He kept Latino culture, arts alive at center
Pedro Rodriguez, a crucial figure in the transformation of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center into an organization with a global reputation, was motivated in part by a keen sense of the importance of cultural preservation.
“Were it not for the fact that the Mexican culture itself is very strong here, the cultural arts would not have survived, but it just barely did, and I think the creation of this institution is very timely,” the San Antonio native said in an interview with the Associated Press in 1989, four years into his tenure as director of the West Side arts organization.
Rodriguez, who went to work for the Guadalupe about three years after it was created and led it through 1998, died Thursday. He was 86.
“His legacy was so big,” said Cristina Ballí, the Guadalupe’s current executive director. “It’s a work of tremendous impact, and we feel the responsibility of keeping that impact going.”
Rodriguez was an Army veteran, an activist and a Chicano studies professor as well as a painter. And he had a long career in arts administration, which included helping to found the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture. He may be best remembered for his work at the Guadalupe, a multi-disciplinary organization devoted to Chicano, Latino and Native American arts and culture.
“The Guadalupe was his crowning achievement in a lot of ways, to be able to take a young organiza
tion like that and build it into something renowned nationally and even internationally,” said Juan Tejeda, who headed the organization’s celebrated music program until 1998 and worked side by side with Rodriguez throughout this tenure.
Tejeda noted that Rodriguez hired gifted artists to oversee the Guadalupe’s programming, including writer Sandra Cisneros, who led its literary program early on, and photographer Kathy Vargas, who led the visual arts program.
Under his leadership, the Guadalupe helped develop new theater pieces and toured them across the United State and Mexico. It also launched Cinefestival, the longestrunning Latino film festival in the country, as well as the Tejano Conjunto Festival and the Guadalupe Dance Company. And they restored the Guadalupe Theatre, which had opened in 1942 but had fallen into disrepair by the 1970s.
All of that helped raise the organization’s profile. Over time, it became a model for other Latino arts organizations across the country.
“He said, ‘Do your work, and it will become known,’ and it did become known, regionally, nationally and internationally,” said Jorge Piña, who ran the theater program then and now. “People started coming from all over the world to see us.”
It took money to make all of that happen. Rodriguez was able to win large grants from such sources as the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. He also fought hard for an equitable share of city arts funding for the Guadalupe and other arts organizations that focused on minority communities.
“He was a Chicano warrior,” said Piña. “He was the protector of our cultura.”
Even after he resigned from the Guadalupe, he continued to work for the organization as a consultant, and also stepped in a few times to guide it during transitions from one director to another.
When Ballí came in as executive director in 2016, she started a series of weekly breakfast meetings with him at Garcia’s, where they talked about philosophy and history of the Guadalupe, including fights over funding.
“That generation went through so much to try to get any recognition, any support, for our arts and culture,” she said. “And it was a fierce time. He really had to defend the Guadalupe at times, and what amazed me the most was how he was able to get national funding for the Guadalupe, and that was transformative for the organization.”
A tribute to Rodriguez’s work with the Guadalupe is in the works.
“We want to honor Pedro for his incredible legacy,” said Belinda Menchaca, whom he hired to run the dance program and who now heads the education program.
Rodriguez is survived by his wife, Cynthia Cortez; his children Eva Garcia, Adon Rodriguez, Nicole Rodriguez and Bianca Puleo; and his siblings, Andres G. Cano, Juanita Sylvia R. Ehlers, Jose Enrique Rodriguez and Elías G. Rodriguez.
A funeral Mass takes place at 10 a.m. today at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, 1321 El Paso, followed by burial at San Fernando Cemetery II, 746 Castroville Road.