By Ryan Kost – SFGate.com – Photo: Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle.
Photo: René Yañez helped popularize Dia de los Muertos in the Mission District and curated one of the Bay Area’s first Frida Kahlo exhibitions./Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle
René Yañez is an elder of the Bay Area Chicano arts movement. For the past 50 years he’s helped shape the city: He boosted the careers of innumerable artists, he co-founded Galería de la Raza (one of the Mission’s most enduring cultural institutions), he brought Dia de Los Muertos, as it’s currently practiced, to the neighborhood and he curated one of the Bay Area’s first shows on Frida Kahlo.
