Vince Rascon
CSM professor of art
Champion of Mexican culture and of U.S.-Mexican cross-cultural understanding
Mentor to generations of fine-art ceramicists
Longtime College of San Mateo art professor Vince Rascon was not content to teach generations of students in the United States. He also helped found the fine arts department at the University of Sonora at Hermosillo, Mexico. For years, Rascon took CSM students to Hermosillo every summer to help convey the richness and complexity of Mexican fine art and to build cultural bonds between Mexico and the United States.
As a practitioner, Rascon is best known for his expressionistic paintings and works on paper. His teaching, however, centered on glass-blowing and especially ceramics. His career entwined with the “California Clay Movement” that emerged in the late 1950s to elevate ceramic artisanship to art, and Rascon mentored dozens of professional ceramic artists.
He also promoted pride in Mexican heritage, collaborating with scholar/poet/activist Ernesto Galarza on several books of anthropology, mythology and folklore.
Vincent P. Rascon (1923-2012) was born in El Paso, Texas. He studied mining engineering in college, but World War II changed his path. Hospitalized at a naval base in Southern California, Rascon discovered art. He earned an MFA in printmaking from Los Angeles’ Otis Art Institute, where sculptor Peter Vuolkos was creating monumental pieces out of clay and revolutionizing ceramics as a fine art.
Rascon’s first teaching job was at a San Bernardino middle school, where he wrote a mythological play called “The Jewel of Virtue” for his students to perform. He also met his wife, the daughter of a San Bernardino sculptor.
In 1963, Rascon became one of 39 founding faculty members at College of San Mateo’s College Heights campus. Two years later, he mounted Ceramics ’65, the first such event staged at CSM, as part of annual two-week exhibit of CSM art talents. Fifteen community colleges were invited to send student ceramics for display in the Little Theatre foyer. Top entries were purchased by CSM for permanent display.
Rascon’s Hermosillo connection began with a CSM student he was asked to mentor in 1969. The student spoke only Spanish, and Rascon was one of very few professors who could converse with him. The student went on to teach at the University of Sonora, and he invited Rascon to give workshops there. Learning that the Sonora students were poorly resourced, Rascon raised funds for the fine arts department and donated a collection of etchings to benefit the program. In recognition, the University of Sonora at Hermosillo awarded Rascon an honorary PhD in 1981 as well as an honorary full professorship.
After teaching at CSM for 25 years, Rascon retired to Half Moon Bay and Atzompa, Oaxaca, Mexico, where he continued to make prints and paintings. He died in 2012.
His books include Chogorrom and Poemas parvulos (both with Galarza); Myths and Gods of Ancient Mexico; Crafts and Customs of Oaxaca and The Yaqui Easter Ceremony.
