40th annual De León Symposium to spotlight Mexican American art
Texas A&M University-Victoria is poised to highlight Mexican American art for this year’s Martín De León Symposium this coming October.
Through a collective effort between the DeLeón Club of Victoria and the History Program within A&M-Victoria’s Department of Social Science, this will mark the Symposium’s 40th year with this year’s theme, “Mexican Americans and the Arts.”
“It is important to celebrate the Mexican American community in Victoria because we are a Hispanic Serving Institution,” said James Dupree, assistant professor of history in the College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences. “So, it’s important that we recognize and celebrate their contributions to the Victoria area and the Coastal Bend.”
The Symposium is planned for Saturday, Oct. 3 at University North, 3007 N. Ben Wilson St. The free event is open to students, faculty, staff and the community. Doors will open at 9 a.m. to welcome guests with coffee and light snacks.
The event is aligned with Family Weekend, and guests are encouraged to stop by and engage with the local Mexican American culture.
Presentations will take place in the Walker Auditorium inside University North, while an accompanying art exhibition will be hosted in Galvan Community Hall, located next door to Walker Auditorium. The art exhibition will feature works by local artists whose pieces either reflect Mexican American life in Victoria or are created by Mexican American artists from the community.
The Symposium will feature two guest speakers: Claudia Quintero Moseley of Victoria College and Emilio Zamora of the University of Texas at Austin.
Moseley is the education coordinator for the Museum of the Coastal Bend at Victoria College. She is also an artist based in South Texas whose practice centers on painting and illustration. Her work explores the concept of dream states, time and liminal spaces of everyday life. Drawing on symbolism and the surreal, she works to articulate the immaterial dimensions of human experience.
During the symposium, she will present a lecture titled, "The Surreal, the Symbol, and the Story: Mexican American Art and the Heart of an Artist,” at 9:30 a.m.
The talk will explore Mexican American art from the perspective of artistic practice and meaning. She will also present her own artwork as part of the exhibition using selected pieces to illustrate themes in her talk.
“Being a working artist in the Texas Coastal Bend area has provided me with so many unique opportunities to interpret the land, history and people that make up our communities,” Moseley said. “I look forward to sharing both my own and the experiences of other Mexican American artists who have taken the struggles, joys and challenges of this area and translated them into dynamic works of art. Having an exhibition of local artists who are working now is an exciting addition to the Symposium, and I encourage the community to come out and support the artists who live among them.”
Emilio Zamora is a professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin. His presentation, “An Emerging Chicana/o Arts Movement,” is slated for 11 a.m. inside Walker Auditorium.
His talk will focus on the history and emergence of the Chicano arts movement in Texas, tracing how Mexican American artists have used visual culture to document experience, assert identity and engage with broader social and political developments.
While the Symposium is hosted on A&M-Victoria’s campus, the DeLeón Club of Victoria, a civic organization dedicated to community improvement and education, has been the primary sponsor and driving force behind the event, Dupree said. Co-sponsorship between the club and A&M-Victoria for the Symposium dates back to 1987, making it one of the longest-running university and community partnerships in the region, he said.
“They are an important part of our community,” Dupree said. “In other words, we are working with the community; we are a part of the community, and they are a part of the A&M-Victoria community.”
For more information, please contact James Dupree, assistant professor of history, at dupreeje@tamuv.edu.
Texas A&M University-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 50 academic programs in the colleges of Business, Education & Health Professions, Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, and Natural & Applied Science. A&M-Victoria provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as online classes that students can take from anywhere. The university supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.