A TimesOC write-up about an art exhibition that recently opened at the Hilbert Museum in Orange, penned by my colleague Sarah Mosqueda, has stayed with me over the past few days. The show is titled Emigdio Vasquez: Retrospective 50,” and, according to the reporter, it’s a dream come true for the late artist’s daughter, Rosemary Vasquez Tuthill.
In it we learn that Vasquez Tuthill was barely a teenager when her dad, a muralist and teacher widely considered the godfather of Chicano art, asked her to pose for him, holding a lit cigarette.
“That’s how her likeness ended up in ‘Saturday Night at Leo’s’ (1974), the oil painting that depicts a boisterous crowd in a busy bar, including a woman in red with a cigarette in hand,” Mosqueda writes. (It’s the artwork shown above.)
“I was 13 years old and I didn’t understand what he wanted me to do,” Vasquez Tuthill said. “He said ‘sit like that and don’t move.’”
She told the reporter that when her father was first starting out in the late 1960s, he couldn’t afford to purchase a canvas for a piece that came to be titled “Los Revolutionarios,” so he put a piece of burlap to creative use by gluing it to a press board.
Her dad rarely left Orange County, Vasquez Tuthill, said. In addition to his fine art paintings, many of them created in a photorealistic style, his body of work championing laborers included 32 murals in the Southland, including 1985’s “Towards the Twenty-First Century” at Manzanita Park in Anaheim. Those who have visited the Cesar Chavez Business and Computer Center at Santa Ana College have likely admired his 1997 mural titled “Legacy of Cesar Chavez” that dominates its lobby.
As he neared the end of his life, Vasquez began working on “Packing House, Orange CA, circa 1948,” from a vintage photo showing female produce packers on the job. But it wasn’t finished by the time he left this world in 2014. His daughter, whose own image had been featured in more than one of his works over the years, ultimately played a completely different role in this one. She explained to Mosqueda how that came about.
“I remember seeing this at his house. It was sketched out, outlined and he had the first layer of paint on it. He had the actual black-and-white photograph on his table,” she recalled.
It was one of her siblings who urged her to finish what their late father had begun.
“I had just started getting back into painting, but I was doing little things,” Vasquez Tuthill told the reporter. “I talked to my older brother about it and he said ‘just start with a shoe.’”
She took on the challenge, finished it in 2015 and entered it in the Orange County Fair, where it won a prize.
“Packing House, Orange, CA circa 1948” was outlined by Emigdio Vasquez and completed in 2015 by Rosemary Vasquez Tuthill following her father’s death.
(Sarah Mosqueda)
“Mark [Hilbert, founder of the eponymous museum] liked it so much he kept bugging me about it. He wanted me to donate it to the museum and I resisted for a long time,” said Vasquez Tuthill. “I had a real attachment to it because it was like my transition; I was taking up the mantle.”
But she relented, she said, because “it’s better here than in my house.”
“Emigdio Vasquez: Retrospective 50” is on view at the Hilbert through May 30. Read Mosqueda’s in-depth look at the show here.
MORE NEWS 
A plaque depicts Zach Martinez, creator of Patriot Point, at the base of a flagpole in Huntington Beach on Saturday.
(Eric Licas)
• Thanks to the efforts of nonprofit Tee It Up for the Troops and with the endorsement of the city, new benches and lighting surround an American flag at Patriot Point in Huntington Beach, where our nation’s flag was first installed by the late Zach Martinez, a Vietnam War vet who had served in the U.S. Navy. A special ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the site Saturday, where a plaque was dedicated to Martinez, who had looked after that flag for years prior to his death.
• In 2020, Jim Vanderpool, then the new city manager of Anaheim, was among a group of power players who attended a days-long retreat in Lake Havasu paid for by the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce. For context, this was around the time the controversial Angel Stadium sale was before the City Council. According to a TimesOC report published Sunday, Vanderpool did not disclose in the required annual statement of his economic interests for 2020, that he had received any gifts, in violation of the Political Reform Act. A city spokesperson told the paper it’s a “non-issue.” Vanderpool did not respond to a request for comment from the paper.
• It’s come to light that real estate developer Ken Picerne was the one who bankrolled, to the tune of $150,000, the successful effort to qualify a measure for next November’s ballot that would reject and revise a state-required housing plan approved by Newport Beach City Council two years ago.
