When Mary Salinas Durón ’75 was a college student at the newly formed Loyola Marymount University, she noticed the student government, dominated by white resident students, refused to fund any activities for Chicano students. Taking matters into her own hands, she became president of Student Congress and formed a Chicano voting bloc, ensuring the needs of Mexican American students at LMU would be prioritized as much as those of her white peers. Decades later, Salinas Durón continues to put community first — through her professional work in the financial sector empowering Latinos, and through her passion for Chicano art and co-creation of one of the most important collections of Chicano art in the world — which is currently on display in “Seeing Chicanx: The Durón Family Collection” at LMU College of Communication and Fine Arts’ Laband Art Gallery. Now through December 6, the public can experience over 50 artworks from the Durón Family Collection by renowned artists such as Laura Aguilar, Frank Romero, Judy Baca, and many more.
For Salinas Durón, showing her family’s collection in the Laband Art Gallery is an opportunity to share just one of the many things that she and Armando Durón were able to accomplish with their LMU degrees. She believes students will benefit from experiencing the ethical and spiritual aspects of collecting art that are based on what she and Armando learned at LMU. “It is a coming home — it’s where we obtained an education that influenced our careers, and where Armando and I met and fell in love,” she said. “The exhibition is one manifestation of what we have done with our lives in the last 50 years.”
Bryant Keith Alexander, dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts and co-chair of the LMU Inclusive History and Images Project (IHIP) writes: “Having ‘The Durón Family Collection’ in the Laband Art Gallery at LMU is both brilliant artistic accomplishment and critical activist affect. In discussion with [co-chair] Father Engh, we imagined this exhibition here at LMU now — to be of critical importance. It was Father Engh who brought the idea to Karen Rapp, director of the Laband Art Gallery, and she embraced the idea. We see this exhibition as contributing to the work of IHIP and standing as evidence of the LMU commitment to inclusion. This is in light of the range of edicts against DEI, and the retracting of resources to support and recognize diverse American lives, as sin quo non, to the American Dream. This exhibition is not a performative resistance against national politics to which the university is mindfully cognizant. It is an illumination of the American experience made manifest in the particularity of a rich cultural heritage narrative through art. The art tells the story of a people and culture that enhances the diverse tapestry of the United States, and in particular Southern California.”
Just as the artworks in “Seeing Chicanx” serve as a record of the contemporary Chicano experience, the Durón’s have generously contributed their own experiences to the LMU archive in the form of narrated oral histories for IHIP. Launched five years ago, IHIP is a crucial hands-on component of the university’s ongoing campus-wide anti-racism initiative that seeks to gather stories and images from alumni and the greater LMU community to tell a full and inclusive LMU story. The Durón’s own unique and inspiring stories, many of which took place in the same beloved campus buildings we use today, are now preserved in perpetuity and accessible to all. IHIP interviews for both Armando Durón and Mary Salinas Durón are available through wall texts in “Seeing Chicanx: The Durón Family Collection.”
Thanks to IHIP, we have learned even more about Salinas Durón’s personal history, which is as dynamic, purposeful, and powerful as the collection of art that she and her husband, Armando Durón ’76, began gathering in 1981. Salinas Durón grew up in Watts, where she attended an all-girls Catholic school; her mother was raised on a ranch in rural Mexico. When recruiters from Marymount College visited Salinas Durón’s school, seeking to bring more women to what would become Loyola Marymount University, her family was skeptical, but embraced the opportunity. Salinas Durón joked that she was especially excited at the prospect of meeting a Catholic husband — a goal she would accomplish when she met and fell in love with her LMU classmate, Armando Durón.
A Spanish major and economics minor, Salinas Durón was an active and outspoken student. She understood early on that economic empowerment was the key to success for minority students, especially Latino and Chicano students. Salinas Durón played a crucial role in student government at LMU, achieving feats such as bringing Cesar Chavez to speak on campus. She was the only female student in a group of four who met with then-LMU President Donald Merrifield, S.J., to demand more financial resources for Chicano students, ultimately succeeding in the development and implementation of the Chicano Student Fund.
Her drive to support LMU’s Latino/a/x community continued as an alumnus. Salinas Durón was one of the early presidents of the Mexican American Alumni Association, now known as the Latino Alumni Association (LAA), celebrating its 45th anniversary. LAA provides networking and mentorship opportunities as well as scholarship support to deserving students. To date, LAA has provided more than $10 million in financial aid to nearly 3,000 students. Salinas Durón’s early impact on LMU resounds even stronger today as LMU is now a Hispanic-Serving Institution.
Salinas Durón recalled President Donald Merrifield, S.J., as an important figure for her and her peers. Even after graduating, he guided them with real-world steps and advice for implementing their shared vision for the Chicano and Latino community at LMU. “I feel grateful that President Merrifield brought us together to create and conceptualize a Mexican American Alumni Association,” said Salinas Durón, thinking back to their very first meeting in 1980. “The Jesuit tradition has influenced me greatly. I think it was the paradigm of many of the Jesuits having strong intellectual knowledge and worldly experience and yet never losing their commitment to the community and Catholic teachings, particularly to the underprivileged,” Salinas Durón said, reflecting on how LMU’s mission was infused into her identity.
LMU’s presentation of “Seeing Chicanx: The Durón Family Collection” is just the latest way that the Durón family continues to be an influential presence in the LMU community. “I feel proud to feature the Durón Family Collection on our campus because it is a beautiful example of Armando and Mary’s commitment and care to artists, and to the preservation of their cultural legacies,” said Karen Rapp, director and curator of the Laband Art Gallery. “For decades, they have amassed a rich and varied art collection and now are returning to their alma mater to share it with a new generation. When I give tours to groups of students, it feels a bit like time travel when they see a photograph of Armando and Mary as undergraduates from 50 years ago.”
“It is a remarkable feeling to be back at LMU 50 years after I graduated, to share a small part of the Chicano art collection that Armando and I acquired over the last 40 plus years,” said Salinas Durón. “I’m still doing what I thought about on the steps here at LMU.”
“Seeing Chicanx: The Durón Family Collection,” is on view from Sept. 25 to Dec. 6, 2025, at Loyola Marymount University’s Laband Art Gallery.
To support LMU Latino/a/x students, make a gift to the Latino Alumni Association Scholarship.