Melcha Daughter of Salphahad1964–1975Sheet: 19 x 13 1/8 " (48.3 x 33.3 cm)Ballpoint pen and pencil on paperboard mounted on paperboardGift of Evelyn S. Meyer2005.10.60152732740Consuelo (Chelo) González AmézcuaDrawingsCopyright for this work is under review. upper left: ' Melcha / The Lord ordered Moses / To find a husband / for each of the daughters / of Salphahad – so they / married their cousins / on their father side.'
center left: 'original / de CGA'
center: 'Amezcua / signature / Melchas only portrait in the world.'
verso lower right: 'MeLchA / DaughTer of SALphahad'lower right: 'By / CheLo GonzAl / Amézcua'Del RioDel RioUnited StatesTexasWorks on PaperPaintingsDel Rio
reviewed for IMLS Neurodiversity Project by Art Bridges Fellow Austin Losada 2026. Consuelo “Chelo” González Amézcua was born in Mexico but moved with her family across the border to Texas when she was ten years old. Her artistic nature found expression in music, poetry, and drawing from a young age. Today she is especially highly regarded for her intricate and feminine drawings in ballpoint pen. This lyrical example of González Amézcua’s so-called Texas Filigree Art depicts the biblical figure of Milcah, one of the five beautiful daughters of Zelophehad who lived during the time of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. As recounted in Numbers 27, she and her sisters petitioned that they might inherit their father’s name and property. The Lord granted permission for Zelophehad’s daughters to carry his patrimony, provided they did not marry outside their ancestral tribe of Manasseh. In this drawing the beautiful and sultry face is encircled within elaborate patterns evocative of peacock feathers, an apt metaphor as the peacock is a symbol of the female as the carrier of inheritance.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Melcha Daughter of Salphahad," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information. To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgThe School or arts/I couldn’t afford and for that I thank the lord/For what He has given me is the truth of His great love/For Him I worked and carved a stone and make a drawing and sing a song. —Consuelo González Amézcua
I was always a dreamer, and I am still painting my dream visions. —Consuelo González Amézcua
Consuelo "Chelo" González Amézcua was ten years old when she crossed the Mexican border from Piedras Negras, Coahuila, into Del Rio, Texas, with her parents and siblings. On November 27, 1913, against the backdrop of revolution and violent political chaos, the family struggled to make the transition from one reality to another, one border culture to another, from Mexican to American. After a period of transience, the artist’s father was hired as a bookkeeper, and they moved into a small house in a quiet neighborhood that remained the family residence throughout her life.
Chelo’s family held traditional expectations for their irrepressible child. Autobiographical statements suggest that she lived largely in her imagination. Completing only six years of formal education, González Amézcua was self-schooled in areas that interested her: history, art, architecture, and religion. She was a natural performance artist, dancing, singing, and playing the guitar, piano, castanets, and tambourine from an early age. Eventually, she also wrote and recited original poetry, carved stone, and drew the delicate "Texas filigree art" for which she is acclaimed today. One early photograph shows Chelo as a lovely young woman tightly swathed in an embroidered shawl that pools at her feet like a mermaid, a flower in her hair, and feathered fan in her hand. She was enchanting.
In 1932, González Amézcua was granted a scholarship to a renowned art school in Mexico. Sadly, the death of her father prevented her from accepting, and she soon started to work at the candy counter of the local Kress variety store. In 1964, she began to seriously draw, using ballpoint pen on cardboard or paper. The consistent line and ever-flowing ink permitted a fluidity in her mental recordatorio, or mental drawings, that evoke the intricacy of Mexican silver filigree work. Despite the fact that they are dense and tightly controlled images, the scrolling, curving lines also exhibit a free and joyous abandon in the feminine abundance of flowers, birds, graceful women, mythical figures, and fantasy architecture. Her spiritual nature sought expression in biblical subjects, such as this depiction of Milcah, one of the five beautiful daughters of Zelophehad, who lived during the time of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. As recounted in Numbers 27, Milcah and her sisters petitioned that they might inherit their father’s name and property. The Lord granted permission, provided they did not marry outside their ancestral tribe, a culturally insular narrative González Amézcua may have internalized as the daughter of two cultures. Crossing one border to another is not an erasure of where and what one has been; it is a melding of two existences. As a survivor of the mass deportations of Mexicans and Mexican American citizens during the 1930s and 40s, González Amézcua asks, "Mystery of life/Whose blood [in] her veins flow?"
