The Jesse Gonzales papers include original images created by Jesse Gonzales, as well as collected materials on Latino/Chicano life and culture in Michigan.
Native of Albion, Mich. Jesse Gonzales is a lifelong resident of the state. He has been photographing since his high school days. He received his B.A. in History with minor in Journalism from Michigan State University and M.A. in Community College Education from the University of Michigan (1979). Gonzales has also been active in historical documentation of Michigan Latino history. Beginning in the 1960s, while attending college, Jesse Gonzales and his wife Joana have amassed and saved a sizable collection of materials, publications, books, magazines, newspapers, photography art and artwork which documented the Chicano collegiate presence in East Lansing, Kalamazoo, and Ann Arbor, Mich.
During the late 1970s, Jesse Gonzales began exhibiting his photography along with other Latino artists in the Lansing, Mich. area. Several of his photographs were published in "500 years of Chicano History in Pictures" (Albuquerque, N.M.: SouthWest Organizing Project, 1991). Gonzales has photographed in Michigan, California, Illinois, Texas, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Spain. Besides his personal photographic endeavors, Gonzales worked with other Michigan Latinos, students and artists, to create one of the first statewide Latino arts organizations: The Raza Arts & Media Collective, founded in 1975.
One of his favorite photographic subjects is the Virgin of Guadalupe (the Virgin Mary), a figure revered by Mexicans and Chicanos throughout the U.S. He also continues search out signage, representations, figurines, symbols and icons that evoke Latinidad and Chicanismo. Gonzales is drawn to Chicano iconography that evokes the life and spirit of Latino neighborhoods, including graffiti, signage murals, and statuary. This resulted in the production of "El Calendario Hispano de Michigan, 1981." The calendar covered Hispanic social, cultural, political, and historical events in Michigan from 1781 to 1980.
As an educator Jesse Gonzales has worked for the Michigan State University, Michigan Department of Education, and Lansing School District.
