Zarco Guerrero a Leader in the Arts World

By Ruben Hernandez

Zarco Guerrero, artista extraordinaire, has been a force in the Arizona art scene since the early Seventies as an internationally known mask-maker, multi-media artist and community arts advocate.

On Sept. 4, Zarco was honored with his most recent award, the Phoenix-based Victoria Foundation’s Outstanding Literary/Art in Higher Education Award. Writer Alberto “Tito” Rios, named Arizona’s Poet Laureate just last month, presented the award to Zarco at the Ritz-Carlton in Phoenix.  

“It was sweet to be chosen for this award by such distinguished and accomplished people and to be presented the award by such a high achiever as Tito Rios. It was hard for me to believe,” says Zarco, expressing surprise and gratitude for winning the award.

He told AZLatinos that although he has been receiving awards for this arts and arts advocacy for more than three decades, this one meant a lot to him because it honored his work in education.

“I have always considered that I have one foot in my studio and one foot in education,” he says.  “For the past15 years or longer I’ve been performing with masks in schools. Education has played a big role in my career. I’m been fortunate to find a way to express my art to elementary, high school and university audiences. I believe in serving our community and the educational system through the arts.”

Zarco Guerrero was born and raised in Mesa, Arizona.. He has worked with various media including sculpture and murals, but has been seriously dedicated to the art of the mask since 1970. Inspired by mask rituals in Tepoztlan, Morelos, Mexico, he began working on contemporary cast-paper masks blending human and animal motifs and continues to create and integrate these masks with music and dance.

Zarco Guerrero has participated in the Artist in Education program of the Arizona Arts Commission and has conducted workshops throughout the U.S. since 1972. The artist has had one-man shows in Mexico and throughout the United States.

  In 1986, he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship to study Noh mask making in Japan. On his journey home, he traveled to Bali to learn more about the Balinese art of mask making. In 1993, he was awarded Arizona’s Governor’s Arts Award for his artistic contributions to the community. In 1994, he was the recipient of the Scottsdale Arts Council’s Chairman’s Artist Award.

Zarco is considered the “godfather” of the many events that have since proliferated in our state. The Mesa native and his wife, Carmen de Novais, founded the non-profit Xicanindio in 1978. Xicanindio (pronounced chik-a-neen-dee-yo) originally staged the first modern Day of the Dead festival in Pioneer Park in 1980.

“When we first came together as Xicandindio we wanted to explore and express our roots in a positive way, with ceremony and celebration,” Zarco recalls. “We weren’t interested in Cinco de Mayo because it had become too commercialized. That holiday had nothing to do with us as indigenous people.”

The couple continued the tradition when they founded Cultural Coalition. The nonprofit has produced Day of the Dead festivals and shows for the Heard Museum, the Mesa Arts Center and the Desert Botanical Garden. This year’s festival at the Desert Botanical Garden will be held Nov. 2 and 3.

“Día de Los Muertos is an acknowledgement of our native ancestors.  So we established this celebration in Mesa’s Pioneer Park, and now it is also celebrated by non-Latinos,” Zarco adds. “This tradition has cross-cultural appeal. Its philosophy of celebrating life and not fearing death is comforting to many other cultures. American society has assimilated the beautiful aspects of Day of the Dead. Culture is an expression of our humanity.  It is not something we hoard.  It’s a gift to our neighbors.”

Zarco and the Cultural Coalition produced last year’s Día de Los Muertos festival in Arizona, sponsored and funded by the CALA Arts Alliance. This year, on Sunday, Oct. 27, the nonprofit will produce the festival, renaming it the Día de Los Muertos PHX Festival. From 1-6 p.m. at Hance Park. The festival site is located at 1202 N. 3^rd St., next to the Phoenix Burton Barr Library in central Phoenix.

The 2013 festival will one of the most authentic in the Southwest, and will showcase many local artists and art groups who are devoted practitioners of the Día de Los Muertos traditions.  It will include an Artists Mercado, a Children’s Activities Area and many performances in music, dance and theater, culminating with a Candlelight Procession at the end of the day.

In addition, Zarco will perform in a Phoenix library series of festival-related programs called La Cultura Cura. These program will be staged at the Burton Barr Phoenix Library in downtown Phoenix, and are titled “Musica de las Americas” (Oct. 10); “Face to Face in a Frenzy” (Oct. 17); and a storytelling, music and poetry jam (Oct. 24).

“We want to explore and express our roots in a positive way, with ceremony and celebration,” Zarco says.  “This tradition has cross-cultural appeal. Its philosophy of celebrating life and not fearing death is comforting to many other cultures. American society has assimilated the beautiful aspects of Day of the Dead.”

For more information on the Day of the Dead festivals and pre-festival programs visit Cultural Coalition’s websites at www.diadelosmuertosphx.com or www.facebook.com/culturalcoalitionaz

In addition, Zarco was included in a $155,000 grant from the Doris Duke Foundation awarded to Childsplay theater nonprofit in Tempe. Childsplay will use the $155,000 grant to plan and implement La Puente (The Bridge), a residency program. Childsplay, in partnership with Zarco, will make theatre for young audiences a vital part of Latino families’ cultural experience. As an artist with ties to both Childsplay and the Latino community, Zarco will work with the organization to create programming that successfully builds bridges between the theatre and Latino families in the Valley.

“We believe that efforts to engage new audiences must begin in the community and work to provide a welcoming environment at the theatre,” says Childsplay Artistic Director David Saar. “We will work with Zarco to create a series of experiences, beginning with mask and theatre making at sites around the community and building to communal art sharing at outdoor festivals. Our hope is that these efforts will eventually generate a tradition of theatergoing for Latino families.”

Zarco marvels at the longevity and productivity of his career. He says he’s grateful to be busier now than ever with festivals, theater productions, and expressions of his art in gallery shows.

“I’m doing it bigger and better than ever,” he says.

For more information about Zarco, please visit www.zarkmask.com.