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Esteban Villa, a founding member of the Sacramento collective Royal Chicano Air Force, whose activism and artwork led to national prominence, has died, according to the group United Farm Workers.

The Royal Chicano Air Force started at Sacramento State University in 1969 under its original name, Rebel Chicano Art Front. The group helped advance Chicano civil rights, and supported Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers. It also formed a neighborhood center and held events for decades.

According to Sacramento State, Villa was born in Tulare and taught high school before teaching at the university. He retired from the school in 1995 after 25 years of service.

Villa was also a muralist, printmaker and musician, according to the Online Archive of California, which partners with libraries, museums, historical societies and University of California campuses that maintain collections of works.

“My style began to emerge, revealing itself in daily sketches, thousands of them over the years, and also in my paintings taken from these sketches,” Villa was quoted as saying for an article on Sac State's website in April when he was presented with an honorary doctorate. “That’s my style, and the way I want to be known.”

UC Santa Barbara maintains 18 boxes of the “Villa Papers,” which include original sketches, correspondence writings and other documents from Villa’s life. The university also has an extensive collection of silkscreen prints, flyers and writings of the Royal Chicano Air Force.

Earlier this month, the quiz show “Jeopardy!” referenced the Royal Chicano Air Force.

“The Golden 1 Center, home to this city's NBA team, has a Jeff Koons sculpture & a mural by the Royal Chicano Air Force,” an answer said.

Villa’s murals with the group have also appeared at Southside Park in Sacramento, the underpass to Old Sacramento and in the Macy’s parking lot downtown, according to the Online Archive of California. His work has been shown at the Crocker Art Museum.

“Esteban Villa and other Chicano artists of the era showed us young people the critical intersection of art, politics, public policy, social equity, and governance,” Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna said in a statement to UFW. Serna’s father, former Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna, was also a member of the Royal Chicano Air Force.

Another Royal Chicano Air Force co-founder and Sac State professor, the poet and artist José Montoya, died in 2013.

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