I used to hear the old ones say that the site of a buried treasure gave off an intense red glow. One such place was in grandmother’s backyard. The event occurred every evening at about seven. That was also around the same hour that the ritual took place of burning the daily papers from the privy called “Toledo.”
I used El Greco’s famous painting “A View of Toledo” to reference our Tex-Mex border lingo, and to illustrate the story. The title of my work is, “Tolido,” Spanglish for toilet, as in the use of the word “privy” which is in the story.
Domenikos Theotokopoulos was a transplant from Greece who went by the name “El Greco” when he moved to Spain. An immigrant, just like my grandmother, who told me the story in words. I enjoy layering my artworks conceptually, visually, verbally.
