César Estrada Chávez: Lost But Not Forgotten Photographs

When I get really bored, I scan old negatives and slides. Recently I found a series on César Estrada Chávez. I remember printing, publishing and exhibiting many of them. This one in particular, I never reproduced. I felt it was about time.

This series of photographs were taken in San José, California in the early 70s. It was at a benefit concert for the United Farmworkers Union. Chavez was in attentendance. I have seen the UFW leader many times before. He was not a stranger in San José.

I have two examples of the photo. One is full frame and the other is cropped. Since I shot the black and white photograph with my Hasselblad medium format camera. The pictures are quite sharp. Feel free to contact me should you have any questions about this and any of my photographs. My website is www.JMMGarza.com. 

Copyright 2022 Jesús Manuel Mena Garza. All rights reserved. JMMGarza@Gmail.com

My Chicanocentric Photography Website

For more than half a century, I (Jesús Manuel Mena Garza) have captured photos and shot film (now video) for clients and exhibition. Today, I am still busy creating art. I have attached a link to my Chicanocentric website where you can download photographs. My general website is JMMGarza.com. Feel free to contact me should you have questions, suggestions or comments. Here is the link to my new Chicanocentric website: https://chicanophotographer.myportfolio.com

My Review: Sennheiser ew 100-ENG G3 Kit & MD 42 Mic Review

In this video, I report on the ew 100-ENG G3 and MD 42 mic. This concise report could be quite informative for those interested in a flexible ENG set for indoors and outdoors. The Sennheiser kit and mic are definitely professional quality.

My wife Ann Marie Leimer, PhD uses this wireless mic setup along with her Lumix GH5 to interview Chicanx artists and academics. Feel free to contact me should you have any questions about this product, video or post. If you have the time, please like, subscribe and share my YouTube video.

Click below to start. Thanks!

Documenting the Chicana and Chicano Experience

Jesús Manuel Mena Garza Photography

One exciting project Jesús Garza has undertaken is photographing Chicana and Chicano artists and academics. Since 1967, Jesús Garza has made it his mission to photograph the Chicana and Chicano experience. He focuses his camera on activists, workers, academics and artists in communities as diverse as Los Angeles, San Antonio, Tucson, Albuquerque, Fort Worth and San José. 

From experience Garza understands that the incredible accomplishments of Latinos are often dismissed by the dominant culture. So for 50 years, he has taken on the role of outside observer and chronicler of Chicana/o history. 

Feel free to contact Jesús Garza. Send your suggestions, questions or comments by calling or texting (682) 365-8702. Please understand that these are documentary photographs. Not glamour shots. The photographs have not been retouched. 

Click photos to enlarge

The President

The Academic

The Poet

The Sculptor

The Painter

The Academic

The Photographer

-30-

Another Documentary Photography Exhibition

Just finished installing a photography exhibit at the Fort Worth Central Library. The 31 black and white photos will be up until April 30, 2015. You are invited to a reception the evening of April 14. I look forward to seeing you.

Click photo to enlarge

A very short video

Download and Print Chicano Park Poster

Photographs from North Tejas

Three Photographs From the Series

Wichita Falls, Texas: Isolation, Abandonment and Loss

Near Oklahoma, exists the city of Wichita Falls, Texas. The glory days of Wichita Falls are but a distant memory. Downtown buildings blue and gold have long been empty. Desolate suburban streets lead to unrealized subdivisions. The poor live on the margins while the rich can leave town. Every community has its positives and negatives. Residents here enjoy a simpler life. Housing is dirt cheap and parking is never a problem.

No majestic mountains, crystal clear rivers or historic infrastructure to photograph here. Jesús Garza is forced to focus his lens on the more mundane. Issues of isolation, abandonment and loss are examined in his new work. Garza photographs decaying infrastructure and the endless landscape. They are embedded with symbols of the ordinary. 

Locals brag about the Texoma landscape. It lays flat at the Southern edge of the great American prairie. Garza often traveled to the edge to see what has been built or fallen. On the margins of Wichita Falls are extensive fields of cotton, grass, oil and gas. The red soil obscures the essential fuels that drive the local economy. While taking these photographs, Garza found solace in interpreting the landscape, simply. Typical of many photographers he enjoyed revisiting and reexamining past adventures. Possibly seeing more the next time around.   

Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston have grown exponentially over the past decades while Wichita Falls seems the worse for wear. There is no rush to live here, now. The area has become a refuge for those with few options. This new book project is dedicated to those hardy souls who make this wind-swept corner of Tornado Alley their home. This project offers eloquent visual testimony of their tenacity. Their future embedded in this dusty patch of Texas.. 

Click photo to see larger version.

Some Photos I Haven't Exhibited

Some recent scans ... feel free to comment. Some were shot at San Jose High when I was a student. That was way back in the late 60s. Others were captured in 1974 at San Jose's Centro Cultural de la Gente. The one seascape is from around 1982. Quite the mix. Click to enlarge.

Yes ...  that is me back in 1969.

Copyright 2014 Jesus Manuel Mena Garza. All rights reserved.

Fort Worth Chicano Documentary Photographer Jesús Manuel Mena Garza to Talk About His Work from 1970 to the Present at SJSU

Click photos to enlarge

Texas documentary photographer Jesús Manuel Mena Garza will present an hour-long photo show and lecture, A Chicano Photographer’s Journey: 1970 to the Present, on Sept. 25 at 3 pm at San José State University. The event is free and open to the public at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Room 225/229.

Midwestern State University Professor Dr. Ann Marie Leimer said, “This new presentation illuminates why Garza pursued his role of critical observer. He explains the various influences in his artistic life and details the process that helped him evolve into a prominent documentary photographer.” Garza’s new work is quite diverse – from intimate portraits of Chicana and Chicano academics to issues of abandonment and loss in Texoma.

Professor Leimer adds, “During the past decades, Garza has extensively published and exhibited several documentary photographic series. His Chicano Photographer series explores important aspects of the American experience, historic events and cultural practices often marginalized by the dominant culture.”

The presentation occurs in conjunction with Garza’s current exhibition at the library. A panel discussion on the 40th Anniversary of El Centro Cultural de la Gente (Garza was a member) will take place in the same room from 6 to 7:30 pm. There will be a reception following in the Cultural Heritage Center (Fifth Floor).

Location and Time:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, SJSU
Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013, Room 225/229, Second Floor
150 East San Fernando Street, San José, CA 95112
3 to 4:20 pm with a reception at 7:30 pm
Free and open to the Public

Jesús Garza’s Portrait and Press Kit:
http://www.jmmgarza.com/html/00press_kit.html

Sponsored by the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library; San José State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication; the César E. Chávez Community Action Center – SJSU Associated Students; Department of Mexican American Studies; and SJSU’s Chicano/Latino Faculty & Staff Association.

September 25, 2013 SJSU Photography Show and Lecture

Jesús Manuel Mena Garza Documentary Photography Exhibition - July 18 to September 29, 2013

Kathryn Blackmer Reyes of San José State University (SJSU) created this poster and curated my show at SJSU. If you happen to be in San José, California go check out my photo exhibition at the SJSU MLK Library.

Click poster to enlarge