Poetic Tongues/Fabu
Remembering Juan and Linda
I want to acknowledge my respect and admiration for two people who recently passed in Madison: artist Linda Mathis-Rose, and community advocate Juan José López. I wanted to write an earlier tribute to both, but my own health problems delayed the column. Nothing delays my genuine mourning at these gifted and talented people leaving us so soon, both in their early sixties. While I can’t say that I knew each person extremely well, I enjoyed every time I met them and interacted with them.
Linda Mathis-Rose and I met long ago because we are both artists. We met a variety of times, at various places in the community, at Hamilton Middle School, working on Madison Juneteenth, and on joint projects that combined painting and poetry. When I first saw her paintings, immediately I felt all the beauty of the South and Black people flow from her work into me. I witnessed first-hand her love and care for all of her Hamilton students when I was there for a residency. Madison Juneteenth regularly uses her illustration for their annual event, and we did a joint project together shortly before COVID struck.
I knew that she had both a BA and MA Art degrees, but what was more important to me was the quiet, kindness of the artist herself. Whenever an organization would ask me to recommend an excellent artist, I would give them the name of Linda Mathis-Rose. I promised myself that I would buy one of her paintings or/and commission her to paint me and my son. Time ran out before I could do either. I partnered with her before COVID doing a fun, community project together, but I never purchased a painting or commissioned one of myself and my son. I genuinely wanted to own one of her paintings, but what I wanted most was to support her as an artist and let her know I believed in her talent. My regret is thinking I had years to accomplish this personal goal.
I met Juan José López when we were both University students. We met when it was time to lobby for money for student programs. López would be representing Latino students and I would be representing African American students. We would both be sharing the small amount allocated for students of color until we realized that we should each have separate money for each cultural group and not share a smaller amount. We met again when we worked for the Urban League of Greater Madison and later we would see each other at various community events. We were adversaries when we were students trying to fund our events, but we because respected friends when we understood all of us deserved to be funded. As we matured, López and I supported everybody whose voice needed to be heard and recognized. I watched him win school board elections and represent the city and Latino students well.
The last time I talked directly with him, was when I presented a talk for Black History Month, and he attended. We talked after the presentation, every time I met him, first I smiled, talked a little about our history together and then we caught up on what we were currently doing. It seems strange for me to realize how much I liked and respected Juan José López, but I am not sure if I ever directly told him. Once again, I thought that I would see him around the community for years. When I heard that he had passed, I wept as the memories of knowing him flowed through my mind. The deaths of Linda Mathis-Rose and him remind me in a sharp way to say what is in my heart to people I care about today and not wait until a future tomorrow. I want Madison to honor both Linda Mathis-Rose and Juan José López. They deserve public recognition and praise.
