By Vivian Marlene Dunbar

Bhavna Mehta took 1st place with this black and white cut out.

On March 8, 2012, the Casa Familiar opened its doors to the 5th Annual Dia De La Mujer Exhibition. Inside, 25 artists displayed their work to a panel of jurors and visitors. Each artist had a story to tell, a common theme, which was to convey the experience of being a woman using various artistic mediums.

The jurors, Gwen Gomez, of the San Diego Museum of Art, Larry Baza and Ava Ordorica awarded Bhavna Mehta 1st place for her incredible black and white paper cut out. Mehta, originally from India, created an intricate scene, depicting a four armed woman holding different aspects of her life. The black paper was delicately and intricately cut, and placed on top of a plain piece of heavy white paper. Bhavna explained the piece was a story of a modern day woman’s life.

Michelle D. Ferrera, who recently moved from New Jersey to San Diego, exhibited two very striking pencil on wood carvings. Michele explained that the pieces were created during what was a very emotional time for her.

Emily Hicks, teacher of Chicano Studies at San Diego State, created two very unusual, almost cartoonish drawings, one of which depicted negative entities in the background, and a strong woman presence in the foreground. These, Emily explained, were inspired by dealing with personal life struggles.

Bonnie Crokett, presented a water color titled “Madonna on the Dock” this painting showed a woman sitting one dock with a small child at her side. The woman’s face was covered by the brim of a hat. Bonnie explained that she photographed her subjects while touring Chesapeake Bay in the summer with her husband on their boat. In the winter, they returned to her home in Chula Vista, where she made a painting of her photographs. Bonnie is a member of the South Bay-Front Artist Co-Op, where, she explained, many artists are also boaters.

Belinda Rojo of San Diego, is a new artist, and this was her first exhibit. She specialized in abstract and surreal images, showing the inner strength of women.

Gwen Gomez, from the San Diego Museum of Art, described the exhibition as “all about women artists and their own vision.”

Visitors, artists, curators and jurors enjoyed an arts reception with drinks, food and a live band, the Roots Factories’ DJ Ana Brown. On the back patio, the Mujeres Crafts Market Place featured an array of exquisite had made items crafted by local ladies.

The event was a success and brought a sense that San Ysidro can indeed be a place known for its fine art.

This month long celebration is taking place at Casa Fa-miliar’s THE FRONT: A Collaborative of Art, Culture, Design & Urbanism- located at 147 W. San Ysidro Blvd, San Ysidro.

Our Mes de la Mujer (Womens Month) programming at The Front also includes a lecture on Women and Photography given by Cara Goger (MOPA) on thurs March 22nd at 2-3pm and a special reading of Lunar Braceros by authors Rosaura Sanchez and Beatrice Pita presented by Caliposas Press on thurs March 22nd 6:30pm.

Lila Downs has become an icon of the fusion between Mexican and world music. Her enigmatic personality, together with her smoky voice and great selection of songs, has turned her into a modern-day Frida Kahlo of music.

Her new album, “Pecados y Milagros/Sins and Miracles,” is the culmination of a journey intricately tied to her sense of purpose as a human being and an artist.

In the new album, Downs once again crosses the boundaries of music, of time, of countries, to create a spiritual work inspired in part by traditional retablo art, but also from her new role as a mother.

Lila Downs will be performing at the Balboa Theater, in Downtown San Diego, on Sunday, Feb. 26.

The new disc finds her once again unrestrained by borders, the Mexican-American singer/songwriter drawing inspiration from her new role as a mother – what she refers to as a “miracle”— and reflecting on the meaning of “sin” in today’s complex modern world.

Downs recasts the grand narratives of religion in light of contemporary issues while adding a visual component to the music by commissioning a series of Mexican devotional paintings that are thematically connected to each song. Each track on the CD is matched by a new retablo that explores an aspect of the CD’s intensely personal themes. The Latin Grammy-winning artist’s indomitable spirit is the common thread that seamlessly ties it all together to create a singular, multimedia work of art that transcends categorization.

