President Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldaña

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Vicente Ramón Guerrero Saldaña
Mexico’s First Black Indian President
(1781-1831)
Mexico

In Spanish tradition, his first or paternal family name is Guerrero and the second or maternal family name is Saldaña. He fought for and presided over the arrival of independence and the abolition of slavery. Theodore Vincent in his book “The Legacy of Vicente Guerrero, Mexico’s First Black Indian President,” and his 2001 article in the Journal of Negro History points out the African and Indian roots of his father Pedro, a mule driver, who passed onto his son a lifelong hatred of slavery and oppression. Guadalupe, Guerrero’s mother, was of Indian and European heritage.

“I use whatever resources I have available to create wonderful, second-life art because I grew up poor and use to using whatever is available. When I made this painting, I was incarcerated and working in the prison tailor shop where we made mattresses. I noticed that the guards were throwing away mattress scraps. The scraps were abundant and free; so, I used the scraps as the canvas for this picture.”

- Artist Larry Walker

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