Born in the center of the San
Joaquin Valley, Turlock, Ca., 1975. After dropping out of high school,
Richard returned his senior year and graduated in 1993. He then spent
four years at Modesto Junior College before transferring to UC Santa Bárbara.
He is currently a senior at UCSB and expects to graduate with a BA in
art studio in the spring of 1999.
I’m 4th generation Chicano. I believe that this puts me in a unique position, for I’ve been filled with the Chicano spirit since the begginning-1848 The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, “When the border crossed us.” Since then, the search for identity & respect & recognition had inspired movements of creativity. My abuelos tell me stories of the forties and their pachuco days. My tias & tios showed me pictures with them marching along Cesar Chavez arm in arm during the movements of the sixties & seventies. I was born Chicano & will die Chicano despite the objection of the UC school system & the beast art department & professors here at UCSB. A quote that I came across during my first years at my junior college lead me on the direction I still follow to this day. “Chicano artists are duty bound to act as spokesmen and give a visual reality to the Chicano vision, we are iconoclast not by choice but by circumstance – out to destroy visual cliché and demolish the enactable stereotypes." -Mel Casas
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