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Denver, Apr 24 (EFE).- Young artists, mostly Hispanic and devout, are renewing religiously inspired sculpture and painting in Colorado, adapting to the 21st century a tradition begun 400 years ago with the arrival of Spaniards in the region.
The principal vehicle of this renaissance is the "santo," a religious icon crafted from wood by a "santero."
"Santos are Hispanics' gift to humanity. What they mean today, and what they inspire, is as important in the present as it was 400 years ago," says Jose Raul Esquibel, one of Colorado's foremost santeros.
"We are seeing a whole new generation of artists in our state who are dedicating themselves to this art in an innovative and interesting way," he said.
Esquibel, who began creating santos in 1992 after retiring from a career in the U.S. Foreign Service, has become a fervent promoter of santero art, giving more than 80 talks on the subject in recent years.
He is also a docent at the Denver Art Museum, where some of his own works have been displayed.
While acknowledging that New Mexico's famous Spanish Market, located in Santa Fe, plays a crucial role in preserving santero art by giving the works an esthetic context and commercial value, Esquibel says that the institution's rules limit the number of artists who can display their pieces there.
The Spanish Market only accepts artists who can prove descent from old-line families of New Mexico and southern Colorado, who are familiar with traditional santero techniques and use traditional materials, and whose iconography conforms to established norms.
During the last 50 years, only four Colorado santeros have been invited to display at the Spanish Market.
The barriers to showing their work at the prestigious location in New Mexico have prompted Colorado's santeros and santeras to create their own venues.
For example, Denver's Regis University has a permanent collection of santos, both statues and relief carvings, while the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council organizes annual exhibits of santero art.
The state's Chili Harvest Festival, held every year at the beginning of autumn, features samples of Colorado santero art, which practitioners describe as subtly different from that of New Mexico.
"The santeros and santeras of Colorado, or at least those in Denver, they don't believe they have separated so much from the traditional santero art that's exhibited in the Spanish Market of New Mexico," said santero and former CHAC chairman Jerry Vigil. "Rather they believe they are creating contemporary santero art, and an art that reflects the Latino and Chicano community of this city."
Vigil said that he and other local santeros use modern materials and tools, and that their pieces express Mexican-American culture as it is experienced in Greater Denver, as opposed to that of New Mexico or even southern Colorado.
"The Spanish Market is not the only place to appreciate santero art," he said. "The santeros of Colorado are an innovative force with new ideas who are opening a new market for this form of sacred art."
One of those innovators is Meggan De Anza, known for using bright colors and unconventional materials such as cardboard and aluminum cans yet managing to preserve a reverential tone.
Another Colorado santera, Teresa Duran, favors recycled materials and non-traditional colors.
Carlos Fresquez, now an instructor at Metropolitan State College in Denver, specializes in superimposing color photocopied images onto wood panels in combination with original elements.
"They, with their chisels, paints and paintbrushes, are making santos accessible to a whole new generation of devotees," Vigil said of Colorado's young santeros and santeras. EFE
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