made me realize that art can never, ever divorce itself from general public, because if you divorce yourself from the general public and count on a handful of art lovers, what are you doing it for?"

Her experience with Con Safo affected her art as well, she says, though politics in her work isn't always obvious.  Currently, she is working on a series called "Miracle Lives," photographs of women who have faced obstacles in their lives such as abusive relationships and poverty.  Among her subjects is a woman who was a migrant worker as a child but was able to go to college — inspiring others in her family to do the same.  

"For me, the fact that she exists and was able to do that is a political act," Vargas says. "And the fact that I'm recording it is a political act."

Several factors led to the disintegration of the group.  There were power struggles within it, and disagreements over how to raise money and the conditions the group set for mainstream venues to show their work.

Martinez, and some of the other artists he brought into the group, broke away from Con Safo to form Los Quemandos, or the Burn-outs.

The dissolution of Con Safos was inevitable, and perhaps even desirable.

"As a matter of fact, I think its success was its demise," Casas says, "because it succeeded in doing what it wanted to do.  And I wonder — had it not, would it still be a struggling group?  But it was fast and efficient."

Transcription Notes:
various pictures made it difficult to parse flow, but followed general news paper reading. down left side, until hit picture, describe picture, continue with column writing post.