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"At a time when there was a lot of ugliness out there, when the Spanish were punished for speaking, when Latinos had to walk in the back door to eat, José Cisneros painted beauty, At that time, in those moments of ugliness, our maestro painted beauty for us."

EL PASO — The world knew José Cisneros as a great painter.
He was much more than that in El Paso, where his work turned heads and tore down barriers.

Cisneros, who died Saturday at age 99, was a gentle man and a devout Catholic who used his talent to battle racism, said Monsignor Arturo Bañuelas, pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Community. Bañuelas gave the eulogy Wednesday at Cisneros’ funeral.

“At a time when there was a lot of ugliness out there, when the Spanish were punished for speaking, when Latinos had to walk in the back door to eat, José Cisneros painted beauty,” Bañuelas said. “At that time, in those moments of ugliness, our maestro painted beauty for us.”

By showing that he, a Hispanic, could paint as well as anyone else, Cisneros was showing El Paso that minorities belonged.

“With the stroke of a pen and a pencil he challenged racism,” Bañuelas said.

Born in Villa Ocampo, Durango, in 1910, Cisneros had only a fifth-grade education. But countless people revered him as a historian with a sketch pad, an artist who illustrated more than 300 historical books and publications. His family moved to El Paso in 1925.

Cisneros was well-known for his pen-and-ink sketches of Spanish conquistadores, Franciscan missionaries, frontier settlers and Apache warriors. He also had a fondness for horses, which he loved to sketch, his friends said.

“He spent his life researching everything about horses,” said Rose Mary Valladolid, a neighbor and a friend. “He had books and books and research material on conquistadores, on horses, on just about everything he drew.

He was a genius.”

Community leader Rosa Guerrero said everyone knew about Cisneros as a great artist. But as a person he was even better, she said.

“He was the most beautiful devout Christian and Catholic man that I have ever met in my life,” she said. “He was a great role model and mentor to all the young Latinos. He taught them how to be a man, how to be a leader.”

King Juan Carlos of Spain knighted Cisneros for contributing to the understanding of history through his art. In 2002, President Bush awarded Cisneros the National Humanities Medal for his work as an artist and historian.
Cisneros received the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Wrangler Award in 1985 for his book “Riders Across the Centuries.”

He is survived by daughters Magdalena Villarreal, Irene Cisneros Solla, Patricia Cisneros Pride and Rita Sillas; 10 grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild. He was preceded in death by his wife, Vicenta, and a daughter, Inez.

He was buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery.

SOURCE: El Paso Times