Hips don't Lie ("Sonora Dawn"), 2012, Oil-on-canvas, 40" x 30" (Collection of the artist).

José Rodeiro's HIPS DON'T LIE ("Sonoran Dawn") is a duende-filled image inspired by Goya's Black Paintings and Goitia's provocative mystic-images; wherein a unique iconology prevails that is simultaneously dramatic, tragic, hilarious, cynical and ironic, i.e., using "aliens" as symbols for Hispanic-alienation.

Against a blazing Sonoran dawn beaming rays of sunlight over a blue mountain range (somewhat reminiscent of Arizona's state-flag); two extraterrestrials stand vexed (preparing for combat) sizing-up an approaching throng of Latinos led by Shakira. Additionally, the image depicts four flyingsaucers darting about the sky with searchlights probing for armadillos, ancient Amerindian petroglyphs, or terra firma (a sensible spot to land and colonize). In the sky, the Hopi's Hotomqam constellation (aka "Orion") reaffirms the underlying outerspace theme, which is also echoed by the ancient Hopi ancestral petrogylphs of hybrid ant-men, or the divine Masau'u (the ancient caretaker of the earth and the Hopi's god of death).

As in past centuries; since the 9/11 attacks, thousands of US-Latinos bravely defend the USA in perilous theatres-of-war. Rodeiro's HIPS DON'T LIE ("Sonoran Dawn") considers the infinite ("Maya 2012 related") possibilities that, e.g., haunt Jonathan Liebesman's 2011 thought-provoking film BATTLE: LA. Would we have sufficient numbers of US-Latinos available to fight, when "predictably" a full-scale invasion of powerful and technologically-advanced extraterrestrials invade our beloved nation? Would we (as Americans) be able to quickly, patriotically, fully and properly defend the USA, with "100%" honor and effort; after the shameful treachery that was recently leveled against America's deepest values by Governor Jan Brewer on April 28, 2011, when she imprudently signed another [(in a string of anti-American/anti-Latino laws generated by Arizona's perfidious legislature)] vile law SB 1406, authorizing the building of a "bigger" inhospitable and ignominious fence along Arizona's border with Mexico, doing inestimable harm to both nature, the US-economy, all life and humanity. In his painting, Rodeiro depicts a dead armadillo, symbolizing the threat to nature posed by an enormous fence along the US-border with Mexico.

Sadly, in the Southwest already a thousand miles of fencing exists, separating the USA from Mexico and indirectly from all of Latin America. However, Rodeiro's HIPS DON'T LIE ("Sonoran Dawn") asks, "What if (during Southwestern "waking-hours"), the "real" aliens are already there on the "border" cavorting, scouting logistics for their interplanetary invasion?" For example, in 1947, an alien spacecraft allegedly crashed nearby at Roswell, New Mexico.

Ultimately, the question is: "Will we be able (as a nation) to quickly arm enough loyal and battle-hardened Latinos [(who, since 1776, have valiantly fought for America)] to save the USA, when so many awkward, ugly, and ill-conceived obstacles ("fences") stand in their way? Or, (in truth) stand in the way of FREEDOM!"

Exactly a year earlier in April 29, 2010, the Colombian pop-star Shakira and the Hon. Phil Gordon (the mayor of Phoenix) sparked enormous Pro-Latino protests against an earlier ethno-racist Arizona law: SB 1070 Law. During that protests 200,000 Latinos listened to Shakira advocate for human rights, civil rights, and freedom. Referencing Eugene Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People (1830), Rodeiro places Shakira and Phil Gordon at the forefront of the Latino struggle, which is symbolized by yearning Hispanic masses, (which follow Shakira's "Star Spangled Banner" ("Old Glory"), derived from David Alfaro Siqueiros's murals in the Castillo de Chapultepec (Mexico City) entitled From Porfirio's Diaz's Dictatorship to the Revolution (1958). Interestingly, a United States map (with subtle, shifting, and dynamic chiaroscuro borders) emerges from the shadow of this multitude, e.g., the Florida peninsula's shadow is caste by a tall nude man (in the center of the composition).

For more about Rodeiro please                  [Above essay by Tara Dervla]. For his Duende essay please click here.