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Guide to the Maya Gonzalez papers
CEMA 103
CEMA 103
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Table of contents
Title: Maya Gonzalez papers
Identifier/Call Number: CEMA 103
Contributing Institution:
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
0.2 linear feet
(1 half size document box)
Date (inclusive): 1985-2005
Abstract: Maya Gonzalez is a Chicana artist known for promoting the latino community through her vibrant illustrative work in children's
books. This collection includes four folders containing past exhibition catalogs and 118 slides of her art work.
creator:
Gonzalez, Maya
The collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
[Identification of Item], Maya Gonzalez papers, CEMA 103. Department of Special Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University
of California, Santa Barbara.
Donated by Maya Gonzalez
Principle Processor: Alexander Hauschild, October 2007. Callie Bowdish and Lauren Cain helped migrate the guide into EAD format,
2014.
Born in Lancaster California, January 24, 1964, Maya Gonzalez was the daughter of an electrician and her mother was self employed.
One of her first experiences with art was through the family bible. She remembers for the
Latina/o Art Community:
“It must have weighed five pounds. Bound with cracking red leather, each page was lined with a brilliant gold. The pages with
words were thin like silk. The pages with weight, thick and heavy, dispersed throughout the large text, held brilliant art.
I sat for hours with that book on my lap, staring at the work of Botticelli and Giotto, Michelangelo and Correggio. Light
emanated from within their figures; spirit informed gesture and expression. Supernatural beings were visible to the seeker
and the sky was bright with those ascending. This triggered the deep truth within me that the divine is within all things.
And what’s more, art can expose this truth.”
Throughout her career she has been a great advocate for children’s education. As an illustrator for Children’s Book Press
and as a teacher, she has explored what came to be known as “Fearless Art,” teaching through the University of Oregon, the
Maude Kernes Art Center, and through the Children’s Book Press Outreach Program in schools throughout the San Francisco Bay
Area and Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited in Eugene, Oregon, San Francisco, Fresno, Hayward, Oakland, Los Angeles
and Chicago.
In 1994 Maya Gonzalez was awarded the Americas Honor Award for
Prietita y La Llorona which was also named a Smithsonian Notable Book. In 1996,
Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems won the Pura Belopre Honor Award, the National Parenting Publications Gold Medal Award. In 1997
Bellybutton of the Moon won the
Skipping Stones Honor Award and the
Choices Award from the Children’s Book Center.
Gonzalez is known for brightly colored paintings that honor Chicana, Chicano themes and often feature Latino Children as their
subject. A more complete listing of her many achievements can be found on her website at http://www.mayagonzalez.com/html/resume.html.
Currently the Maya Gonzalez Papers consist of two series: Series I Art Catalog and Series II Slides.