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Yes here is an example of the 100 of America's most distinguished names in art, literature and education...Here is the bio of one of these creatures chosen more or less at random. I deliberately picked somone who was not a known public ham such as E. Said. Note the good prof Montoya rose from a background of grinding rural poverty to the comfort of tenured prof at UC Davis. The mechanism for his rise was that tried and true method many generations of immigrants have used; the parent labored and sacrificed so the talented child could take advantage of the opportunities available in the new homeland. Now in its hour of need how does the good prf Montoya repay the land that did provide the opportunities that allows him now to enjoy a life of comfort, creativity and some considerable prestige. Doe he wield his brush to produce a mural showing peoples of the many ethich strains in our country holding aloft the stars and strpes with the burning WTC in the background? Instead Montova stabs his very small dagger in the back of the country that has provided him the opportunity to be what he is. I wonder if he ever thinks what he would be if his parents had remained in Mexico? Another dirt poor peon struggling to have a meal a day.

PROFESSOR MALAQUIAS MONTOYA BIOGRAPHY

Malaquias Montoya was raised in a family of seven children of parents who could not read or write either Spanish or English. The three oldest children never went beyond 7th grade education as the entire family had to work as farmworkers for their survival. His father and mother were divorced in 1952 and it was his mother's desire to support the four of them still remaining at home (by her work in the fields) so they could pursue our education.

Professor Montoya's objective is to educate and be educated by those persons whom he comes in contact with daily. As an artist he feels a purpose to express to each individual the importance of developing that innate quality characteristic of all of us - that of creativity, and to show the relationship between that artistic creativity and community action, as both an educational tool and a catalyst for social change. Malaquias Montoya is Cooperating Faculty in the Department of Art and a Full Professor in the Chicana/o Studies Program at the University of California, Davis. Professor Montoya previously taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley he has been an Artist-in-Residence at Stanford University, a Visiting Lecturer at Mills College, Oakland, California and a Visiting Professor at the Univesity of California, Berkeley. He has also taught at various community colleges throughout the San Francsico Bay Area.

Professor Montoya has been invited to exhibit his art here and..in Europe and Latin America. His prints, posters, drawings, paintings, and murals provide a standard of excellence for students [as well as] established artists; for those who aspire to humanistic goals in the expression of their art. Malaquias Montoya has chosen not to devote his artistic creations to the commerical gallery world. A man of great political and artistic principles, he believes that art should be directed to the broadest possible audiences, including those who do not frequent commercial galleries. Montoya has elected to make the "world" his art gallery. In so doing, he is following a long tradition of cultural theoreticians who have deconstructed the negative social and cultural dimensions of artistic theories opposed to popular diffusion of the arts. There is no ambiguity in Montoya's works, as the art form is used to convey the artist's political message as well as his human concerns. His words are art and his art is poetry. The combination of powerful graphic images and human figures with issues of concern of humanity is perhaps his greatest artistic contribution.

Professor Montoya has received many honors, the latest being the 1997 Adaline Kent Award from the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA and the Art as a Hammer, Honoree from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Los Angeles, CA, May, 1997.

Right along with Ed Anser and Katha Politt