LOTERIA - HOPE LOST

Uncle Lugo - The Serial Killer   
A few years ago, I was visiting my 80 year old father and he started telling this outrageous story from his childhood.  It was about an uncle named Genaro who was executed in the electric chair.  My dad told of how the murder (for killing an officer of the law - a Constable) was just the tip of the iceberg.  On the night he committed this last crime, Genaro drank some alcohol and went out to where the constable was serving as a night watchman.   Genaro shot him twice and the officer fell to the ground.  Genaro walked over to him and shot the man in the head - execution style.   Genaro ran and a manhunt ensued.  He was captured, jailed, put on trial, found guilty, then executed.

When I left my dad’s house that day, I called my wife and told her that I was concerned for my dad.  Old age had caught up to him physically, but mentally he had always been very sharp, at least until now.   Here he was telling a tall tale about an uncle I had never heard of before.

​My wife happened to be sitting in front the computer while we were talking and she mentioned that if there really was a Genaro executed in Texas, there would probably be record of it somewhere.  She looked it up and  there it was:   Lugo, Genaro from San Patricio County... Electrocuted for Murder in Huntsville, Tx... 4-23-1939.

No Shame 
You must know that my dad does not have a strong sense of shame.  If something happened, good or bad, he tells the story just as it is.  Like when I was little and I wondered why my birth mother never came back.  When I asked my dad about her, he said that when she was leaving him she was taking me with her.  He picked her up from the bus stop, beat her, and threw her out on the side of a bridge.  He told her if she ever returned he would kill her.  My dad tells the story like that’s something normal.  But that’s the way it happened and that's how he tells the story.  He has no remorse about it.  ​

So, when I asked my dad why he had never mentioned Uncle Genaro before, for the first time he said he was ashamed.  Because of all of Genaro’s nephew’s, my dad had turned out most like Genaro.  But he kept saying that he wasn’t as bad as Genaro.  He didn't want to talk about his uncle because he wanted to distance himself from him.  

So the images you see here tell this story of my great uncle.  I used the imagery from Loteria cards, which are a form of Mexican Bingo.  There are different versions of the game, but normally the cards are very colorful. I used this iconography to tell the stories.
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Piecing The Puzzle
1)  The story begins in the top left hand square  with "El Valiente." 2)  Genaro feels proud like a proud rooster.  3) He gets inebriated.  4)  He strikes again and again, like a deadly scorpion.  5) Genaro flees into the night.  6) He is captured.  7) He is in jail feeling empty and hollow.  8) The hand of justice deals with him.  9) Genaro is executed, and the Devil has had his way.

LOTERIA - HOPE RESTORED

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The Demons Are Alive
The first square at the top - the Skull, represents my home when I was born.  That "spirit" that Uncle Genaro had was still alive in our family.  My dad had it.  And although I didn't know it at the time, it seemed inevitable that the "generational spirit" would be passed on to me.

Growing up I remember him always drinking.   He would get in fights and sometimes get arrested.   I remember blood and sometimes guns.  And of course, as I mentioned earlier, my mother was gone.  My dad said he tried to find a new mother for me, but he kept looking in bars.  So, when he brought those women home they would abuse me and he would beat them and kick them out.

Step Mother On Steroids
Finally, when I was 3 years old he met a lady who stayed.  Her name was Elisa.  She was a widow.  Because of the previous abuse, my dad's only rule for her was to take care of me, and not lay a hand on me.  By the time I was five and six years old I was running around the streets of my little neighborhood.   I don't remember it being a very good place to grow up.   There were drugs, fast cars, sometimes car chases (that was exciting to watch), and more fights.  And it was already obvious that I was growing up with the same inclinations as my father - rebellious, angry, and mean.  

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Exorcising The Ghosts
One day my step mother's sister - my aunt, came for a visit and saw what was happening.  She sat my father down and said, "This woman you have here raised five kids.  When her youngest was a baby her husband died and she raised four boys and a girl all by herself.  They are all grown now, did very well in the military, and they are all successful now.  If you don't let her discipline this son of yours he's only going to get worst.  Right now he's like a young tree that can still be straightened out.   But if you don't let her do anything, he's going to come out crooked."   That was the day everything changed.  My father let Elisa do what she had to do to set things straight.  

​The first thing I remember she told me was to no longer call her, "Elisa."  I needed to refer to her as, "Mom, Mother, or Mama... or something to that affect, but no more Elisa.  Secondly, from now on I was to respond to my father with, "Yes sir and No sir."   It was like having a Drill Sergeant in the house every day.  That's what the second square represents.   I can't even begin to explain what a terrible, terrible childhood it turned out to be.  I hated it and I hated her.  That's what it took to make the crooked tree straight... or, to put exorcise the "generational demon" that had been plaguing our family.  And even though she and my father did not go to church, she saw to it that I was picked up every Sunday and taken to find some spiritual equilibrium.

