Although Samuel Baray's parents were both born in Chihuahua, Mexico, they came to the United States separately during the Mexican Revolution and met in EI Paso. After their marriage they moved to Los Angeles, where his father became a cabinetmaker and his mother learned enough English to translate religious materials into Spanish for a Baptist publisher. It was in the East Los Angeles community that Baray was born and raised. Growing up in a primarily Spanish-speaking household, Baray did not immediately become fluent in English, but this disadvantage was mitigated when he found that drawing was a natural language for him. Soon some of his elementary and middle school teachers began to notice and encourage his ability. Baray, as he later recalled, "became the official poster artist, mapmaker, and set designer" in his schools. After graduating from Garfield High School in 1956 he enrolled in the School of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. While studying there, he was granted government loans to study Spanish art and literature at the University of Madrid, Spain. He went on to earn his B.A. in Art Education at California State University, Los Angeles, and an M.A. in Urban Educational Policy and Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles, which led him to work extensively with Los Angeles inner-city schools. However, Baray always remained dedicated to his art. Although he originally worked in traditional silkscreen printing, he has evolved a technique of his own that combines printing, cardboard stencils, and painting. He has been an active artist at Self-Help Graphics in Los Angeles since 1987.

Baray has produced numerous works on paper, particularly serigraphs (especially at Self-Help Graphics) but also ink drawings and acrylic on paper. He also creates acrylic paintings on canvas. Recently (1996 - present) he has been working on "developing a synthesis between silkscreen painting, paper cutting, and direct hand application to the paper."

Baray's work centers around the religious, spiritual, and cultural themes of Chicano/Mexicano art and, less commonly, political issues. Although the artist's work is typically figurative, he is at the same time particularly concerned with abstract forms and with producing compositions that endow his work with powers and balance. Somewhat like Luis Guerra, the execution of his subjects, often Virgins or other women, has the quality of a mandala, a transcendent and abstracted composition characterized by flowing lines, geometric designs, and highly intricate linework and details. In addition, Baray's work embraces a highly dynamic, refreshing tension between design and color; his vivid hues return us from the cool world of meditative abstraction to the domain of the popular, the folkloric, the celebratory. Executed by a highly adept colorist, it bears resemblance to Mexican, particularity Amerindian, folk art' he has commented about on of this pieces that "during years of using my grandmother's blankets, I must have unconsciously been receiving images of the old Indian roots of Mexican heritage. I found myself creating [the serigraph] Recuerdos y memorias de Dona Inez."Advenimiento de primavera, 1990 34" x 23.5"

Virgen de la Guarda was conceived as a memorial to Sister Karen Boccalero, who directed Self-Help Graphics since its founding, and was completed shortly after her death in the summer of 1997. The youthful Virgin, foregrounded beneath the plumed serpent Quetzacoatl and other pre-Hispanic motifs, embraces and protects both religious and community structures, her hands in turn making "the sign of the pyramid, as any Chicana/o youth might, to claim she is indigenous and that she is proud." Despite these elements of protectiveness and vigilance over the community treasures, the overall impact of the composition is typically serene, transcendent, and formal.

The highly colorful Advenimiento de primavera, reminiscent of one of Diego Rivera's paintings of women bearing flowers, depicts a woman in splendid dress, typical of the countryside but transcendently so, as would befit a formal herald of the abundance of springtime. The mandala-like quality of the image of the woman is reinforced by framing her within an arch as well as by the rich, checkered background and the lush foliage on which she stands and which surrounds her. As in Virgen de la Guarda, there is a syncretic combination of Christian and pre-Hispanic or pagan motifs. The most overtly Christian element is the series of crucifixes on the hemline of the herald's garment. On the other hand, the cross that subtly backs her is less overtly Christian (it is reminiscent of the Greek cross but could also be interpreted not as an icon but as a non Western design), and it is partially over taken by the rich abundance of flowers and greenery.

Baray's work has been seen in numerous exhibitions, both domestic and international. Among them are Chicano Expressions (Pretoria Arts Museum, Pretoria, South America 1994), SHG Print Exhibition (Amerika Haus-U.S. Cultural Center, Berlin, Germany, 1995), Chicano Expressions (Musee du N. Monde, La Rochelle, France, 1995), SHG Print Exhibition (Los Angeles Public Library-Arroyo Seco Branch, 1996), Aerospace Diversity Week (The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA, 1996), Chicano Expressions (Cite du Livre, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1996), Virgins & Madonnas (DADA, Los Angeles, 1996), Chicano Expressions (Centro Comercial Plaza La Cachanilla, Mexicali, Mexico, 1996), Works from the Collection of SHG (Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA, 1997), Las Tunas/Prickly Pears (Rancho Santiago Community College, . Santa Ana, CA, 1997), Traditions Abandoned/ Traditions Retained (Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, 1997), SHG Print Exhibition (County of Los Angeles, Monterey Park, 1997), Dos de East Los (Glenn Green Galleries, Santa Fe, NM, 1997), and Millennium Exhibit (London, 2000). The latter exhibition was cosponsored by Self-Help Graphics and ACAVA, a London-based artists' cooperative; during the show Baray served as the London representative of Self- Help Graphics. (GK)