Rudy Fernandez

In 1975, while teaching in Mexico City, Colorado-born Rudy Fernández saw for the first time an exhibition of the works of Frida Kahlo. Frustrated that his formal art education had excluded the arts of Mexico, Central, and South America, he was determined to learn more about what he calls "pre-Cortesian" art. Since then he has developed a personal vocabulary of visual symbols, a unique vernacular that blends Chicano, Mexican, and Anglo artistic and cultural references.

Jonathan Yorba Arte Latino: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (New York and Washington, D.C.: Watson-Guptill Publications, in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2001)