Camilo Minero (born Camilo Minero Nochez) was born in

Zacatecoluca Zacatecoluca () is the capital municipality of the La Paz Department of El Salvador. Located in Southern El Salvador, in the Rio Lempa valley, at the foot of San Vicente (Chinchotepec) Volcano. A commercial center for the surrounding agricultura ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

on November 11, 1917. He was a painter, muralist, and an engraver. As a painter, he worked with

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

, prints, serigraphs,

watercolours Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

, and

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

s. He died from a heart attack in Sal Salvador on May 6, 2005. In

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

he studied at the

Instituto Politécnico Nacional The National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico ( es, Instituto Politécnico Nacional de México; ), abbreviated IPN, is one of the largest public universities in Mexico with 171,581 students at the high school, undergraduate and postgraduate level ...

and the Factory of Popular Graph. One of the murals of the building of the rectory at the

University of El Salvador The University of El Salvador or Universidad de El Salvador (UES) is the oldest and the most prominent university institution in El Salvador. It serves as the national university of the country. The main campus, Ciudad Universitaria, is located ...

was painted by him. His painting work depicts all the areas of the Salvadoran life: poverty, pleasures, work, the countryside, and animals. In 1996, he was awarded with the National Prize of Culture by the government of El Salvador.

Early life

Minero was born to Camilo Minero, owner of a funeral home, and Josefina Mochez de Minero, who was dedicated to making fabrics. Minero started making art at an early age and studied drawing and painting with Marcelino Carballo. He later studied at the National School of Graphic Arts in El Salvador. Due to a scholarship granted by the Salvadoran state, he obtained the opportunity to study in Mexico with great muralists such as

Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...

and

David Alfaro Siqueiros David Alfaro Siqueiros (born José de Jesús Alfaro Siqueiros; December 29, 1896 – January 6, 1974) was a Mexican social realist painter, best known for his large public murals using the latest in equipment, materials and technique. Along with ...

Life as an artist

Camilo Minero was known by the nickname "El pintor del pueblo" (trans. "the painter of the people"), due to his leftist political ideals. However, his affiliation with the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front ultimately led to his imprisonment and exile. After this time, he traveled to Mexico and Nicaragua, and taught painting and engraving classes at the

Polytechnic University of Nicaragua The Polytechnic University of Nicaragua ( es, Universidad Politecnica de Nicaragua, UPOLI) is a university in Managua, Nicaragua. It was founded in 1967. Organization The university has six schools: * School of Administration, Commerce and Finan ...

. He returned to El Salvador after the

Chapultepec Peace Accords The Chapultepec Peace Accords were a set of Peace treaty, peace agreements signed on January 16, 1992, the day in which the Salvadoran Civil War ended. The treaty established peace between the El Salvador, Salvadoran government and the Farabund ...

were signed in 1992.

Style and themes

The colour yellow prevails across Minero's work. His paintings depicted what life was like for Latin American people, and always tried to stand in favour to the poor and dispossessed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minero, Camilo 1917 births Year of death missing 20th-century Salvadoran painters Male painters People from La Paz Department (El Salvador) Salvadoran expatriates in Mexico