Chicano artist, activist, writer, visionary, and professor.

Melesio “Mel” Casas (November 24, 1929 – November 30, 2014) used visual statements, his sense of humor and love of puns to “address cultural stereotypes.”

His work has been collected by the San Antonio Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and nationally and internationally. He is best known for his series of 150 large-scale paintings called “Humanscapes” that were painted between 1965 and 1989.

Casas was also well known as a writer and theorist. His “Brown Paper Report” is considered an important document of Chicano history. In his writing, he emphasized the importance of “self-determination” and equality for Chicanos/as. He is considered to be one of the most important founders of the Chicano Arts movement.

Casas felt that once artists had a fair chance to exhibit in the United States, then they would become part of “Americana.”