“I find it fascinating that retablos continue to be an expression of the realities in today’s Mexico,” she said in an interview with La Prensa San Diego. “There is a truthful dialogue with God and the santitos about our wishes, moments of desperation, and gratitude for life. It is similar for me, to be going through these emotions.”

Some of the emotions imprinted in “Pecados y milagros” are turned into statements about the violence hitting Mexico in recent years. But in her music, Downs looks beyond the violence, into the depths of the Mexican soul.

“Being Mexican, people ask, what is my opinion of the violence associated with organized crime in Mexico, and my natural reaction is to feel sad and frustrated, ashamed and angry,” Downs said in the interview. “So I look to find elements and role models in Mexican culture that can transport me to some other place emotionally. I’m looking for the heroines and heroes of my time- one of them, I composed a song about- the women who make tortillas- they are the strength of our country and they work with their hands the sacred element of our sustenance in all of the Americas: corn.”

“Pecados y Milagros,” whose physical release was on January 31 was recorded in Mexico and New York and is a collection of 14 tracks, six of them originals that Downs co-wrote with Paul Cohen, her husband, producer, and musical collaborator. The remaining songs are re-workings of classic songs from famed Mexican songwriters such as Marco Antonio Solis, Tomas Mendez, and Cuco Sanchez, among others. She also collaborates with a cast of special guests that includes Mexican vallenato king Celso Piña, Colombian vocal legend Totó La Momposina, and Argentina’s Illya Kuryaki & The Valderramas.

Some of the classic songs include “Tu cárcel,” “Fallaste corazón,” “Cucurrucucú paloma,” and “Vámonos.” Six of the songs in the album are Downs’ originals.

“Three years ago I started to compose verses that reflect the emotions I feel about what is happening in my country,” explains Downs. “But I really needed the sacred part of life, something spiritual to accompany me and give me strength. And I started thinking about songs that give me wings, songs that take me places.”

“We are so very excited to bring an artist of Lila’s talent, creativity, intelligence, passion and beauty to Balboa,” says Bob Vogt, President of Will Power Entertainment. “It’s perfect timing to be able give the people of San Diego and surrounding areas such a magnificent musical gift.”

Lila Downs is the daughter of a Mixtec Indian woman who ran away from her village at 19 to sing in Mexico City cantinas and a Minnesota-born, Scottish-American professor who saw her singing and fell in love at first sight. Since she was a little girl, she’s been crossing all sorts of borders: cultural, linguistic, physical. That’s the reason why, she always includes San Diego in her U.S. tours.

“I love the Border,” Downs told La Prensa San Diego. “It’s like coming home. It always reminds me of the necessary movement that humanity needs to refresh itself. The border fence makes people think a lot about our similarities and our differences. There are so many different realities that converge at the border, and a sense of excitement, and also a fear of the unknown. It’s mysterious to me.”

Tickets for the Lila Downs concert range from $39/$49 and can be purchased in advance at the San Diego Theatres Ticketing Services, located at Third Avenue & B Street in downtown. They can also be purchased on-line at Ticketmaster.com. Proceeds for the Lila Downs VIP Reception will benefit the Latina women organization MANA (www.mana.org). For more information call: (619) 570-1100.

Por: Paco Zavala

El artista Adeeb Maki Jasim trabajando en su taller.

Inauguran extraordinaria exposición pictórica denominada “Ritmo Sufi: Variaciones de un mismo tema/ Variations on Sufi Thems” que presenta el artista iraki Adeeb Maki Jasim, el próximo viernes 27 de enero, a las 19:00 horas, en la Galería de la ciudad en el Palacio de la Cultura de Tijuana.

“El sufismo es la doctrina de los sufíes, es una mística musulmana originada en Persia, que ha inspirado la mas alta poesía en esa lengua”. Esta muestra pictórica reúne estas características, pero llevadas al lienzo con colores creados por el mismo artista, así estos trabajos tienen el sello personalizado de Adeeb Maki Jasim.

