Jesse Herrera Photograph Collection
Scope and Contents Note
Jesse Herrera's documentary photography of Mexico, Guatemala, and Spain largely focuses on religious ceremonies, celebrations, and iconography. Photographs in this collection span the years of 1987-1990s, 2001, 2004 and document people and events in Cuetzalan and San Miguel Tzinacapan, Puebla, Mexico; Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosí, Mexico; Antigua and Chichicastenango, Guatemala; and Seville and Malaga, Spain. Also included are two photographs of quinceañera celebrations in Austin, Texas. The collection contains 87 11x14 in. black and white photographic prints, 16 8x10 in. black and white photographic prints, and 6 16x20 in. black and white photographic prints.
The bulk of photographs from Mexico showcase the intersection of Catholic religion and local indigenous tradition, documenting annual rituals, festivals, and ceremonies in the Nahua villages surrounding Cuetzalan, Puebla, including the Danza de los Voladores. This is a pre-Columbian ceremony characterized by suspended dancers leaping, or "flying," from a 30-foot tall pole. Also featured is the fiesta de San Francisco de Asís, a Catholic patron saint festival that, in Cuetzalan, includes the coronation of La Reina del Huipil. La Reina, or the queen, is a young Nahua woman selected as a representative of the Nahuatl language and local community. Ten photographs document pilgrimage to Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
Herrera's photographs from Guatemala and Spain center on Semana Santa (Holy Week) practices, and form part of his work observing the transfer and transformation of Catholic religious rituals from their origins in Spain to post-colonial contexts. Subjects of these photographs include cofradías, or Catholic layman brotherhoods; nazarenos, members of these brotherhoods; and the large-scale religious sculptural tableaux they construct, care for, and carry through Semana Santa processions. Several of Herrera's Seville photographs were published in Susan V. Webster's, Art and Ritual in Golden-Age Spain (1998). Notably, "El Cristo de la Giralda," which can be found in this collection, was used as the frontispiece. Eleven photographs in this collection from Guatemala and Spain were featured in Herrera's 2009 exhibit Semana Santa at the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) at The University of Texas at Austin.
Dates
- Creation: 1987-1990
- Creation: 1992-1993
- Creation: 1998
- Creation: 2001
- Creation: 2004
Language of Materials
English, Spanish
Access Restrictions
Unrestricted.
Use Restrictions
Standard copyright restrictions apply.
Biographical Sketch
Jesse Herrera was born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1945, eldest of three children to Maria Luisa Herrera and Jessie Toledo Herrera. The family immigrated to the United States when Jesse was twelve years old, settling on the South Side of Chicago. In 1963, Herrera enlisted in the U.S Navy, where he served for a total of eight years. He began his first tour of duty in Vietnam in 1967 and was stationed in Camp Tien Sha and Da Nang. It was during this period that Herrera became interested in photography, purchasing his first SLR (single-lens reflex) 35mm camera in Hong Kong while on a break from duty. For his service in the Vietnam War, Herrera was awarded the National Defense Service Medal.
After his service, Herrera returned to Illinois and married Ruth Ann Herrera (née Pluta) in 1970. He enrolled in photography courses at Columbia College in Chicago and realized he wanted to pursue a career in photography. As a first generation college student, Herrera earned a B.A. from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Art and Architecture in 1975. After graduating, Herrera began working as a corporate photographer for People's Gas Co. in Chicago. He later relocated with his wife and family to Austin, Texas, where he worked as a photographer for several Texas state government entities for 25 years, including the Texas Department of Agriculture, the State Preservation Board, and the Texas House of Representatives. Herrera earned an M.A. in Photojournalism from the University of Texas at Austin in 1990, exhibiting photos from his thesis project at the Briscoe Center for American History. From 1990 to 2009, he also taught photography at the Laguna Gloria School of Art in Austin.
Beginning in the late 1980s, Herrera began travelling annually to Mexico to document people and customs in remote villages. His work has been exhibited throughout Texas and the United States, including Patron Saints at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. His photographs are part of the permanent collections of the Mexic-Arte Museum, The Bill Wittliff Photography Collection of Southwestern and Mexican Photography at Texas State University, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Austin History Center.
As of 2021, Jesse Herrera is retired and lives in Grapevine, Texas.
Sources:
Herrera, Jesse. (2011, August 8). Interview by Manuel Aviles-Santiago [video recording]. Voces Oral History Project, Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin. https://voces.lib.utexas.edu/collections/stories/jesse-herrera
Full Extent
3 linear feet
Abstract
The Jesse Herrera Photograph Collection consists of black and white photographs depicting various people, places, and events in Mexico, Guatemala, and Spain. The bulk of the photographs document religious celebrations and cultural rituals.
Acquisition Information
Donation.
Accession number: 2012-12
Additions
No further materials are expected for this collection.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Melissa Aslo De La Torre, Graduate Research Assistant, 2021.
- Title
- Jesse Herrera Photograph Collection
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Author
- Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection
- Date
- 2021
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard (Dacs)
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Revision Statements
- 2026: Edited by Carla O. Alvarez.
Repository Details
Part of the Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin Repository
2300 Red River Street
Austin Texas 78712 United States
(512) 495-4578
bensonspecialcollections@austin.utexas.edu