Gonzales, John
“Their spirit moves through me and lies within each piece of pottery I create.”
John Gonzales was born into San Ildefonso Pueblo in June 1955, in the heart of the Bureau of Indian Affairs efforts to merge the tribes into the rest of the American “melting pot.” Shortly after his birth, his family was packed up and relocated to a city on the East Coast. They were off the pueblo for a long time but they never did melt in. Eventually, the whole family returned to San Ildefonso.
John was an exceptional student growing up, earning scholarships and fellowships to Stanford University. He earned his Bachelor of Arts there, then went to MIT where he earned his Masters Degree in City Planning. For the next ten years he served in varying levels of government, including as President of the National Congress of American Indians and as a consultant with the George Bush Administration to establish the National Indian Gaming Commission.
In 1991, John returned home to pueblo life. He needed a change and immersed himself in learning to make pottery the ages-old way. He didn’t realize he’d fall so in love with the Clay Mother that it would be the end of his off-pueblo career.
John’s father, Lorenzo Gonzales, was a well-established potter, having learned from Juanita and Louis “Wo-Peen” Gonzales. Juanita had learned to make pottery from her sister-in-law, Rose Gonzales. Louis was an up-and-coming painter when he lost his right arm in a hunting accident. He later learned to paint with his other hand and passed some of his painting skills on to his children. When John first started to learn to make pottery, he also soon learned that he and Clay Mother worked very well together.
In 1994, John earned the Quail Run Fellowship from the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts. That drew him close to the administration of the Santa Fe Indian Market, serving on the Board of Directors and then as Chairman in 1997. In 1998 he was inducted into the Stanford University American Indian Alumni Hall of Fame.
John has never been much for big exhibitions. He only went to Santa Fe Indian Market as an exhibitor a couple times. Same for his participation at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. He was part of Harvard’s Peabody Essex Museum exhibit Gifts of the Spirit, Works by Nineteenth-Century and Contemporary Native American Artists in 1996-1997.