As if a case needed to be made for the contributions of so many whose families have come to our country by hook or by crook, Luis Jiménez did it whenever he undertook a work of art.

Jiménez' father came from Mexico -- illegally -- and got into the sign business. At his El Paso shop, the son, born on the Texas side of the border, turned craft to art. Soon he found himself turning industrial materials -- notably Fiberglas and aircraft paint -- into often political statements familiar in many parts of this country where he was born.

He died last week at 65 -- far too young, but in a manner befitting his legend, when a cable holding a heavy piece of outsize sculpture fell on him. Yesterday in Roswell, he was honored at a memorial service.

Jiménez's work celebrates people he knew well: Vaqueros, Barroom dancers. And -- symbolizing millions who've made their way to the United States at the risk of their lives and their health to be exploited here for their willingness to work hard for low pay -- illegal immigrants.

His 1989 sculpture, Border Crossing, at the Museum of Fine Arts here in Santa Fe, is a compelling, notably non-glamorous portrayal of a man carrying a woman and infant on his shoulders, across the Río Grande. It's the kind of art for the public that Jiménez most loved creating. Few folks, he reasoned, could afford such work for themselves -- while if governmental entities would display it, many could share the emotions it evokes.

That's certainly the case with Border Crossing, a series of work that includes the one at the Museum of Fine Arts. Everyone with even the slightest interest in the immigration issue should see some of it. That goes especially for those who'd make felons of the ilegales, or wall off the southern flank of a nation that's been a beacon to all who'd make a better, or less-miserable, life in this land of freedom.

But there was also joie de vivre in Jimenez's works; raucous, sometimes raunchy, satire of our nation's notorious materialism. In garish, sleek materials and colors, he could make Mozartian fun of folks and situations while imparting a certain amount of empathy for the human condition.

His influence on other artists, strong during his lifetime, is sure to grow with the pain so many are feeling over his premature passing.

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