Katy Allred, graduate student assistant from the University of North Texas Library Science program, provides us with insight into the lives of Dorothy Hood, José María Velasco Maidana, and Khory the Cat.

José María Velasco Maidana and Khory (José María Velasco Maidana Papers, University of Houston Special Collections)

Dorothy Hood and José María Velasco Maidana met in Mexico City in the 1940s and married in 1946. She was a young American painter and writer starting to make a name for herself, and he was a well-known Bolivian composer and conductor 20 years her senior. The two never had children together, but they did have an important family member early in their marriage who accompanied them on their many travels – a cat named Khory. Khory the cosmopolitan cat traveled by rail from Mexico to New York City, sat for a portrait with Velasco Maidana, and was even featured in a Houston Chronicle article by Ann Holmes, the newspaper’s fine arts editor who wrote: “The Maidanas are on their way to New York for a five-month stay, in company with their creole cat, name Khory, who travels-with no sense of disgrace at all-in a birdcage!”

Hood and Velasco Maidana traveled together often, but sometimes their work obligations took them in different directions. Velasco Maidana wrote several letters to Dorothy during these times apart in the late 1950s, in which he would sometimes update her on Khory’s activities, and he always signed off with salutations from both himself and Khory the cat – or sometimes just from Khory. In one letter, Velasco Maidana writes, “[Khory] received the kisses that you sent him and for his part today sends you many meows, which I hope sounds very sweet to your ears.”

Rabies vaccination card for Khory the Cat (José María Velasco Maidana Papers, University of Houston Special Collections)

The story of Khory the cat is a small facet of the rich and varied materials in the Dorothy Hood Papers and the José María Velasco Maidana Papers, which are both now open for research. Hood’s materials include correspondence, scrapbooks, exhibition programs, writings, including manuscripts of her unpublished autobiography, photographs, publicity and press, and realia that paints a picture of a woman making her living as an artist in Houston in the last half of the 20th century. Velasco Maidana’s collection includes handwritten musical scores of his compositions, correspondence, scrapbooks, press, recordings of performances of his music, and a variety of materials related to the Amerindia ballet he composed, including the scores, paintings of costume designs, choreography notes, and correspondence. The University of Houston Special Collections is currently open by appointment; for more information, please contact Christian Kelleher at cdkelleher@uh.edu.