En la obra de Adeeb Maki Jasim, utiliza la idea del santuario como un enfoque y fundamento que al artista le inspira un símbolo que evoca al sufismo como una practica de “abstracción y minimalismo”. El sufismo, indicó el artista: “para mí corresponde a un ejemplo de amor, de una pureza espiritual o un sentimiento indemne, libre de intereses o anhelos”. Como tradición el sufismo también juega con temas de amor de niño: espontaneo, libre, nostálgico y de ensueño.

La exposición reúne 22 pinturas, de diversos tamaños, con dimensiones desde 39 x 47, 36 x 36 hasta 12 x 12 pulgadas. El artista indicó que: “despues de experimentar por más de 20 años, utiliza actualmente sus propios materiales, emplea además diferentes medios que contribuyen a lograr la tridimensionalidad de sus obras”. Y dice ademas: “Constantemente intento concebir una topografía para mi obra, como si estuviera creando una pintura esculpida, y así voy produciendo el efecto que me interesa lograr. Conforme añado colores, voy acercándome a una impresión o evocación similar a la de un mural o relieve sobre una pared. Pocas veces uso pincel, salvo para darle definición a la caligrafía”.

El artista ha exhibido sus pinturas en el mundo árabe, en EE.UU y en el Reino Unido, ahora lo hace en Mexico. Va a estar muy interesante el visitar esta exposición, ya tendremos oportunidad de comentar un poco mas sobre el artista y su trabajo en fecha posterior.

Para concluir adicionaremos las siguiente nota: El Museo de Historia de Tijuana, instalado en uno de los espacios del Palacio de la Cultura de Tijuana, a partir del pasado jueves 19 de enero, ya no cobrará más la entrada, ahora el acceso es completamente gratuito.

Esta decisión se tomó para beneficiar a la población, de esta manera tiene acceso a interiorizarse en la historia de Tijuana, en su proceso de desarrollo desde que se fundó hasta nuestros días.

El museo cuenta con una sala de exposición permanente en su segunda planta y dos salas de exposiciones temporales en su planta baja. Actualmente se exhibe la exposición temporal “Historia de familias tijuanenses”, en la que se muestran fotografías, objetos y documentos. El museo permanece abierto de martes a domingo de las 10:00 am. a 18:00 pm. Para información solicítela al 01152 (664) 688-1721 Ext. 107.

John Baldessari is one of the most influential artists working today. A native of National City, Calif., Baldessari has been making art for decades. In 1960, MCASD—then the La Jolla Art Center—gave Baldessari his first exhibition. His relationship with the Museum has continued, including the 1997 exhibition National City. MCASD is honored to welcome Baldessari back to the Museum, this time with an expansive survey of his entire body of printmaking.

Drawn from the impressively rich and deep holdings of contemporary prints assembled by collector, business man, and philanthropist Jordan Schnitzer, this exhibition represents the largest offering of Baldessari’s graphic oeuvre ever assembled.

Baldessari took on printmaking in the 1970s and has continued unabated. With laconic wit and visual restraint, he alters and crops photographic images to build a beguiling visual vocabulary. This retrospective of Baldessari’s prints, including more than 100 works made between 1973 and 2010 in media as diverse as lithography, etching, photogravure, aquatint, photo intaglio, embossing, silk-screen, and beyond.

For Baldessari his collaboration with numerous presses and printers and his nonstop experimentation with materials and media are testimony to his devotion to the endless potentials of printmaking. Baldessari places a high value on the art of printmaking, and this exhibition will reveal the rich results of this engagement.

(l-r) Ric Salinas, Herbert Siguenza and Richard Montoya, founders and members of Culture Clash.

For almost 30 years now, Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Sigüenza of Culture Clash have delivered on-stage history and civics lessons disguised as madcap anarchy.

Their particular brand of comedic social commentary has left audiences revolving from uproarious laughter to contemplation of pressing social problems.

The performance troupe draws its inspiration everywhere, from Shakespeare to Cantinflas, and everything is game for discussion: gender, race, politics, history.

Their unabashed approach is why Culture Clash will once again perform at La Jolla Playhouse. Culture Clash’s “American Night: The Ballad of Juan José” opens on Friday, Jan. 27. Montoya wrote and performs in the play and Jo Bonney directs.

