Carlota D. EspinoZa

Carlota D.d.R EspinoZa (born 1943, Denver, Colorado) is an American painter, muralist, and campaigner in her Art. She is one of the upfront Latina / Chicana muralists in Denver following works in Cuba, San Francisco, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado.

Carlota D.d.R EspinoZa is the center child of 14 siblings growing taking place first 8 years in Fraser, Colorado, and attended the Rocky Mountain School of the Arts in the 1960s and the University of Colorado Denver Metro. During the 1960s she participated in the Centro Cultural Center, organizing exhibitions for artists and was involved in the 1969 "Hispano Art Fiesta / Cinco de Mayo" events in Denver.

Early in her career, Carlota d.D.R EspinoZa painted two murals for the campaigner Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales' Crusade for Justice center, one of which was destroyed in a 1973 flame after a bombing at the center. The remaining mural, Mexican Heros, painted in 1966, depicts Pancho Villa and Benito Juarez and was hung at the Crusade for Justice center.

EspinoZa is capably known for her mural of La Guadalupe that is found on the altar of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Denver. She obtained permission to paint this work from Pastor Jose Lara who claims to have told EspinoZa, "You don't have to have a portray of a perfect Lady of Guadalupe next in Mexico. Please paint a beautiful Chicana from north Denver." The mural, The Apparition of the Virgin Mary to Juan Diego in Mexico, was painted in 1976 and was upon the altar until Father Benito Hernandez and church leadership had it removed it in 2010 below claims that the mural took away from the focus of the Holy presence. This removal stirred protests calling for the mural's return, including the growth of 70 signatures for a letter to Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput demanding the murals restoration at the church, with EspinoZa agreeing to deed the restoration proceed if the church decides to cut off the wall.

The mural, Pasado, Presente, Futuro is in the Byers branch of The Denver Public Library and "blends myth and reality, dream and truth. The past, present, future are one blood: Chicano!" This mural was commissioned by the Friends of the Denver Public Library in 1977 and included in the City of Denver Public Art collection.

Additionally, EspinoZa's screenprint We the People, Broken Treatys. from the National Chicano Screenprint Taller, 1988-1989, is held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She furthermore worked as a background and forgound artist, She has two sculpture's at the Denver.Co.Library.She after that worked at the Denver Museum of Natural History for 9 nine years.

EspinoZa is then known for her enactment as a Chicano dissenter using her "art to space those in need, especially the Chicano Latino communities in Colorado."