Limón, José

On January 12, 1908, José Arcadia Limón was born in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico. His father, Florencio Limón, was a musician, conductor, and the director of the State Academy of Music. Limón's mother, Francisca Traslaviña, bore eleven children (four of whom died in infancy) of whom José was the eldest. The toil of so many pregnancies resulted in her death at the age of 34.

After wandering from one northern city to another, Limón's father finally moved the family to the United States to escape the terror and violence of the revolution in Mexico. José was seven when he and his family left Mexico for Tucson, Arizona. Eventually, the Limóns settled in Los Angeles. Graduating in 1926, Limón was an excellent student in high school and intended to pursue a career as a painter/artist. He enrolled at the University of California at Los Angeles and took art classes at a private studio. He soon abandoned his studies, however, to journey to New York. Three friends, Don Forbes, Perkins Harnly, and Fernando Felix, who had introduced Limón to contemporary and avant-garde art in Los Angeles, had moved to New York and prompted Limón to do the same.

...