“The Playhouse prides itself on being a safe haven for unsafe work,” said La Jolla Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley, “and few artists are as daring and dangerous as Culture Clash.”

“Their unique, take-no-prisoners style of theatre provokes both laughter in the theater and passionate debate on the car ride home,” he said.

“American Night,” which originally ran to rave reviews at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, takes the audience on a voyage through American history while tripping through the mind of its title character Juan José, played by René Millán.

Studying for his U.S. citizenship exam, Juan José stresses out and swoons. A surreal journey from sea to shining sea ensues, through battles and plagues, into a Japanese internment camp and a music festival. Along the way he encounters the likes of Bob Dylan, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and Fidel Castro.

“American Night is a hilarious journey through American history and an up-close look at a good man who desperately wants to be a part of this country,” Millán said about his character.

“This play does not have an agenda. It’s not trying to convince anyone to have specific political views,” he added, “but in a time when immigrants are often demonized, Juan José takes a journey that will leave audiences enlightened and inspired.”

Millán grew up in Barrio Logan and reconnected to his childhood experiences while preparing to play Juan José, he said.

Juan José is a composite of the immigrants who passed through Millan’s neighborhood. Millan remembered their stories of perilous journeys and dreams that America would make life better for the families they’d left behind, he said.

“When I was in high school, I used to ride the city bus to school an hour each way, and I remember the Border Patrol would stop the bus and have all the brown people get off to have their papers checked,” he said. “As a full American citizen myself, it was an uneasy feeling I’ll never forget.”

In writing the play, Montoya wanted to “humanize the Mexican immigrant,” he said, “as we have done with the immigrant story from other shores — Irish, Italian, Jewish, Polish.” “All have their reverent stories of great journeys and triumph,” he said. “The Mexican or Central American journey is no less harrowing, just not as romantic. But why?” he asked.

“The play looks at this and asks us to consider Juan José, the title character, as a human being, wanting to better his family and find a legal path to citizenship and sing you a song along the way,” he said.

Montoya said that all Americans should see the play and anybody who respects history will love it. “The play asks us to consider the good charity in our collective hearts — America has been so generous, but suddenly that generosity is in short supply,” he said.

“The town hall is not a place where we discuss, but yell — border militias are armed, as well as Mexican drug cartels,” he explained. “Sounds like it’s time to send in the clowns, because we could do no worse than the politicians and military.”

Montoya was born in San Diego in 1959. His father, José Montoya, is considered to be one of the most influential Chicano poets. José is a Chicano Park muralist and played a key role in the development of the Chicano art movement The Royal Chicano Air Force.

“My dad painted his mural at Chicano Park in Barrio Logan, and so the story of the Montoyas is enmeshed in the story of San Diego,” Montoya said.

He dedicates “American Night” to the son of San Diego legend Chunky Sanchez. Fernando Sanchez lost his life in a traffic accident while with a crew battling fires in Los Angeles County.

“In many ways, you could say the people of San Diego — the Chicano community — have given their lives to better California,” Montoya said. “I’m just trying to do my part.”

With San Diego and Culture Clash indelibly connected, the Playhouse is a great fit. “San Diego County, nestled directly against the border with Mexico, is incredibly varied,” Ashley said. “It is essential that the Playhouse produce theater that speaks to and about our diverse community.

“As we head into another presidential election, American Night’s laser-sharp focus on citizenship and our shared cultural identity couldn’t be more timely,” he said. “And yet there’s no one else who sees the world like Culture Clash does.”

“American Night” runs from Jan. 27 to Feb. 26. It was written by Richard Montoya, developed by Culture Clash and Jo Bonney, who also directs, and co-produced with Center Theatre Group. The play was originally produced by Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Tickets and information are available at www.lajollaplayhouse.org.

Maria Fernanda Lairet (Venezuela) — Ojo que todo lo ve, 2011.

New York (KPRENSA) – The reputation and importance of artists from Latin America continues to advance in the modern and contemporary art world. Fifty carefully selected galleries set the pace for this growing trend during the celebration of PINTA, the annual Latin American art fair, that recently concluded in New York.

