"I was born into flowers." Eva Castellanoz holding an azhares boquet Photo courtesy of Oregon Council for the Humanities Photographer:Jan Boles

Valle de Santiago was the family's home. As the family grew, life in Valle became more difficult because jobs were scarce. Eva's father had to look for work in other places. Like many Mexican men, he took a job as a farm worker in "El Norte,"—the United States—and left his wife and children at home while he worked on farms in the southern U.S. Although he often made less than $1.00 a day, he sent money home regularly and visited as often as he could, and when Eva was three he brought the family to the United States. Pharr, Texas, became the family's new home, one that offered work for the entire family. Eva's job, as soon as she was old enough, was to pick cucumbers and bag radishes before and after school.

It was difficult for the family to move to a new country, but Eva's father made it easier. "My father told us that although he was taking us out of Mexico, no one could ever take Mexico and our culture out of us." Her parents sang corridos (Mexican ballads) to each other, made up poems, made clothing and furniture from scratch, and celebrated Mexican festivals with all the colorful splendor they could create on a shoestring budget. It was this early and constant exposure to art and Mexican culture that influenced Eva to become a traditional Mexican artist.

Even though Eva's family spent most hours of the day working the land, they always made time for art, poetry, music, and stories. For them, art was beautiful and healing. It was also instructive, teaching, through the making of azhares for example, how to live as a respectable woman. Azhares are wax and paper flowers that women wear during different rites of passage. In this residency, you will learn how to make these beautiful flowers.

Eva's parents not only nourished Eva's soul with art, but they also nourished her body with healing plants and herbs. Both of Eva's parents were curanderos, or healers. Once a month, for example, Eva's mother made a healing cilantro stew that helped protect the family from colds and digestive troubles.

Eva Castellanoz Photo courtesy of Oregon Council for the Humanities Photographer:Jan Boles

Eva still uses these recipes to heal her family and people in her community.

When Eva was 15 years old, she and her family (which had grown to include two little brothers, Fidel Jr. and Manuel) became migrant farmworkers. When the harvesting season ended in Pharr, Eva and her family, and many other workers went north again, this time on a truck operated by the Amalgamated Sugar Company. The company drove them to its processing plant in Nyssa, Oregon, to work on its sugar beet plantation and to process the sugar beets.

For five years, Eva's family made the 43-hour, 2,000-mile trip between Pharr and Nyssa. In 1957, when Eva was 18, the family decided to stay in Nyssa year round and make it their home. Soon after, Eva married and began a family. When Eva was 25, she returned to Valle de Santiago with her husband. On the trip, she saw a man making coronas de azhares (crowns made from wax flowers) and decided that she wanted to create the same type of art. She returned to Nyssa and began what would become a life-long creative calling.

Eva Castellanoz has lived and worked in Nyssa for almost 50 years. In addition to farming and working in factories, she has continued the tradition of making azhares for friends and family on special occasions. She has also shared her wisdom and skill with young people in the community. For many years, she has worked with an organization called Youth on the Move. And now that she has retired, Eva spends her days playing with her nine grandchildren and sharing her art in workshops with children, ages 9-19.

Eva has been called many things, including a "national treasure" by the president of the United States when she was awarded the NEA National Heritage Fellowship in 1987. But she says that the best name anyone can give her is "human/woman":

I never want to forget to be human, to cry for the pain of others, to help in the pain of others. And I don't want to ever forget that I am a woman with a heart and with hips that hurt. We humans have lots of errors but also lots of virtues, and I don't want to ever forget to remind everybody on my way that they are great and that we have the power to fall...but we also have the wonderful power to rise.