Rolando Briseño stands inside his 50-year retrospective exhibition. Credit: Ruben Cordova

“Dining with Rolando Briseño: A 50-Year Retrospective,” curated by Ruben C. Cordova at Centro de Artes, closes Feb. 9.

Briseño, the San Antonio-born Chicano artist whose work it celebrates, also is an activist and a food historian, and he considers himself a “cultural adjuster.”

Among the highlights of the exhibition and a piece where his urge to make cultural adjustment is on full display is Corn Tortilla Twin Towers, a model replica of the World Trade Center created from more than 300 corn tortillas and pigmented with red chilies.

The exhibition also features several works from Briseño’s Tablescapes series, which explores how the dinner table serves as a communal gathering space where family members interact with each other and exchange words and ideas.

With the retrospective winding down, the Current caught up with Briseño to discuss his thoughts on 50 years of his artistic output and why he considers corn or masa — the dough made from corn — “the basis of Mexican civilization.”

Briseño’s responses were frequently poignant yet humorous. We also discussed how just seven years prior, his late husband, Angel Rodriguez Diaz, who died in 2023, also had a career-spanning retrospective in the same space.

What are your thoughts on the retrospective covering more than 50 years of your work?

I’ve actually been an artist longer than 50 years. Me and my cousins would go to art school at the McNay Museum when we were in grade school. We were the only Mexicans there. Since I was a kid I’ve always wanted to be an artist. My mother wanted me to be an architect. She didn’t want me to be an artist, but later on she said, “Well, at least you’re not a dancer!”

A painting from Rolando Briseño’s Tablescapes series. Credit: Marco Aquino

How do you think Mexican food is misunderstood?

People think it’s not up to par with French food …. . Or Italian food. But that’s just not true! It is just different, but things are slowly starting to change. Americans love cheese, so the American version of enchiladas is just completely different. In Mexico they use very little white cheese on enchiladas. It’s healthier and more natural.

Talk about your connection to New York and your inspiration for Corn Tortilla Towers.

I lived in New York for many years, but I wasn’t there during 9/11. Early on, I remember thinking the whole world comes to visit New York, but there weren’t any Mexicans. Only the Mexican artists or intellectuals would go. Eventually, the Mexican people started to arrive and move there. A lot of them were from Puebla, and I would talk to them on the subway. The busboys and dishwashers were mainly all Mexican.There was a restaurant at the top of the towers, and they all worked there, probably undocumented. After the towers fell, no one probably came looking for them, they just disappeared. So I decided to make this sculpture as an homage to them, whom I refer to as, “Los Hijos de Maiz,” or the “Sons of the Corn.”

The artist’s Corn Tortilla Towers. Credit: Marco Aquino

What’s the significance of corn?

Corn is to the Americas what wheat was to Europe. The Olmecs over 3,000 years ago made it bigger, and then they discovered that when you soak corn it makes masa. And that was much more nutritious! The Mayans had tamales, and if you look at the Caribbean, everyone has their own version of the tamal.

What’s the meaning behind many of the boxers or fighters in your Tablescapes series?

I chose the table because it’s a secular, ceremonial place where there is communication and things that could go on. Things can go on around the table besides eating. We talk, we communicate … so I see it as a locus of community. A lot of time, people get together, like around Thanksgiving, and arguing ensues. Sometimes at the table, people just start arguing. The boxer probably also represents some sort of internal strife within me towards my identity, my sexuality … . I’m not sure.

Your husband Angel Rodriguez Diaz also had his retrospective in the same space in 2017. Have there ever been any comparisons between your work and his?

Angel, my deceased husband, is a master portrait artist. His portraits are incredible. He is also Puerto Rican, so our work is very different. His work is very detailed. Mine is more expressive, more symbolic. Just different.

What’s it like to see all three paintings from Angel’s Goddess Triptych finally reunited and publicly displayed at the San Antonio Museum of Art after seven years?

Oh yeah, that was great! The writer Sandra Cisneros had donated the first two with the condition that they purchase the third piece. So, my art dealer, Rigoberto Luna, sold them the third piece. It was great to see the three goddesses finally reunited at SAMA in 2024. They have their own gallery. It’s really exciting that finally happened.

Free, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, noon-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through Feb. 9, Centro de Artes Gallery, 101 S. Santa Rosa Ave., (210) 207-6960, sa.gov/arts.

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This article appears in Jan 22 – Feb 4, 2025.