   PINTA offered visitors the best of the most current and contemporary artistic production of the region. Galleries from Mexico, the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, The Dominican Republic, Cuba, Spain, France, Italy, and Portugal were included in the selected group at PINTA 2011. This fifth PINTA show offered a rich panorama of the history and evolution in modern Latin American art.

   “The Fair featured an excellent artistic program in its 2011 edition, and it included new international galleries,” said Diego Costa Peuser, director of PINTA. “This allowed us to maintain and enhance the quality in such a way that both collectors and the public at large had the chance to continue discovering Latin American artists, which is our main objective.”

   In addition, attendees saw some of the best modern art, including work by masters of painting and sculpture from Latin America such as Fernando Botero, Rufino Tamayo, Wifredo Lam and Roberto Matta; even as geometric abstraction and concrete art have been our signature since the first edition of the fair in 2007. The public was also be able to appreciate the rediscovery of conceptual art from the 1970s and 80s: a movement that curators and specialists are revisiting and doing an in-depth rereading of, and that has been the main focus of interest of museums and private collectors in the last few years.

   Also in its fifth year, the established PINTA Museum Acquisitions Program invited institutions committed to Latin American art to attend the fair. This program, created to incentivize the art market and enhance museum collections, guarantees funds to selected museums for the acquisition of works at PINTA.

   “The creation of the PINTA Acquisitions Program has driven several institutions to add important Latin American artwork to their collections, including works, by Joaquín Torres García, Antonio Manuel, Alexander Arrechea, Arthur Luiz Piza, Fernando Bryce, Gego, Liliana Porter and Elías Crespín,” stated Mauro Herlitzka, PINTA’s Institutional Director, “This year we have invited The Bronx Museum of Art, New York; Newark Museum, New Jersey; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to participate in the program.”

   PINTA’s growth continues with its European edition next June 2012 in London. “Indeed,” acknowledges Alejandro Zaia, PINTA’s chairman, “Our ultimate goal is to take Latin American art to the most knowledgeable and demanding markets.

   More information about PINTA and modern and contemporary art from Latin America can be found on the Internet at: http://pintaart.com

Fernando Castillo. El gato negro (ca. 1929)

    “Mexican Modern Painting” from the Andrés Blaisten Collection has made its way to the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) from Tlatelolco via Phoenix, Ariz. Eighty paintings dated between 1907 and 1956 now grace the Balboa Park museum as part of a traveling tour.

    From the turn of the 20th century to the 1960s, Mexico produced visual art of virtually every type, from pleinair landscape painting to surrealism. Impressionists, Cubists and Dadaists created a tremendous amount of quality work during periods of political instability and social change.

    The Mexican Revolution, the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz for 30 years, land reform, and the Second World War provoked an intense response from Mexican and visiting European artists.

    Artists came to Mexico to experience firsthand the artistic revolution fomented by the struggle for rights, from land to education, and the preservation of cultural heritage.

    The artworks for “Mexican Modern Painting” were hand-selected from over 8,000 works of art in Blaisten’s private collection, which is touted as the most important collection of Mexican modernism. It represents a period of renaissance in Mexican visual art, yet goes beyond the recognizable works of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. 

    While the exhibit has well-known artists such as María Izquierdo, David Alfaro Siquieros, and Rufino Tamayo, San Diego audiences also get a chance to experience artists whose names they’ve possibly never heard.

    Visitors can delve into the interwoven fantasy and reality of Alfonso Michel, find refuge in the mystical and religious subjects of Angel Zárraga, and discover Picasso’s influence in the art of Federico Cantú.

    Art fans can experience, in viewing Manuel González Serrano’s surreal Equilibrio, Birds of Paradise petals curling, seeming to move and grow before their eyes.

Manuel González Serrano. Equilibrio (Proyección, margen), (ca. 1944)

    “The quality of this art is outstanding,” SDMA executive director Roxana Velázquez said. “You will find it alluring.”

    The collection’s time and promotion in San Diego is due in part to Velázquez’s work. She has been on the job for just over a year and was hired partly for her networking ability in the global art community.

    “One of our main goals is to connect San Diego to the rest of the world,” Velázquez said. “There is no other option. We are part of the global conversation.”

