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Lying in the dark, staring up at the stars, moments after a catastrophic motorcycle accident that would leave him permanently paralyzed, Jose Reynoso knew his life was about to change.  

“I blacked out when I got hit. My spine was split into pieces. And then I woke up,” Reynoso said. “I was still on the ground, looking up at the sky. Then I kind of blacked out here and there. When I woke up from a coma, I just thought it was ... the next day. I didn’t know a week had gone by, and I was in the hospital the whole time.”

Little did he know then, in October 2015, that he would be honored years later for his service, bravery and perseverance at Cal State Long Beach and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center next door.

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Reynoso, a 33-year-old Marine Corps veteran, was the most recent subject of the Veteran Portrait Project, a collaboration between ��ɫ����’s School of Art and the Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center. Launched in 2017, the Veteran Portrait Project has teamed up 10 pairs of veterans and ��ɫ���� art students in a special relationship that has culminated in an “unveiling” ceremony at the VA Medical Center, with the veteran’s portrait featured in the main lobby for six months.  

Back in April, Reynoso was invited to visit a Foundation Life Drawing class, part of the “Meet a Veteran”/Veteran Portrait Project started by the VA Medical Center’s Veterans Appreciation Committee (led by ��ɫ���� alum and Health Care Management executive faculty member Deborah Ludke) and art professor Marian Stewart.  

During his visit, Reynoso sat in front of assistant professor Yulia Gasio’s class and recounted his life story, including the four years he spent with the Marines. As he spoke about being a minesweeper in Afghanistan, experiencing active combat and the everyday challenges of being in a wheelchair, the students listened, drew his portrait and asked questions.

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“He filled the entire room with his story. It was something he wanted everyone to know. It was very beautiful,” said Carina Tan, then a first-year pre-animation student. She listened and sketched intently, and was “really focused on capturing his eyes, and the lights in his eyes.”

“When I was drawing this, I thought, ‘I need him to pick me.’ I put all of my determination into this portrait,” recalled Tan, now a second-year art student. “If this portrait comes out looking like him, then I have achieved what I wanted to as an artist.”

Sure enough, Reynoso did pick Tan’s portrait out of about 18 students. “Her penmanship and her skills are beyond amazing,” Reynoso said. “It’s phenomenal what she’s done with pencils and a piece of paper. She made that canvas into a masterpiece.”

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Speaking for disabled veterans

Reynoso traveled the world with the Marines. He saw active combat and, as a minesweeper, he deactivated dangerous improvised explosive devices (IEDs).  

Reynoso was honorably discharged from the Marines in 2012. He did some odd jobs here and there. As he was coming home from a country club in Calabasas where he worked as an event planner, another driver turned unexpectedly in front of him and hit his motorcycle, flinging him off his bike and into and over a metal fence. The accident left him paralyzed from the chest down.

It took 13 surgeries to get him through his array of injuries, and after a year, he wound up recovering and doing physical therapy at the VA Medical Center in Long Beach.

“The fact that his accident happened after his military duty, makes me think anything could happen anytime,” Tan reflected. “Being disabled can happen to anybody. It’s not something we should take for granted.”

While he was frustrated and depressed at first, Reynoso wound up making the most of his situation. He lives by the Oscar Wilde quote, “What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.” He was featured in a “Random Act of Helpfulness” Honda commercial, receiving a new van that had been modified for wheelchair users as a surprise gift.

“I’m actually happy the way things have turned out in life,” Reynoso said. “I’ve met a lot of people and I’ve done a lot more, since the time of my injury to now. I talk about my injury to people, and I also come here (��ɫ����) for other reasons, to help future therapists.”

Reynoso has become an advocate for disabled and paralyzed veterans, serving as the president and national director for the nonprofit Paralyzed Veterans of America. In his appearances and efforts, he speaks for people with disabilities everywhere.

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“This portrait project to me is the best demonstration of our connectedness, and our love for each other,” said Christina White, acting director at the Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center. “One of the things I think is pretty amazing is the interaction between the student and the veteran. And it’s the generation(al) difference. This is a freshman class, so these are really young students, and so this may be their first interaction with a veteran.”

Gasio ‘19 said the project gives students “an opportunity early in their careers to participate in a juried art selection process.

“This experience not only immerses them in the competitive yet rewarding world of art, but also offers them a firsthand understanding of how artworks are evaluated within the artistic community,” she said.

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Stewart ‘03, ‘06, who helped found the project, hopes to expand it beyond Long Beach.

The Veteran Portrait Project has instilled confidence in Tan, who is still just 19 years old. She wants to pursue character drawing and film animation professionally.  

“Being in that class has improved my observational and overall drawing skills,” she said. “It has taught me to be more patient with myself. There are so many details in a person, and it’s not something you should disregard.”  

For Reynoso, the ceremony was a moment to be honored and to share his story with a broader audience. 

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“I’m still in shock and awe,” he said. “I don’t even know if words can express this emotion, of having a student draw a portrait of me. It’s a great feeling. I feel appreciated. I’m noticed. I’m treated like a human being, but in an honorable way."

“I had a portrait drawn of me, and it’s here in the VA halls. It’s amazing.” 

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