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Donna Valdes invites us to experience her perfect adobe-style casa

Donna M. Valdes jokes that she’s high on pain meds, as she opens her heavy, carved-wood front door to a reporter. She’s hobbling a bit, her fractured foot in a cast, the other in a running shoe. She also apologizes for her “messy house”, and in I go.

Donna M. Valdes jokes that she’s high on pain meds, as she opens her heavy, carved-wood front door to a reporter. She’s hobbling a bit, her fractured foot in a cast, the other in a running shoe. She also apologizes for her “messy house”, and in I go.

She’s not high, of course. And the one-story adobe-style house is perfect. The statements, it seems, were just the self-deprecating humor of a comfortable woman who, like her home, is all about the art.

Luscious, soulful, colorful Latin American and Latino folk art, to be precise.

Valdes is the executive director of XICO, Inc., a Mesa arts organization aimed at promoting Chicano and Native American artists – visual and performing.

The vibrant, colorful folk art – including furniture – separates Valdes’ home from the stodgier dwellings in her upscale Ahwatukee neighborhood. The rich reds and electric blues of the Mauricio Hernandez Colmero papier-mâché skeleton pieces from Mexico. The two enormous, intricate ink drawings of Angelica Morales – each six feet across and four feet high.

Every brightly-painted wall in the house, every corner of every room, is embellished with gorgeous pieces, collected over 22 years by Valdes and her Mexico-born husband, Jose.

The house wasn’t always stunning.

“When we bought it, it was horrible,” she says, wrinkling her nose. “There was velvet floral wallpaper everywhere. Velvet floral wallpaper.”

Several renovations and many, many dollars later, the home is nothing short of gorgeous – but not in a stuffy way. In a warm, welcoming – well, let’s just say it plain, shall we? – Latino way.

“We see our home as our canvas for exhibiting our collection and multicultural background,” says Valdes. “We want your first reaction to be an inviting sensation. In other words, we want our guests to feel comfortable in wandering and exploring.”