GABRIEL QUINTERO VELASQUEZ, CALO
Founder, Artistic Director
Una Noche de La Gloria - Contemporary Art in the Cultural Zone

Gabriel Quintero Velasquez is a native of San Antonio, Texas.  Born at Santa Rosa Hospital in 1965, Velasquez was raised on the Southside of San Antonio where he graduated from Harlandale High School and was first employed at Kelly Airforce Base as a machinist in the Machine Shop Support Unit at Building 375.  In 2001 Velasquez received the degree of Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Texas at San Antonio.  Professionally he is a design and planning consultant.  Velasquez is a disc jockey, an all-around organizer, artist, cultural catalyst and visionary.

Velasquez is March Event Coordinator for the Cesar E. Chavez March for Justice in San Antonio, Texas and is recognized nationally and internationally as an immigration reform activist in San Antonio, Chicago, Washington DC, and DF Mexico where he was as a Delegate to the First Parliament of Migrant Mexican Leaders Living Outside of Mexico.  Velasquez served as a Capacity Builder in the Annie E. Casey Foundation Initiative - Making Connections San Antonio.  With regard to personality, Velasquez is and always has been a Disc Jockey (since the age of 13).  He began a long college radio stint at KRTU 91.7FM in the 80s spinning New Age and Fusion back to back with KRTU radio legend Monte Martinez.  By 1990 Velasquez was the Jazz Director at KSYM 90.1FM taking his programming to #1 city wide.  After many years in live radio and some associated controversy, he retired to "the street".  In the Arts, he designs small buildings as art and art as assemblage or construct, but he is primarily a creative visionary.  Velasquez was co-designer of Green Vegetarian, he designed La Casa Rosa on Dewey Street, a carwash on Nogalitos Street titled "Xicano Baroque - Mi Placazos", and has a long career history as a draftsman and time in the offices of various architects, including Killis P. Almond, FAIA, Preservation Architect.  Velasquez created early conceptual designs for the group AMA (Lionel Sosa, Rosemary Kowalski, George Cortez, and Jesse Trevino) for the visualization of a Museo de Artes in the Historic Market Square (considered an impetus for the transformation of El Centro de Artes).  Around 2000 he took studio with Luis Lopez at the Cabeza de Piedra Taller.  In the early 2000's he organized a five year annual series of symposia and large scale gallery exhibitions at the newly constructed Legoretta Library under the title: The Treaty Resolve Conventions, which centered on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and its impact on the urban indigenous.  Nominated by the San Antonio Museum of Art, Velasquez is a recipient of the City of San Antonio Diez y Seis de Septiembre Commission Award for Leadership in the Cultural Arts.  Velasquez is the Founder and Organizer of the Contemporary Art and Literature Organization.

Velasquez participated in the San Antonio "1% for Public Art" movement in 1996 and was a facilitator for the Arte Es Vida campaign.  In 2007 he received an invitation from Mayor Phil Hardberger to join Marice McDermott and the Witte Museum in creating an arts celebration city wide - the result was the Inaugural Luminaria 2008.  Velasquez was Co-Chair for Contemporary Art and was called Luminaria's "pinch hitter" by the San Antonio Current.  In the winter of 2008, Gabriel Quintero Velasquez and artist Jesse Trevino engaged CALO in "Una Noche de La Gloria - Contemporary Art in the Cultural Zone", a capacity building strategy for Latinos living with such diverse issues congruent to life as an artist.  Currently Velasquez joins Trevino in creating a City of San Antonio Hispanic Veterans Monument at Elmendorf Lake.  Titled "La Ofrenda", the tribute is a fusion of explorations in deconstructivism and sculptural barrio archetypes for a hybrid construct; transparent, illuminous, and silhouette.  Velasquez refers to the hybrid as Xicano-Supermodernism, not to be confused with conventional Supermoderisms.  Velasquez is the Vice President of the Cesar Chavez Legacy and Educational Fund which annually awards an average of 25 grants to college-bound students from underserved populations.  He is a Member of the Board of Directors for the Avenida Guadalupe Association where he chairs the Avenida Corridor Design Committee as part of the Neighborhood Commercial Revitalization Project (NCR) of the City of San Antonio.  Velasquez currently serves on the City of San Antonio Cultural Arts Board (CAB) and is the Committee Member for City Council District 3.