Category: Collection

For almost 30 years, José Cisneros worked full time for El Paso City Lines. What had begun as a job in an essential industry during World War II became a career for the young artist. Although Cisneros had answered a draft notice in 1939, his color-blindness led to a military classification of 4-F (disabled and...

The burgeoning friendship between José Cisneros and El Paso artist Tom Lea not only marked the beginning of Cisneros’ professional career in the art community, but also granted him increased notoriety and an introduction to Carl Hertzog, an El Paso typographer and book designer. José Cisneros and Carl Hertzog both met Tom Lea in 1937....

In 1937, José Cisneros was employed as a window dresser at White House Department Store. At the federal courthouse in El Paso, just six blocks from his work, an artist named Tom Lea had begun work on a mural to honor the people who had come to the Pass of the North throughout its history....

José Cisneros was born in Villa Ocampo, Mexico in 1910. The Cisneros family home was situated on a twenty-seven-acre plot located just outside of the village. In addition to carpenter work, José’s father, Don Fernando Cisneros, also operated a barber shop and blacksmith business out of the family home. As political unrest cast a veil...