Cracking The Code
It wasn't until I grew up that I looked around and saw that so many friends from the neighborhood who were either hooked on drugs and alcohol,  in prison, or dead.   Given my propensity to go all out in whatever I do, there is no doubt I would have followed the same path.  What made the difference, by God's grace, was this mother who stepped into my life and intervened.  That's when I realized that she had caused me to march to the beat of different drum (Third Square).  

I grew up and met my wife - represented by "La Dama" (Fourth Square) in Pink and I'm in the middle (Fifth Square).  Like all couples we went though our share of difficult times (Umbrella - Sixth Square), but for nearly three decades now we have weathered the storms and have enjoyed a beautiful, loving marriage.  The Serpent  represents how for years my wife and I have been very active in church.  But sadly, this square represents so many religious Pharisees along the way (Seventh Square).  It's interesting that sinners loved Jesus.  It was the religious leaders who hated and felt threatened by him.  And it was the religious leaders who made accusations that had Jesus, had him arrested and executed.   But even when enemies arise and oppose, God's purposes still stand.  We are all still striving - climbing, trying our best to make a difference in this world for the good (Eight Square).  James 1:12 (ESV) says, " Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life." (Ninth Square)

LOTERIA - HOPE HUNGER

Illegal And Legal Immigration
This Loteria Series first began when a friend asked me to interpret a poem about the Immigrant's struggle to find his identity, while still holding on to his culture and customs.  His writing resonated in my heart for many reasons.  

First, I am a fourth generation American.  My wife is ninth generation.  Her family was here before the U.S. / Mexico Border ever existed.  We are Hispanic, our roots are from Mexico and Spain, but we are American first.  

Illegal Undocumented Immigrants
Second, in South Texas there are people literally dying to come to America.  They battle the heat, snakes, coyotes, and they do their best to skirt past Border Patrol Agents.  They risk everything to come here illegally because they believe there is something better for them here.  Sometimes, even though  we live almost two hours from the U.S/Mexico Border, these undocumented immigrants pass through the field next to our house because it's so close to Hwy 77.

International Students   
Third, with the help of some wonderful friends and sponsors, we are able to provide temporary, transitional housing to students from all over the world - up to 20 at a time.  Most are graduate students at Texas A&M, Kingsville.  My family and I have met some wonderful young men and women.  We have learned about their cultures and customs.  We've tasted their foods.  It's been a unique and intriguing experience getting to know these students.

No matter where they are from, or how they arrived, certain Themes start to surface in their pursuit of the American dream.  Those Themes are what I wanted to capture in this work of art - Loteria   Hope Hunger.

Loteria  - Hope Hunger Explained
In the first square 1)  The Immigrant is proud as a peacock in his homeland.  2)  The Dice represents the misfortune he faces.  A lack of opportunity, tragedy, setback, or a run of "bad luck," coalesce to show him the severity of his situation. 3)  The head of household feels the weight of the world on his shoulders.

4)  He feels trapped and knows that if he does nothing he and his family will die.  5)  He summons a heart of courage to leave all that is familiar and go to a strange new land in search of opportunity.  6)  His journey is treacherous, sometimes metaphorically, and sometimes literally.  

​7)  He arrives, works hard, and the day comes when he is able to eat from the fruit of the land.  8)  The Immigrant dies.  9)  But he leaves a legacy for his children, and his children's children.  He is their champion.​

Here is the original that inspired this series by John David Pena of Austin, Texas.

Mexicanos Perdidos (translated, Lost Mexicans)
Where are we the Mexicanos? I want to move to Mexico.  Can we go back to the so-called motherland?  Our grand parents parents had a dream to build a better life for us.  To stop eating off of dirt floors and stop taking showers out of barrels.
Now decades later, we have come to a point where we are educated, groomed, and proper people.  We have become the boss that our grand parents worked for.  We have become everything they bleed and sweated for.  Have we made them proud? 

Our fellow brothers still waiting, en el otro lado, hate us cuz our speech has lost its accent and even lost some of the original Spanish words.  If i go to Mexico right now I probably couldn’t keep up.  And I would feel so ashamed.  But of what? For becoming what my mother prayed for.  

I will always recognize, help, and even say hi to my fellow brethren on this side.  Sometimes they expect it.  But, I don’t do it for them. I do it cuz I see my mother in their eyes holding on to tortillas and stirring the frijoles. But will they show me the same courtesy when I go back to Mexico. 

I love my culture.  I love my land. But, I think that us as Chicanos, Hispanics, Latinos, or Barrio Boys, we have come to create a new culture on this side. And even though I have been laughed at, insulted, and even belittled, I still love my beloved Mexico.

And I just hope that some day when we reach the white house, that a poor Mexican family living in a little village and still living on dirt floors will appreciate the accomplishments that we as a people have made.   

And I hope that they raise their kids to do the same and not forget their culture, but to acknowledge that our culture is stronger than any of us imagined.  And that it goes beyond rancheras, cerveza and pico de gallo, but that it is as thick as the blood that was shed for it.

Three Stories In One

​Bob Gomez
Three Stories, 2016
Digital Print on stretched canvas, Limited Edition of 300
22"(H) x 48" (W)