    While working in Mexico City, Velázquez brought international recognition to the Museo Nacional de San Carlos, the Museo Nacional de Arte and the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes.

    Andrés Blaisten, one of Mexico’s most renowned collectors, was an obvious source for Velázquez to curate quality exhibitions while in Mexico and now a perfect match at SDMA in San Diego. SDMA had already begun discussions to bring Blaisten’s collection to San Diego before Velázquez’s arrival.

    Before directing SDMA, she organized international exhibits, including “Rubens and his Century,” “Illusions of the Middle East from Delacroix to Moreau,” and “Frida Kahlo Centennial,” seen by half a million visitors.

    SDMA’s attendance has already increased 27 percent and membership is up 50 percent in the last year, according to Velázquez.

    “Art is for everybody,” Velázquez said. “It is created for everybody and should be a part of our daily life.”

    Velázquez added that young artists and collectors should not discount the possibilities. Art is not an esoteric exercise for a select group of people, and should come from and arrive to “the big, big audience,” she said.

    SDMA has created programs to meet this goal, including Teen Art Café, a place for teenagers to experience the museum firsthand; The Summer Salon Series, which includes performances, talks, demos and workshops from contemporary artists; and Culture and Cocktails, featuring music, beverages and art. The museum is free every third Tuesday as part of Balboa Park’s program “Residents Free Tuesdays.”

    One of the highlights for Modern Mexican Painting will be “Art in Context: Mexican Mural Art” by Writerz Blok, a San Diego-based mural and graffiti group. For two weeks, from Nov.1 to Nov.16, Writerz Blok will create a live, site-specific mural inspired by the Blaisten collection and other artwork in the museum’s permanent collection.

    “Mexican Modern Painting,” permanently housed in Mexico City, was organized by Phoenix Art Museum, SDMA, the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University, and the Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

    “I have always believed in the power of art and its ability to create bonds, avoid boundaries, and bring fraternity among individuals from the most distant and diverse societies,” Velásquez said.

    The exhibit will run from Nov. 5, 2011 through Feb. 19, 2012. For more information, visit sdmart.org

    Lalo Alcaraz is a nationally syndicated political cartoonist and the creator of La Cucaracha, the daily comic strip. He hosts a radio show called Ponchos Hour of Power at LA’s KPFK radio 90.7.

    Mr. Alcaraz is considered the most prolific Chicano artist in the nation. He has worked diligently for over twenty years chronicling the political ascendancy of Latinos in America and vigorously pushed the boundaries of Chicano art in the post Chicano art era. His cartoons are pictures that are truly worth one thousand words – words that have provoked and inspired millions of conversations, arguments, and dialogic discussions regarding the state of Latino affairs all over the country.

    He is the creator of the first nationally syndicated, politically-themed Latino daily comic strip, “La Cucaracha,” which is seen in scores of newspapers including the Los Angeles Times (syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, home of “Doonesbury” and “The Boondocks”).

    Alcaraz is the co-host of KPFK Radio’s wildly popular and satirical talk show The Pocho Hour of Power heard Fridays at 4 p.m. in L.A. on 90.7 FM. He co-founded the seminal Chicano humor ‘zine, POCHO magazine, and also co-founded the political satire comedy group Chicano Secret Service.

    Lalo Alcaraz is currently a faculty member at Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles.

    Alcaraz is a 1987 graduate of San Diego State University where he received his bachelor’s degree “With Distinction” in Art and Environmental Design. In 1991, he earned his master’s degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. Alcaraz was born in San Diego and grew up on the border. He is married to a hard-working public school teacher and they have three extremely artistic children.

    A Lalo fan since his Brown Beret days I talked to Lalo about his life and times.

    AC: What was the very first drawing you ever did? Who recognized your potential? How did your parents feel about your art and what did you want to be when you grew up?

    LA: I drew an angel for the school Christmas program. (That’s my first published drawing, so to me that counts as the first) Artistic ability runs in the family – got it from my mom’s side. My grandfather was an illiterate farmer and ranchero who could draw architectural plans, then build things.