Stacy C. Hollander, "Melcha Daughter of Salphahad, 1964–1975" exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org19641975 2005 10 6 reviewed for IMLS Neurodiversity Project by Art Bridges Fellow Austin Losada 2026. Consuelo “Chelo” González Amézcua was born in Mexico but moved with her family across the border to Texas when she was ten years old. Her artistic nature found expression in music, poetry, and drawing from a young age. Today she is especially highly regarded for her intricate and feminine drawings in ballpoint pen. This lyrical example of González Amézcua’s so-called Texas Filigree Art depicts the biblical figure of Milcah, one of the five beautiful daughters of Zelophehad who lived during the time of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. As recounted in Numbers 27, she and her sisters petitioned that they might inherit their father’s name and property. The Lord granted permission for Zelophehad’s daughters to carry his patrimony, provided they did not marry outside their ancestral tribe of Manasseh. In this drawing the beautiful and sultry face is encircled within elaborate patterns evocative of peacock feathers, an apt metaphor as the peacock is a symbol of the female as the carrier of inheritance.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Melcha Daughter of Salphahad," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information. To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgThe School or arts/I couldn’t afford and for that I thank the lord/For what He has given me is the truth of His great love/For Him I worked and carved a stone and make a drawing and sing a song. —Consuelo González Amézcua
I was always a dreamer, and I am still painting my dream visions. —Consuelo González Amézcua
Consuelo "Chelo" González Amézcua was ten years old when she crossed the Mexican border from Piedras Negras, Coahuila, into Del Rio, Texas, with her parents and siblings. On November 27, 1913, against the backdrop of revolution and violent political chaos, the family struggled to make the transition from one reality to another, one border culture to another, from Mexican to American. After a period of transience, the artist’s father was hired as a bookkeeper, and they moved into a small house in a quiet neighborhood that remained the family residence throughout her life.
Chelo’s family held traditional expectations for their irrepressible child. Autobiographical statements suggest that she lived largely in her imagination. Completing only six years of formal education, González Amézcua was self-schooled in areas that interested her: history, art, architecture, and religion. She was a natural performance artist, dancing, singing, and playing the guitar, piano, castanets, and tambourine from an early age. Eventually, she also wrote and recited original poetry, carved stone, and drew the delicate "Texas filigree art" for which she is acclaimed today. One early photograph shows Chelo as a lovely young woman tightly swathed in an embroidered shawl that pools at her feet like a mermaid, a flower in her hair, and feathered fan in her hand. She was enchanting.
In 1932, González Amézcua was granted a scholarship to a renowned art school in Mexico. Sadly, the death of her father prevented her from accepting, and she soon started to work at the candy counter of the local Kress variety store. In 1964, she began to seriously draw, using ballpoint pen on cardboard or paper. The consistent line and ever-flowing ink permitted a fluidity in her mental recordatorio, or mental drawings, that evoke the intricacy of Mexican silver filigree work. Despite the fact that they are dense and tightly controlled images, the scrolling, curving lines also exhibit a free and joyous abandon in the feminine abundance of flowers, birds, graceful women, mythical figures, and fantasy architecture. Her spiritual nature sought expression in biblical subjects, such as this depiction of Milcah, one of the five beautiful daughters of Zelophehad, who lived during the time of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. As recounted in Numbers 27, Milcah and her sisters petitioned that they might inherit their father’s name and property. The Lord granted permission, provided they did not marry outside their ancestral tribe, a culturally insular narrative González Amézcua may have internalized as the daughter of two cultures. Crossing one border to another is not an erasure of where and what one has been; it is a melding of two existences. As a survivor of the mass deportations of Mexicans and Mexican American citizens during the 1930s and 40s, González Amézcua asks, "Mystery of life/Whose blood [in] her veins flow?"
Stacy C. Hollander, "Melcha Daughter of Salphahad, 1964–1975" exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org