Latino comedian Cheech Marin created a center for Chicano art
Latino comedian Cheech Marin pays tribute to his Mexican American and Chicano roots with The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture known as “The Cheech”.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A young woman with a ponytail leaned in to take a closer look at “Dreamers,” an oil painting by Rosy Cortez. “Oh, that’s interesting,” the woman mused to her companion. Nearby, a group of senior citizens gazed at a multilevel installation featuring the Aztec earth goddess Coatlicue. “It’s fantastic!” one senior exclaimed.
These visitors were taking in the artwork at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, known as “The Cheech.”
Marin, a comedian, actor and activist, Marin has been learning about art since he was an 11-year-old looking at books at the library. A collector of Chicano art since the 1980s, he’s exhibited his collection in over 50 museums across the country. Now the star of TV's “Nash Bridges” and several Cheech and Chong movies has gifted approximately 500 works by Chicano artists to the Riverside Art Museum, which has provided the paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs with a permanent home.
“This is the most positive thing I’ve ever been involved in, in my whole career,” Marin said in an interview with NBC News.
Marin hopes that the museum, a public-private partnership with the Riverside Art Museum and the City of Riverside, will introduce more people to Chicano art. He is especially proud that the new museum is in Riverside, a community about 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles that is 53% Latino. Many visitors to the museum, Marin said, have “never been in any museum before, anywhere.”
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