Artist Bio

Lucio Manzano was born premature at 6 months and 4 weeks in Brownsville, Texas in the United States into a Mexican migrant family. His parents are Maria Martha Ramos and Fidel B. Manzano, who are separated at present day. At infancy Lucio was not able to travel with his parents and was left in the care of his Aunt Flora, who was a working nurse in “La Cruz Roja” (The Red Cross Hospital). As soon as his parents were able to find a steady pattern of traveling to follow different crop seasons and made enough to support a traveling migrant family, they did so. Lucio has three older siblings and two younger ones. From oldest to youngest there was Orquidea, Rocio, Fidel, Lucio, Martha, and his younger brother Diego. The constant moving proved tough especially for the education for Lucio and his brothers. They usually had to leave the school year early to move to another state where they would register late. Lucio had to adjust to the different education systems and learning rates to be able to keep up with school and not be left behind a grade. Although Lucio and his siblings took a hit to their education, his parents always stressed the importance of getting a good education. Through the constant traveling Lucio found a past time in drawing animal figures during the 36 to 48 hour drives to their next temporary relocation. He drew in cheap lined paper notebooks just about the entire road trip when he was awake. He usually lost the notebook when packing and unpacking the huge red Ford Econoline van they travel in. Lucio Manzano has lived in six different states which include Texas, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Indiana, and Minnesota. His home still would be his birthplace, Brownsville, Texas, where they would spend the offseason getting by through recycling cardboard and metal and selling miscellaneous items in their local flea market and through garage sells. Lucio Manzano’s interest in drawing grew from simple animal figures to dinosaurs and eventually any 50 cent design he could afford at a local store. He would constantly check out “How to Draw Books” of more animals to draw on his downtime. Since Lucio usually attended low budget and underfunded schools, his education about art and art history was very limited. Still he was content on drawing his favorite cartoons, more intricate temporary tattoo designs, and at times tried to figure out the formal elements to draw some of his family members through photographs. Lucio’s family were well aware of his acquired talent but saw it more as a hobby than anything else so he would be in constant struggle to get an approval of what he was doing was not just good, but right. He had some contact with art classes in his hometown during his middle school and high school period. The classes were still limited on the mediums used and artists covered. He won several art awards for art competitions within his schools and another award of recognition from Simon Rivera High School for the art he contributed to his school. Lucio had to start working at the age of 13 by taking care or his younger brothers, cousins, and even children of his parent’s coworkers and friends. A couple years later he had to contribute to his family by working in crop factories and slaughterhouses. Lucio’s entire paychecks of 60 plus hour weeks went directly to his older sisters’ college education because they were not eligible for financial aid.  After Lucio graduated high school he moved to Austin with his sister where he made a last desperate attempt at getting a higher education. He already had his mind set that the Armed Forces would ultimately be the path he would take. After applying for St. Edward’s University, an Admission counselor by the name of Maribel Robles noticed that Lucio was a migrant student and worker and suggested he apply through the College Assistance Migrant Program (C.A.M.P.).  He went on to apply through CAMP and a month later received a letter of acceptance to St. Edward’s University. Just as important was another letter he received from his father of a letter that Lucio had sent to his grandfather, whom he is named after as a thank you for paying Lucio’s hospital bills at birth, when he was barely 4 or 5 years old from Michigan of his favorite animals. Receiving that letter and becoming aware that St. Edward;s University offered an Art degree led him to choose Art as his academic and career path. Lucio Manzano pursuing art was not the career his parents wanted him to go after but eventually respected his decision and now