This painting is full of places and meaning. Three locations are represented here. To the left of the skyline is imagery of Chicago. I visit once in a while a friend who adores an old Impala. Even though he's
Chicano he refuses to convert it
into a stereotypical low rider. Yet he embellishes it with velvet and jewels and silver in the interior and has modified the fenders with magnificent fins. He cruises the city at night, trying to find parking places ever so patiently, waving at strangers as well as friends. The love of restoration of his car creates meaning in his day. The middle image is the smoke stacks that sit behind the Oldsmobile and GM plants of my hometown. Three flaming hearts, symbols of hope, burn in the sky. The year of 2004 brought the closing of Oldsmobile, a lively hood for many and source of pride of workers here that is now gone. The skyline to the right is of Detroit's "Mexican town". Latinos mostly live here, drawn to this area in the 20's and 30's to work in the auto factories. Many Chicanos were repatriated against their will. Three female figures with Puerto Rican vejigante masks pose behind parking meters and a GTO , shrouded by a ghostly haze. It is a painting about loss and struggle for work and identity.
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