Jesus Cantu Medel - Museo Guadalupe Aztlan Collection

Jesus Cantu Medel founded Museo Guadalupe Aztlan, a Chicano-themed museum, on March 1, 1994 in Houston, Texas and has, to date, served as executive director. The mission of the Museo is to promote indigenous folk art of the Americas and Chicano history, art and culture. The Museo operates as a museum-on-wheels and is often referred to as a “museum without walls” taking its events to local educational institutions. The Museo offers touring exhibits that include Huichol bead paintings from Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexican retables from Olinala, Guerrero, Mayan huipils from Guatemala, and antique metates and molcahetes presented as a Mesoamerican culinary exhibit.

The museum’s first home was at Centro Aztlan at 5115 Harrisburg Boulevard in Houston. Since then, the Museo has been housed at the following Houston locations: the LULAC House at 3004 Bagby, Northside High School (formerly Jefferson Davis High School), Houston Community College: Southeast Campus, and Houston Community College: Northline Campus.

The Museo’s annual signature programs include Cine Cuauhtemoc Pan American Film Festival, Dia de los Muertos Annual Celebration, and the Raza Youth Conference. In addition, the museum collects interviews with Chicano/a activists and artists as part of their Sembradores de Aztlan oral history project.

In 1997 Medel began a collection of personal memoirs to document the unique experience of a Chicano museum professional and provide detailed narratives of Houston’s rich cultural history from the standpoint of a museum director. In 2000 Medel formed a working- title for a future publication that encapsulates this collection of memoirs: A la mera brava!: Personal Written Memoirs of Jesus Cantu Medel, M.Ed., A Chicano Museum Director (1997-2016).