El Pueblo History Museum's Days of the Dead

Days of the Dead: Aztec Adventures of Cholo, Vato, and Pano

Aztec heritage, ancestral memory, and community love are vividly captured through the art of Tony Ortega, a Denver-based Chicano artist, printmaker, painter, and educator whose career spans more than four decades. This exhibition features the original artwork Ortega created for the children’s book Days of the Dead: Aztec Adventures of Cholo, Vato, and Pano, written by George Rivera, Ph.D. The story follows a young Chicano boy, Pano, and his two dogs, Cholo and Vato, as they experience Día de los Muertos at his home in Colorado and during a visit to Pátzcuaro, Mexico. 

Ortega’s illustrations bring these adventures to life – drawing inspiration from Mexican folk art, Aztec symbolism, and the vibrant traditions that create rich, community-centered vistas of the bicultural world many of us navigate. Through this imagery, the exhibition explores heritage, identity, and the importance of remembering those who came before us.

About the Artist

Tony Ortega is a Denver-based visual artist and educator whose work has been featured in over 30 solo exhibitions. His art has been showcased in prestigious institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Harwood Museum (Taos, NM), RedLine Contemporary Art Center (Denver), and the National Hispanic Cultural Center (Albuquerque, NM). Ortega holds an MFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of Colorado Boulder and currently serves as a professor at Regis University. In 2018, he was named Regis College Faculty Lecturer of the Year. Among his many honors, Ortega received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts (1999) and the Denver Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts (1998). His work is included in notable collections such as the Denver Art Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and Museo Estudio Diego Rivera in Mexico City. He has exhibited extensively across the United States, Latin America, and internationally. For more information and to view his work, visit: www.tonyortega.net