    I suppose I always wanted to be an artist – only thing I was good at!

    AC: As you progressed in school, what kinds of things did you draw? What inspired you? At what point did you develop a socio-political awareness?

    LA: I drew in class, and then in college I majored in art and was the obnoxious political art student. Imagine an art student with attitude – unheard of! I was hanging with Chicano artists in San Diego, David Avalos and Victor Ochoa, political artist and a muralist; they taught me that making art political was okay and righteous.

    AC: How do you define “Chicano?”

    LA: politicized Mexican-American – “POCHO” means Pissed Off Chicano Outcast.

    AC: What was your high school experience like? What inspired you to go to college and pursue a post graduate degree?

    LA: I didn’t enjoy high school but my art teacher, Mrs. Nichols, always showed me that there were art schools out there. She would give me catalogues for prestigious private art schools like Otis-Parsons . . . and now I teach at Otis.

    AC: At what point did politics and art converge? Are you an artist or political activist?

    LA: I turned political cartoons into protest art in the early 90’s during the racist Prop. 187 era.

    AC: You do a cartoon almost every week. Where does the inspiration come from? Don’t you run out of ideas and if you do, where do you get the material?

    LA: I do nine tons a week. My inspiration comes from the anger I feel at injustice, hate and discrimination. I got a chip on my shoulder, damn right. Never run out of ideas – not yet anyway.

    AC: When did you realize that your political cartoons could cause talk and inspire dialog?

    LA: When people would thank me for explaining an issue or giving them the ammo, or just the words, to explain an issue to someone else. And also the countless teachers who use my comics in college and high school classes to bring up current events and issues.

    AC: Would you consider yourself an instigator, educator, or innovator?

    LA: I don’t know. Maybe a little of all three.

    AC: Has a newspaper ever dropped your strip because they didn’t agree with your politics? How would you feel about that?

    LA: Censorship of the marketplace. I think that’s the way to describe it.

    AC: You and your work have been featured on all the major networks and around the world on various media platforms. What is your greatest victory so far? Greatest disappointment?

    LA: Bringing down the Soviet Union – just kidding. I have been generously covered and I am happy about that. I could always use a little more TV exposure!

    AC: When people look back on your work, what do you want them to feel?

    LA: ANGER that makes them want to change the world!

    AC: Where can people check out your work?

    http://laloalcaraz.com and www.gocomics.com/lacucaracha

The conference will continue Friday, November 4, in the graduate student lounge in the campus’s MultiCultural Center; and on Saturday, November 5, at Casa de la Guerra, 15 E. De la Guerra St. in Santa Barbara. Events on all three days are free and open to the public.

The theme for the 2011 colloquium is an interdisciplinary study of masks, masquerades, faces, concealments, costumes, alternative voices, and emerging cultural identities in Mexican and Chicano and Chicana societies.

The conference also will examine topics related to the cultural manifestations of the border, translation, and poetry from the standpoint of masquerades and concealments. From the mystery of real masks worn at masquerades, to the deceptions played out through the use of disguises, the conference offers a new interpretation of that which we see, read, and hear.

Among the participants will be Miryam Moscona, award-winning poet and author of “Negro marfil”; Hernán Lara Zavala, author of the award-winning novel, “Península, Península”; and Mónica Lavín, author of “Yo, la peor.”

In addition to lectures and discussions, the conference will include cultural actvities, such as mask contests and a performance by the folkloric dance group, Raíces de mi tierra.

The colloquium is co-sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the UC-Mexicanistas, an intercampus research program directed by Sara Poot-Herrera, a professor in the Spanish and Portuguese department. The program focuses on Mexican studies and culture, and bi-national border issues. Other sponsors of the event include, among others, the Ministry of Culture of Mexico and the Cultural Section of the Municipal Government of Mérida.

The colloquium at UCSB is part of an international series organized by Poot-Herrera. Over the years, some of the most relevant figures of Mexican literature and film have participated. Among them are Sergio Arau, director of the film, “A Day Without a Mexican”; actress Yareli Arizmendi, whose credits include the film, “Like Water for Chocolate”; and award-winning novelists Carlos Fuentes, Elena Poniatowska, Margo Glantz, and Cristina Rivera Garza.

