“A new era in Chicano art is beginning! ¡DÁLE GAS!”
With this call to action, the artist and curator Santos Martinez Jr. heralded a historic moment. On August 20, 1977, the first major museum exhibition of Chicano art in Texas opened to the public at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH). Dále Gas: An Exhibition of Contemporary Chicano Art brought together the work of thirteen artists: Mel Casas, Jose Esquivel, Frank Fajardo, Carmen Lomas Garza, Luis Jiménez, César Augusto Martínez, Amado Peña, Roberto Rios, José Rivera, Joe Bastida Rodriguez, Jesus (Jesse) Treviño, George Truan, and curator of the exhibition and chief curator of CAMH at the time, Santos Martinez Jr.