Artist of the Year

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Born and raised in National City/San Diego, California, Guillermo “Yermo” Aranda comes from a family of artists, craftsman, and musicians. He is a co-founder of “Toltecas en Aztlan” (1968), a collection of multi-media Chicano Artists. He is also co-founder and First Director of “El Centro Cultural de La Raza” (1971-75), a cultural art center focusing on Latino and Indigenous Art forms. As the Centro’s first Administrative Director, Yermo initiated the first Chicano Park Murals in San Diego in April of 1973. Chicano Park is now recognized as a National Historical Landmark.

Within a year after arriving in Watsonville in 1983, Yermo began to practice and teach Aztec dance and co-founded the White Hawk Dancers, a cultural arts organization providing Visual and Performing Arts Workshops for youth. In 1985, the first “Xilonen” ceremony on the West Coast was held. This gathering of Aztec dancers continues to this day, the second weekend of July. In 1995, ten White Hawk dancers went to Shingu, Japan as part of the Sister Cities program, where they danced at the World Exposition in Wakayama. Yermo’s contributions to the White Hawk Dancers has always been on a volunteer basis, and its focus on has always been the youth of our communities. Yermo works with youth in helping them develop their artistic skills, utilizing murals as the means to involve youth in the arts. He has over 80 murals in the Santa Cruz and Monterey county area, all youth projects. Currently he teaches art and the process of mural painting, locally and throughout the State of California, working with elementary students in Northern California and inmates in a California state penitentiary.