FILM SHINES LIGHT ON CHICANO ART
There’s a scene in the ’90s Chicano crime movie “Blood In, Blood Out” where lead character Cruzito rips out the image of his dead brother from a canvas portrait.
It was a dark but key scene, as the etchings evoked a primal scream but also imbued a Southwest Mexican-American cool that has come to make up the milieu of Chicano art.
“Blood In, Blood Out,” which came to officially be known as “Bound by Honor” after its Disney backers sought a less controversial title following the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, represents a history of the Chicano experience in the U.S. for millions of people. That it’s the 25th anniversary of the Taylor Hackford-directed drama isn’t lost on people. In Houston, several events are allowing fans to get up close with the people who were a part of making the movie happen.
Hundreds of fans came out for a meet and greet last Sunday with Jesse Borrego, who played Cruzito in “Blood In, Blood Out.”
This weekend, Adan Hernandez, the artist who created the art in “Blood In, Blood Out,” will be part of an art show at 8th Wonder Brewery on Friday and then another at Wonky Power Records on Saturday.
Hernandez, the 66-year-old painter, and Borrego, 55, have been part of panels about the movie since it came out in 1993. Hernandez often tells the story about how he was at the lowest point of his life when Hollywood came to his doorstep.
“We were used to nothing but bad news for years,” Hernandez said. He was a struggling painter in his late 30s when a phone call came from a San Antonio gallery that said a Hollywood production designer wanted to speak with him. He thought it was a joke.
Later, he found out about director Taylor Hackford and how he wanted Hernandez’s moody paintings to represent one of the key characters from the film, Cruzito, who was gang member, turned painter, turned tragic drug addict.
Hernandez asked for the production to give him money to build a painting studio in his backyard.
“I had three brothers who were out of work, and they were all carpenters, and my studio went up in two weeks. I still have my studio. I’m in it right now, painting,” he says. “It was the hardest thing I ever did. I almost went blind doing a painting a day. I never worked so hard. … I just wanted to show Hollywood that Chicanos can deliver.”
This weekend will be Hernandez’s first time doing a show in Houston.
Hernandez has been gearing up to open a Chicano art museum in San Antonio for a few years and plans to feature the artwork from “Blood In, Blood Out,” including the storied mural that featured the main actors, depictions of the homeboys played by Borrego, Benjamin Bratt and Damian Chapa, all smiles with their neighborhood in the background.
“Adan Hernandez is one of the great Chicano artists of our time. His art transcends the ‘Blood In, Blood Out’ collection. The artwork that he’s done is incredible,” Borrego said after he signed hundreds of autographs and posed for dozens of pictures in Houston. “I’m amazed that this movie, 25 years later, is as popular as it is. It was not considered a commercial success in Hollywood. It is so popular all over the world.”
The film connects the strands of Chicano culture in the United States, which explains why two Tejanos were able to help tell a story that originated in the barrios of Los Angeles.
“I think the realization that culturas that are well known urban cultures — L.A., the urban gangs, all that movement that was popularized by music videos, rap and all — that really came from a cultural thread that leads all the way back to all the barrios of the United States,” Borrego said. Including the artwork. Hernandez created more than 30 paintings for the film and said he paid off the house he was raising his two daughters in and bought his wife a new Cadillac with a phone inside after getting paid for the work. The money from that windfall ran out, but his identity as the guy who created the “Blood In, Blood Out” art lives on.
“I paint for my raza first, and if anyone else appreciates it, that’s great, maybe I’ll sell some art,” Hernandez said. “It’s good to keep going, right?”
ARTIST ADAN HERNANDEZ GOT HIS BIG BREAK WHEN HOLLYWOOD SOUGHT HIM OUT TO DO ARTWORK FOR ‘BLOOD IN, BLOOD OUT.’