Proud Products of Texas Public Schools

Amado Pena

Graduate of Martin High School
Laredo, Texas

Amado Pena was born of Mexican and Indian descent. His art represents the essence of the Southwest. He has been active in art since the fourth grade, when he made a crayon drawing of a moving locomotive. Throughout junior high, high school, and junior college in Laredo, Pena won awards for his art.

In 1963, Pena enrolled in Texas A&I University, now Texas A&M-Kingsville. He was recognized as one of the outstanding art students and received his bachelor’s in art in 1965. During this period, the South Texan student newspaper reported that Pena won the design contest for the Javelina battle flag that was adopted in the fall of 1965 and is still used today. He returned to Kingsville to complete another degree. After teaching high school in Laredo from 1965-70, Pena returned to Kingsville as a graduate student and received his master’s in art and education in 1971.

While at A&I, Pena became a major influence in the Chicano Art movement. After teaching in Crystal City and Austin, Pena made the decision in 1980 to leave teaching and devote all his time to his art. Pena, a creative, prolific artist, communicates his vision of a land, a people, and their art through serigraphs, etchings, and paintings that convey his mastery of color, strong graphics, spatial relationships, and form. His work, owned by collectors throughout the country as well as Mexico and China, can be seen at the National Museum of American Art, the Heard Museum of Phoenix, the New Mexico Fine Art Museum, the University of California at Long Beach, The University of Texas Benson Latin-American Collection in Austin, the Whitney Museum of San Antonio, and Texas A&M-Kingsville.