[4] Enriquez began making cut out, life-sized portraits in the 1990s that were painted in black and white, which he said "characterized life in the barrio conditioned by deprivation, lack of hope and difficulty in achieving their potential.
"[4] He explained: “You wouldn’t smile if you did the things these kids often have to do just to survive.”[4] Enriquez divides his work into six categories: depictions of artists,[5] images from the barrio,[5] charro (Mexican Rodeo),[5] people with tattoos,[5] sculpture,[5] public art (often paintings on board).
Charolito, on view at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art in Riverside, CA, in 2022-2023, is a unique case, because it is the only tattoo that the artist invented.
According to Enriquez, Charolito (as the young woman was nicknamed) was a great Surrealist artist in the vein of Dalí, but her mother crushed her spirit by destroying her drawings because she considered them to be the work of the devil.
It shows a virgin who understands pain because her heart is pierced by seven swords: she views Charolito with sympathetic eyes and extends a friendly hand.
[6] After his retirement from teaching, Enriquez has continued to concentrate on art making and on restoring historic adobe structures, including the 400-year-old presidio of San Elizario in El Paso's Mission Valley, in which he is creating artist's studios.
[2] Father Rahm Segundo Barrio Person of the Year Award, 2016 Distinguished Alumni, University of Texas at El Paso, 2015 McDonald's Hispanos Triunfadores—Arts & Entertainment, 2003 Siqueiros-Pollock Aware, 1996 "Gaspar Enríquez: Chicano Pride, Chicano Soul," Museum of Art in Las Cruces, New Mexico, 2023 "Gaspar Enríquez: Metaphors of El Barrio," El Paso Museum of Art, 2014 "Ignite: Artist Portraits," Gerald Ruben Center for the Visual Arts, El Paso, TX, 2014 "Una Pagina Mas," The Gallery at University of Texas at Arlington, 2007; Tucson Museum of Art, 2006; Patricia Correia Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 2006-2007; "Mis Homies," The Ice House Cultural Center, 2006 "De Puro Corazon," Adair Margo Gallery, 2004 Generations of Attitudes, 1992, acrylic on fiberglass board (airbrush) 6 x 15 feet, El Paso Museum of Art.
[13] Color Harmony en la Esquina, 2002, acrylic on aluminum panels (airbrush), 24 x 24 feet, San Antonio Convention Center.