George López

Who was George López?

George T. López was a renowned Santos Woodcarver who was awarded the National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1982. He was born in the small village of Cordova, New Mexico which is situated in a small valley of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The village was founded in the sixteenth century by some the earliest Spanish settlers to the region, and the town itself has an international reputation for its continuing tradition of religious wood carving. López's family was an important part of that tradition with George being the sixth-generation santero of the family.

López worked started working at camps, farms, and road crews at the age of fifteen to help support his family. After his father's death, he worked constructions jobs in Los Alamos, New Mexico. In 1952, quit his construction job and made carving his full-time profession.