Jose Cisneros
.50 linear ft.
A1995-049
1890-1945 (unknown)
Jose Cisneros, born April 18, 1910 in the state of Durango moved to the United States in 1927. At an early age he began his art education by copying the illustrations found in magazines and newspapers. Through consistent effort he developed an illustration technique that won him professional recognition and in 1937 began an active career working for several major publishing houses. In 1939 Cisneros married Vicenta Madero; they raised five daughters and one niece. Throughout Cisneros' career, he has maintained a great interest in history. Because of this background and an ability to do painstaking research, his renderings are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly accurate. One of the proudest efforts is a series titled "Riders of the Spanish Borderlands." This work represents the horsemen of the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. The renderings not only detail costume and equipment but also draw attention to the grace of both horse and rider. His highly detailed illustrations document the stories of the Paso del Norte region for the past four centuries. Cisneros focused on real-life characters and concentrated on the movements and anatomy of the horse, which he regarded as the most beautiful animal in creation. Riders Across the Centuries: Horsemen of the Spanish Borderlands received the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Wrangler Award in 1985, and his preservation of history through art earned Cisneros the National Humanities Medal in 2002.
Taken partially from http://admin.utep.edu/default.aspx?tabid=62712 and http://www.humanitiestexas.org/news/articles/remembering-jos%C3%A9-cisneros
The Jose Cisneros Collections consists of published journals and exhibit brochures containing his art work. Several publications he wrote and correspondence is included along with a folder devoted to the "Border Battle Series Drawings.
Materials are arranged in four folders: Publications Drawings in Publications John F. Kennedy Memorial Issue of "Life Magazine" Border Battle Series Drawings
South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Open for Research
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Jose Cisneros Collection, A1995-049.XXXX, South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
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A1995-049 – Transferred from Jernigan Library by Roberts Pitts on February 23, 1995.
Cecilia Aros Hunter processed the Josiah Cox Russell Collection, the Thien Wah Collection, the Jose Cisneros Collection and the Robert Runyon Collection in 1995 as one collection. Lori Atkins separated the four groups of materials in 2016, creating separate collections. The finding aid for Jose Cisneros was created by Lori Atkins and encoded into an EAD document by Daniel Thacker in 2017.