Con Safo

The Chicano Art Group and the

Politics of South Texas

by Ruben C. Cordova

2009

110 pages

17 b/w illustrations

Soft cover

ISBN: 978-0-89551-121-8

Ruben C. Cordova traces the history of Con Safo, one of the earliest and most significant of the Chicano art groups, from 1968, when it formed as El Grupo, to the mid-1970s, when Con Safo gradually disbanded.

Founded by Felipe Reyes, the original group was made up of six San Antonio artists. The membership of the group evolved over the course of the decade that it was active, with some artists leaving while others joined. Among the members were Mel Casas, Jose Esquivel, Rudy Treviño, and Roberto Ríos. Although the structure of the original group changed, its mission did not: Con Safo was at the forefront of efforts to define possibilities for Chicano art at a time when Chicano culture was largely invisible.

The book concludes with reproductions of original documents related to the group, including Casas’s “Brown Paper Report.”

Cordova’s painstaking research, which included extensive archival work and interviews with group members and activists, resolves many of the contradictions and fills in many of the gaps that exist in earlier accounts of the group. Con Safo: The Chicano Art Group and the Politics of South Texas is an important resource for anyone interested in Chicano art and Chicano history.

Ruben C. Cordova is an art historian, curator, and photographer who has taught at UC Berkeley, UT Pan American, UT San Antonio, and Sarah Lawrence College. He received his BA in semiotics from Brown University and his PhD in art history from UC Berkeley. He is currently organizing a Jesse Treviño retrospective for the Museo Alameda in San Antonio. Forthcoming publications treat several Con Safo group members.