Hector Duarte

In-betweenness is often the feeling described by many that leave their native country to pursue the “American Dream”. The 2010 census demonstrated an unparalleled population growth of Latinos in the United States, accounting for 16% of the overall population. Latinos have transformed this country beyond recognition, from labor markets, urban politics, and demographics to replacing African Americans as the largest “minority”. Turning over to the Midwest, Illinois in particular, the Latino population represents 15.8% of the state’s population, contributing to a 32.5% population growth over the past decade. The Latino population is constantly growing and is diverse: Centro Americanos, Sur Americanos, Caribeños y Mejicanos. In fact, Mexicans comprise the largest group in most states, like Illinois. Latinos have transformed Chicago’s metropolitican area in profound ways. An artist that has significantly contributed to this rapid change in Chicago is Héctor Duarte.

Héctor Duarte, art studio at 1900 West Cullerton Street, Pilsen, Chicago, 2012

Duarte doesn’t have the, often self-inflicted state of in-betweenness. He doesn’t feel torn between the country he resides in, the United States, and the country he was born in, Mexico. Not at all. He proudly embraces and calls both his home, Caurio, Michoacán (Mexico) and Pilsen (Chicago). Born in 1952, he moved to Chicago in 1985 and has painted murals for the past 27 years. He has made his mark in many different spaces and often paints what he observes, the frustration of living in dos aguas.

Nuestragente falls into the Anglo routine and often becomes a product. In reality, we’re all products of capitalism, the world’s engine. We’re just rented, like my father when he was brought over at age 19 in 1943 to work as a bracero. My father’s arms were rented, today is a different time pero es lo mismo.

He first visited Chicago in 1978 for the Congreso Internacional de Muralismo at the Congress Hotel. That visit changed his life, he later returned to practice what he had learned at the Taller Siqueiros in Cuernavaca, Mex. He recalls:

That was a turning point for me as an artist. I had never seen murals on public walls, outside in the open. That blew my mind. I had to start painting similar murals. My first mural was in 1980 in Bordo Grande, Santiago Tangamandapio, Mex. It’s still there. Zapata raising up a machete with fire shooting out of it, similar to the Grito de Dolores piece with Father Migual Hidalgo holding up the fire torch. In my piece, Zapata is holding up the machete [he laughs]. The owner of the little shack invited me to paint it so that the campesinos that worked nearby would be empowered.

Similar to his first mural, Duarte has continued painting to empower. He has made Chicago his workplace with many murals throughout the city, making it his canvas. He would say that his art doesn’t belong in an art gallery; he’s very intentional about conveying a message that is not too obvious.

I want my art to survive time. It’s like poetry, to understand its value you must read it more than once. Every time you return, you will see something different and keep learning something new. You’ll be learning a different message all the time. It will never expire.

While I have exhibited work in a number of different media, including prints, installations, and paint, my passion is mural painting. I prefer murals because more people are able to enjoy my work; I am not painting for the privileged or for museums. Don’t get me wrong, I have but that’s not why I paint.

My artistic goal in mural painting has been to continue the Siqueiros tradition of dynamic symmetry, which is a compositional method tying the structure of the mural to the physical architecture, taking into consideration the movements and perspectives of the viewer. This method views mural painting as an organic activity that must be composed and resolved on the wall. I’m constantly learning from artists...