Symposium on Mexican American Art (Nov. 1973)

During 1973, Felipe Reyes and Santos Martinez withdrew from Con Safo as they prepared to go to the University of Michigan to earn their Master of Fine Art (MFA) degrees. Jose Garza later attended the University of Michigan (though he did not graduate) and Thelma Muraida Ortiz studied advanced printmaking at Eastern Michigan University.

Mel Casas resigned his presidency in 1973 and Rudy Treviño took his place. In November 1973 Jacinto Quirarte—art historian, professor, and Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA)—organized the Symposium on Mexican American Art which was to take place from November 10th to 11th. Members of Con Safo were supposed to participate in this symposium yet many rejected the use of Mexican-American instead of Chicano to describe their art and subsequently refused to show their work. This resulted in members of Con Safo deciding on an individual basis whether or not to show their work.

UTSA’s campus was not complete until 1976 and as a result, the Symposium on Mexican American Art was hosted by Trinity University in the Ruth Taylor Music Center Hall and Laurie Auditorium.

As a result of the infighting surrounding the Symposium on Mexican American Art, a protest show organized by Jesse Almazán, and many of the original members of Con Safo left the group. At this point, formerly strict guidelines for admitting new members were dropped and many students and novices joined Con Safo.