It is well known that Gilberto Aceves Navarro was one of the most important and prolific Mexican artists in the last six decades. With numerous accolades for his work as a painter, sculptor, muralist, and printmaker, including the 2003 National Prize for Sciences and Arts, Gilberto is also commonly known as “El Maestro” or as a lucky teacher / mentor / guru who influenced and transformed life. of numerous generations of young artists, many of whom now make up a large part of the Mexican art scene worldwide. But this life-transforming effect was not limited to the Master's students. Gilberto was a great influence for me that fundamentally shaped who I am. Accompanying my father since he was a child in countless inaugurations, classes, public events and even some of the legendary parties in his workshop were deeply engraved in my being, like furrows in a copper plate, or like brushstrokes in a painting. Gilberto mentioned in an interview that I am like a painting that he has been painting since I was born.

That is why, as a comet in eccentric orbit, I always gravitated around my father and his fascinating world, despite having moved to New York in the early 90s. Possibly it was because of that same physical distance that in 2003 I began to film every trip we made together and every visit we made to each other's country of residence, sometimes multiple times a year. And that was how in coming and going, that I know  they came back more and more frequently, the last 18 years of our life passed together, during which time, I collected more than 300 hours of material filmed in all kinds of formats and that portrays multiple aspects of my father's life and career, but also look at our relationship as father-son, son-disciple, son-caregiver and my new reality as son-orphan, as well as my personal search for identity as an artist.  

Through direct questions and formal interviews, as well as talks in which I simply left the camera recording while we got drunk and talked about everything and nothing, my father shared with me a treasure trove of ideas, concepts (both artistic and in terms of vision). life), longings and anecdotes full of emotion in which he tells me in one and a thousand different ways, his adventures through life, painting, love, teaching, learning, achievements and painful losses. But above all, he reveals to me -and through my lens now to us as well- in loving ways and sometimes not so much, his very particular and captivating way of seeing and interpreting everything, often saying that in order to know how to paint (serve as a metaphor for “ live ”), you have to be aware of the ten thousand things that are behind each of the ten thousand things that surround you. A simple idea, but one that contains immense wisdom, in the same way that a small word, a simple name, can combine all those life experiences. That is why for me it is enough to call this story: GILBERTO. Name what, far from being small, simple or straightforward, is beautiful, and what, in the words of the secretary of the civil registry (who suggested that my father be called that way because it is the name of her boyfriend) is, "the name of love "