Native American Heritage Month recognized

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Mt. San Jacinto College Art Gallery is pleased to present Erik Escovedo, Decolonizing Place and Time, Oct. 31 through Dec. 7 on the San Jacinto Campus, 1499 N. State St., San Jacinto.

This special solo exhibition kicks off our Native American Heritage Month at MSJC. In the epic scale oil paintings, Escovedo appropriates images of Native American activists and personal family photos. In his work, Escovedo paints healing and honorific images that recognize the intergenerational trauma of his family’s experience as Native people.

An opening reception will be held from 4-7 p.m. on Nov. 1, including a tour with the artist at 6 p.m.

The exhibit is in the MSJC art gallery, which is in Building 1400 on the San Jacinto Campus, 1499 N. State St. The MSJC gallery is open from 1-4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. For more information, please visit msjc.edu/artgallery or contact Art Professor John Knuth at Jknuth@msjc.edu.

Escovedo is the Professor of American Indian Studies at Fresno City College. He holds a master’s and bachelor’s degree from Fresno State College of Art and Humanities. In fact, he became the first student to earn his bachelor’s in American Indian studies with a special major combining Ethnic Studies and Art.

Escovedo was born and raised in Fresno, California (Yokuts & Mono Traditional Land). His path to academic achievement was a meandering one. At the age of 30, he decided to give college another try and learn more about his ethnic background and enrolled in his first American Indian studies course. With that course, the pieces of his life, family history, profession and education came together to present a new focus within his educational goals.
Through this one American Indian studies course, Escovedo found purpose on campus and became inspired to join the college’s Native American Inter-Tribal Student Association (NAISA). Escovedo soon became vice president of NAISA and helped with planning and hosting student-led educational events and activists’ demonstrations.

Escovedo decided to pursue a double major, combining American Indian studies with art. Continuing this exploration, Escovedo found he could use his education to better his community, both inside and outside educational institutions.

An example of this community activism came to fruition with a commission from the ethnic studies department to design the Yokuts Plaza monument. Escovedo reached out to local traditional Native basket weavers to help design the image that would eventually sit on top of a large piece of granite sourced from the mountains of the Central Valley.

Escovedo helped plan and host several Native American events that tackled subjects like settler-colonialism, intergenerational trauma, cultural competency, neurodecolonization, indigenizing spaces, and intersectionality.