Postcard

Gerry Gaxiola, a valued member of our Advisory Council, has created this new postcard which we will use to promote our work in progress at the San Diego Latino Film Festival March 9-19 and at the national conference of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers March 9-12 in Long Beach. Producer Kevin Bender ( k.bender@corpcom.se ) will attend both events.

Gerry took the photos of the ranch when he visited last year.

Gerry's family originated in the Basque region of Spain, emigrated to Mexico in the 1600's and came up to California in the 1700's.

He's traced his family back to 1767 when Manuel Gaxiola, born in Real de Rosario, Sinaloa, Mexico, and his son, Jose Antonio Gaxiola, born in 1786, moved to Monterey, California, and started the Gaxiola California line descending down to his grandson Justin Gaxiola Mead....that's over two hundred years in California!

Aso known as The Maestro, and the subject of Les Blank's documentary The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists, he explains the images he used:

'I tried to show four qualities of the project. This project is: Big, Solid, Strong, Individual.

Starting from the right top going clockwise; Big, this photo shows the size and scale of the project. It is very big compared to most folk art projects. Next, Solid, this photo shows how solid these buildings are made. This building reminds me of an ancient Roman or Greek building, planted firmly in the ground and ready to last for centuries. Next, Strong, the strength of the man, the tenacity to stay with the project. Bonilla the man is like a Mexican fighting bull, charging forward is all he knows how to do. Then the Individual, here is a photo of his brand. A man's brand is his mark, his logo if you will, showing him as an individual. What a man brands he loves and what he loves he brands. We see that brand all over the project.'