Announcing what the Honorable Mable Wynn might have wanted me to do...
When I arrived back in Galveston in April '05 from Miami to continue and expand my art career in my hometown, I had a trailerload of art & stuff I needed for my life's next phase. A generous employee of the appliance company who dropped off my fridge offered to help me unload my overloaded UHAUL 12 foot trailer sitting in my yard after he got off. For $20. That employee was Sixto Macias.
Because he had a truck he continued to help me move large items, setup my weight equipment and other chores. We became friends and I learned he was 21 and was married with a 20 month old son whom he called Brandon. His new phone was a digital video model that playfully showed Brandon dancing when the number rang. Because I was able to trust and depend on Sixto I asked if he would help me move the rest of my storage from Miami when I planned to return for a booksigning at Books & Books in Coral Gable around Father's Day, June 19th. He agreed and said he actually wanted to go because he couldn't think of a cooler place to be than Miami for Father's Day (although I personally think it was the money he needed for his young family). We continued to be friends and I helped him print CD covers for his "beats" which he was to record under the name Six Deuce. In a short period of time he became like a younger brother to me and we discussed different aspects on the challenges of life. His perspectives seemed mature beyond his 21 years.
A few weeks went by and the trip was getting nearer and I called Sixto to get the details planned and confirmed. It was May 26th. Oddly it was his wife, Raquel, who answered. When I asked to speak to Sixto she said Sixto was dead.
June 2005 / prepared by Serious Studios / to contact for more information:
That he and her cousin were at a gathering on the west end of the Island and there was an altercation and Sixto had been shot once in the heart and her cousin was still in the hospital after receiving 3 gunshot wounds. This was May 14th. She was surprised I hadn't either heard about it or read it in the papers. Of all the reactions I could describe here the emotion that rose to the top was sorrow for the future of the son, Brandon, who now would have to grow up as so many minority children in America, without knowing his father. His dad dying two weeks before his second birthday.
I had no peace for several days and invited the widow and her son over to my house to meet them for my first time. I explained to Raquel that I had been searching for a purpose of the foundation I had hoped to develop called THE HONORABLE MABLE WYNN, in the memory of my only grandmother, my love, who passed away a couple of years ago after shinning loving kindness and generosity for 93 years. I had decided now that there could be no more honorable purpose for her memory that to practice her creed of generosity and I decided to set up an art trust for young Brandon, and others like him, by honoring the memory of their fathers through a gift of art with a value of $5,000 that if sold will be deposited into a trust for him to redeem on his 18th birthday and let him know, when he's able to understand, that his father was a good man that someone remembered and respected and it is his duty to honor that memory with decency of character and actions. If the paintings don't sell, at least he'll have a starter to a cool art collection. Either way, I hope this works for Brandon. God bless Sixto, and the many, many like his son who face the challenges of life with missing fathers. Myself included.
And so, I launch the beginning of THE HONORABLE MABLE WYNN art trust for minority children and widows to help combat the war against them with the modest but sincere gift of "two mini martinis" to Brandon Alberto Macias in memory of his Dad, my friend Sixto. If you know of someone else whose circumstances might be helped by the art trust please let me know. I canceled the book signing but gained so much more.
God Bless Mable Wynn...and live your life while you can.
