David Avalos came up in Old Town National City (OTNC), California, a Mexican-American
community that nurtured his parents and family, and produced internationally recognized
Chicano artists, human rights activists, scholars, and educators who continue to influence
Avalos’ thinking and actions. A Vietnam-era U.S. Army veteran stationed in West Germany
in the late 1960s, he was able to attend South Bay Trade School, SDSU and UCSD on
the G.I. Bill. At the Centro Cultural de la Raza throughout the 1980s he worked with
multi-disciplinary artists, including the Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo,
a collective focused on the dynamic balance of US-Mexico absurdities. As a CSUSM teacher
since 1991, he learns while teaching students who bring their diverse backgrounds,
world views, intuitions, insights and ideas into the classroom. Writings about and
by him are included in numerous academic publications and archives. His art works
are in regional and national museum collections.
|