Description
Vallejo [Linda] Papers, 1975-2001. Photographs, slides, posters, correspondence, publications and ephemera of the Chicana
painter, sculptor, printmaker, and founder of Galeria Las Americas. (CEMA 76).
Background
Linda Vallejo is an acclaimed Chicana painter, sculptor, printmaker, and founder of Galeria Las Americas. Linda Vallejo's
personal collection, established in CEMA in 2001, represents a broad spectrum of her work and includes photographs, slides,
posters, correspondence, publications and ephemera. Vallejo was born in East Los Angeles and was a graduate of Whittier College
and also studied lithography at the University of Madrid. Vallejo received her MFA degree from California State University,
Long Beach in 1978. Born into a military family, Vallejo's father served as a colonel in the Air Force and as a diplomat and
she consequently spent much of her growing up years traveling with her family throughout the United States and Europe. At
the young age of seven, Vallejo had already determined she wanted to go to college and become an artist. In the early 1960's
Vallejo was in Montgomery, Alabama at a volatile time that the public schools were just being integrated, and the riots and
violence affected her deeply. Her work has been exhibited extensively in one-woman shows and group shows in major museums
and galleries throughout the United States, as well as Mexico. She also has been a visiting lecturer at various institutions,
including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, at UCLA, UC Irvine, California State University Long Beach, and Compton
College. Paintings and sculptures by Vallejo may be found in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Carnegie
Museum, the Santa Monica Museum, Arizona State University, and Self Help Graphics and Art. Vallejo has worked in printmaking
and sculpture but her present medium of choice is in painting. Vallejo describes herself as "an indigenous Chicana" and as
such, her work is highly symbolic and allegorical and is infused with Native American, Mexicana, and Chicana spiritual traditions.
Restrictions
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.