• South Coast Plaza is being sued by John Le, an Asian American resident of Costa Mesa who alleges a security guard at the site used a racial slur when addressing him while he was waiting for his Chevy Bolt to be charged at one of the center’s 22 EV charging stations.
• There’s a new CEO for the Friendship Shelter, a Laguna-based homeless services organization. Nishtha Mohendra steps into the role after most recently serving as chief program officer of Families Forward in Irvine.
A rendering of Laguna Beach’s Fire Station No. 4 replacement project, to be built at 31796 Coast Highway in South Laguna.
(Courtesy of city of Laguna Beach)
• In other Laguna Beach news, the city recently broke ground on its first new fire station in decades. The $9.2-million facility is being built on Coast Highway, where it intersects with 5th Avenue.
• Amtrak has added to its Surfliner service a 13th round trip between San Diego and Los Angeles beginning Jan. 26, City News Service reported. In O.C., the Surfliner stops at the San Clemente Pier, San Juan Capistrano, Irvine, Santa Ana and Anaheim. Here’s a link to the schedules.
• The father of Aiden Leos, 6, who was killed in a 2021 road rage shooting on the 55 Freeway while he was on his way to school is now suing the youngster’s mother, alleging that it was her aggressive driving that brought about her only son’s death, The Times reports.
• On Friday, according to this Los Angeles Times story, a 21-year-old man was left permanently blind in one eye after a Homeland Security agent fired less-lethal rounds at a group of demonstrator ins Santa Ana. Two days later, about 300 anti-ICE protesters and 20 counterprotesters were face-to-face Sunday in Huntington Beach. Both gatherings were held in response to the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE agent last week.
SPORTS 
The Angels are among the teams that have terminated their deals with the FanDuel Sports Network
(Luke Hales / Getty Images)
• The Angels were among nine Major League Baseball teams that have terminated their deals with the FanDuel Sports Network to carry their local broadcasts, according to this Associated Press story in the Los Angeles Times.
• Edison High’s boys’ soccer team last week beat Huntington Beach 2-0 for its ninth consecutive shutout.
• Mater Dei’s girls’ water polo team emerged as the top team last weekend at the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions with a win over Oaks Christian. Third place went to Newport Harbor after the Sailors beat Orange Lutheran.
LIFE & LEISURE 
Beth M. Howard, right, with cinematographer Kent Abbott, breaks for lunch with lemon meringue pie during a screening of “PIEOWA” in Ottumwa, Iowa.
(Courtesy of Beth M. Howard)
• A new pie-themed documentary, “PIEOWA: A Piece of America” was screened Sunday at Newport Beach’s Lido Theater, hosted by the woman behind the film, Beth Howard, who spoke to Daily Pilot assistant editor Sara Cardine on the power such a simple dessert has to connect people.
Nicole Leto, left, and her mother Karen, at the Sling Body Pilates in Newport Beach. The mother-daughter team have been running a Pilates studios in Newport for more than 20 years
(Don Leach / Daily Pilot)
• Mother and daughter team Karen (the mom) and Nicole Leto have been operating a Pilates studio in Newport Beach for more than two decades. My colleague Matt Szabo interviewed the duo to learn more about the dynamics of their working relationship and what they have to offer their clients.
CALENDAR 
Jocelyn Magaña Murillo leads rehearsal for “Ignite Dance.”
(Courtesy of the Wooden Floor)
• “Ignite Dance: A Celebration of 35 Years of Dance in Orange County” will take place at 8 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 23 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. For tickets, visit thebarclay.org.
• Those looking to develop a green thumb this year might be interested an upcoming class at the Centennial Farm silo building at the OC Fair & Event Center where participants will learn how to grow root vegetables. It takes place Sat., Jan. 24, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Cost is $30 and reservations are due by this Friday, Jan. 16.
• For those who do not already have plans for tonight (Wed., Jan 14): Best-selling author Jason Reynolds (“Look Both Ways,” “Long Way Down,” and other titles) will be featured guest for the Sage Center Speaker Series held at Sage Hill School. The event, which begins at 6 p.m., is free and open to the public. Reservations can still be made here. Sage Hill is located at 20402 Newport Coast Drive, Newport Coast.
KEEP IN TOUCH
We appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com.