John L. Aguilar (Ph.D. UC San Diego 1977) focused on political anthropology and the anthropology of everyday life. He passed away in 2025. His research concerned the ethnography of social inequality, ethnicity, and social relations in rural Mexico. He conducted a longitudinal study of how economic change has affected class and ethnic relations over the past 18 years in a rural Mexican municipality. He also completed a biographical study of how a Maya family has dealt with personal and interpersonal problems stemming from conditions of poverty and social inequality.
Upon retirement in 1999, he resumed his life as a full-time painter. His work reflects some forms of the abstract expressionism that dominated the American art world of the '50s. Aguilar’s work ranged from semi-abstract (or quasi-figurative) to non-objective (or completely abstract) paintings. His general approach to working with colors, lines, shapes and compositional elements gives free rein to unconscious and semi-conscious expressions. He was the Founding Director of the Emeritus Art Collection.