MANUEL CRUZ
Biographical Information
Cruz has been been creating art in community venues for more than 30 years. A self-taught painter and sculptor and a former gang member, he got his start doing caricatures of sailors and zoot-suitors who frequented his mother's East Los Angeles bar. During the 1970s he had a studio and taught art classes at All Nations Center and Mechicano Art Center in East Los Angeles He was a project director on Judith Baca's first mural with gang members at the Sisters of the Poor Convalescent Home. The author of several books, one a pre-Columbian coloring book and another a Chicano Christmas story, he is currently at work on another project about the influence of Hollywood gangster movies on youth during the past several decades.
Mural Credits
To Ace Out a Homeboy (photo)
Homeboy
Moctezuma
Reflextions
Scene of Native American Life (Untitled)
Three Images of Brazil (Untitled)
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