Mundo Meza
1955–1985

Edmundo Meza (July 19, 1955 - February 11, 1985), also known as Mundo Meza, was an artist and activist who was born in Tijuana, Mexico and grew up in East Los Angeles. He discovered his passion for the area's avant-garde culture in early 1970. As an emerging artist, Mundo Meza worked for shoe designer Fred Slatten on Santa Monica Boulevard as a window dresser. He also painted unique designs onto Slatten's platform shoes, gathering a celebrity clientele which included Cher, Elton John, and Diana Ross.

Meza collaborated with style icon Simon Doonan and together they created provocative window displays for West Hollywood's Maxfield Bleu. Their brash reportage art combined vintage mannequins, luxury goods, and objects from prop houses, often evoking controversy and strong reactions. One such display satirized a news story about a coyote stealing a child. The hysteria erupted even more for using a taxidermy coyote.

Mundo played a pivotal role in the emergence of Chicano conceptualists which included Robert Legorreta (Cyclona), Joey Terrill, Teddy Sandoval, Jack Vargas and members of the collective Asco led by Harry Gamboa, Jr., Gronk, Willie Herrón, and Patssi Valdez. His work was highly influenced by the Chicano artistic community which has recently started to receive public recognition due to its panache, confrontational aesthetics, and extravagance.

He died in 1985 due to complications from AIDS.