Date: Thursday, January 23, 2014
Time: 6:00-9:00 PM Doors open at 6:00PM
Location: Crest Theater, 1013 K Street SACRAMENTO, CA 95814
MAP
Ceremony and Participants: Indigenous
and Catholic Ceremony, Dolores Huerta, Luis Valdez,Edward James Olmos,
Paul Chavez, Arturo Rodriguez, National Compadres Network/Circulo de
Hombres, Malaquias Montoya, Joe Montoya, Jr, Culture Clash members,
Vincent Montoya, Cesar E. Chavez Chapter AGIF Color Guard, Royal Chicano
Air Force, Poets Lorna Dee Cervantes and Ana Castillo, Daniel Valdez,
Danza Azteca, and Mariachi Zacatecas
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On
Thursday, January 23, 2014, the children of José Montoya, Sacramento
educator, artist, poet, and activist who died after a courageous battle
with cancer, at the age of 81 on September 25, 2013, will host an
evening of tribute through dance, song and poetry at Sacramento’s Crest
Theater. The public commemoration of his life will include tributes by
the legendary Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of
America and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom; Paul Chavez,
son of Cesar E. Chavez and President of the Cesar Chavez Foundation and
Arturo Rodriguez, President of the United Farm Workers of America; Luis
Valdez, founder of El Teatro Campesino and writer and director of Zoot
Suit and La Bamba; and Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award winning
actor Edward James Olmos. Montoya, 2002-2004 Poet Laureate of
Sacramento and hailed as the godfather of Chicano poetry will also be commemorated by American
Book Award recipients, Lorna Dee Cervantes and Ana Castillo, and the
National Compadres Network will announce the José Montoya “La
Cultura Cura” Scholarship for Higher Education. Several family members
will present including Jose’s brother, artist Malaquias Montoya, and
sons-Joe Montoya, Jr., founder of Sacramento’s Poetry Unplugged, Richard
Montoya, Culture Clash co-founder and actor, and Vincent Montoya, musician, singer, and songwriter.
Montoya,
professor emeritus of Art Education at CSUS was born in New Mexico, but
grew up in California’s Central Valley. He entered San Diego City
College as an art student shortly after the Korean War and later
transferred to the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA.
He graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in 1962 and began his career as a
teacher at Wheatland Union High School in northern California, until he
earned his M.A. degree in 1971 at California State University
Sacramento. He then taught for over 27 years in the Department of Art
Education at CSUS. Montoya is the author of three collections of
poetry, including the highly acclaimed In Formation: 20 Years of Joda. Montoya coined the phrases, “la cultura cura” or “culture heals” and “la locura cura” or “craziness heals”
as a way to explain the unconventionally successful creativity of the
RCAF, the Royal Chicano Air Force, a group of Chicano artists - mostly
professors and students- that he co-founded and lead for decades and who
were and still are prolific Sacramento artist activists devoted to
advancing social justice through visual and performing arts.
This
free, public event planned in Sacramento is the only Montoya-family
produced tribute event that will honor the memory of Montoya and his
contributions in all of the many worlds in which he served including his
early years in New Mexico, California’s Central Valley, the US Navy,
his college life, teaching, the arts, and his activism. Doors open at
6:00 PM and seats are first-come, first-served.
In support of the Montoya Family, the National Compadres Network has
offered to alleviate the high flow of communications to the family.
Please submit your interest in attendance or your kind message by
sending your response to this email or this blog. Tel. (831) 205-1822. We will collect this information
and provide to the family on your behalf. Thank you for this kindness.
