Although his work hasn’t thus appeared in a print edition of zing, Leo Tanguma has twice appeared in interviews for this blog – first in 2012 when I profiled him and years later when he was interviewed by scholars Ben Gillespie and Josh T Franco from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art.

Originally from Texas – and claiming that his first mural was a chalk drawing of the town’s corrupt sheriff who terrorized the Chicano community – Tanguma’s presence for over 40 years in Denver and contributions to contemporary art and public arts projects have been meaningful to establishing Chicano art and muralism as integral to American history and modern culture.

His murals, in the same legacy as Siqueiros, are often political, telling stories of overcoming oppression, violence, and greed. His public profile was raised later when two major works on permanent view at DIA: In Peace and Harmony with Nature and The Children of the World Dream of Peace caught the attention of online conspiracy theorists who were determined to prove DIA had an apocalypse bunker for the wealthy and powerful. (My own late father was the superintendent of labor for the West Terminal and said there’s a tornado shelter, but no luxury bunker).

When I took a bus out to the foothills and visited Tanguma for that first interview in 2012, I was struck by how sincere and eager he was to do good with art – that he fiercely believed it was art’s job to address hardship.

For Cinco de Mayo (especially if you’re in Denver), read about Tanguma in zing here and here.

-Rachel Dalamangas