Victor Ochoa (left) and Hector Villegas congratulate each other on the successful revitalization of Varrio Logan. Photo credit: David Avalos

Lead Artist/Coordinator: Victor Ochoa. Team Members: Hector Villegas, Stephanie Cervantes, David Ortiz and Original Artists Eddie Galindo and Juanillo Luna. Specifications: Acryloid b-72, consolidator and sealer, Novacolor acrylics, and Permashield graffiti barrier.

By David Avalos

    Eddie Galindo speaks about Logan Heights in terms of barrio virtues such as honor, respect, loyalty and love. Victor Ochoa sees the Varrio Logan mural as a symbol of “orgullo de la communidad”  (pride of our community). In 1978 they both worked on the original mural, an expression of pride, honor and respect reflecting the organized efforts taking place at the time. One such effort, the Chicano Federation’s Barrio Renovation Team, repaired and upgraded the neighborhood homes of low-income families. Members of the team painted the original mural. Juanillo Luna worked on it both then and now.

    Galindo also talks about the mural’s barrio aesthetics, the graffiti-inspired block letters and the central figure of a peacock based on a popular Chicano tattoo. Young Stephanie Cervantez contributed her artistic vision to the mural’s revitalization by transforming the original graphic version of the peacock’s tail feathers into a beautifully meticulous painterly version.

    For Hector Villegas barrio virtues are the positive foundation for his expanding self-awareness as he follows “el camino rojo” (the red road) acquiring the knowledge and practice that forms his indigenous identity and connects him to other native communities throughout the hemisphere. He sees the revitalized mural as a proud community standard, as well as a welcoming sign to the thousands of visitors from throughout the world who come to admire Chicano Park murals’ relationship to community life.

    Victor Ochoa reminds us that Chicano Park was established by efforts of people throughout the region. He sees Varrio Logan’s community pride as a virtue shared with other neighborhoods and wants Chicano Park to serve as “a unifying effort for today’s youth and for future generations in Barrios Unidos.”

Lead Artist Felipe Adame (seated) and assistants Glory G. Sanchez and Frank Galindo in front of the restored and revitalized Aztec Archer mural originally painted (1978-80) by Vidal M. Aguirre. Photo Credit: Todd Stands.

Lead Muralist: Felipe Adame. Assistants: Glory G. Sanchez and Frank Galindo III. Contributing Artist: Guillermo Chavez Rosette. Specifications: Nova Color Acrylic Paint on original mural, 2 coats of Liquitex Gloss Medium Varnish, Permashield Sacrificial Graffiti barrier.
   Though Vidal Aguirre died days after his fiftieth birthday in 1997, his murals continue to participate in everyday rituals and annual ceremonies at San Diego’s Chicano Park. For example, Aguirre’s Mayan ball game mural watches over the players at the Park’s well-used handball court.

   Speeches and cultural performances occur each Chicano Park Day Celebration under the Kiosko ceiling’s Founding of Tenochtitlan mural painted in 1978 by Aguirre, Adame and Tony De Vargas, now deceased. Adame who introduced Aguirre to Chicano Park remembers his friend as someone dearly loved by everyone.

   Because of their mural collaborations the Chicano Park Steering Committee requested that Adame take the lead in repainting Aguirre’s Archer. He will also repaint the Kiosko’s ceiling mural beginning in January 2012 as part of Phase Three of the Chicano Park Revitalization/Restoration Project.

   Adame feels the mural’s restoration has been a spiritual blessing for Aguirre’s family who are honored that his work is being revitalized. His sister, Marta Aguirre, provided Vidal’s photograph to the muralists and Glory G. Sanchez used it to create her memorial portrait of Vidal Aguirre on the side of the mural pillar’s cross piece.

   Once after warily climbing down three different ladders to Chicano Parks’ terra firma I found Felipe Adame’s empty wheelchair dutifully waiting for him to climb down those same three ladders when his day’s work was completed. “You could say I’m the first artist to climb out of a wheelchair and up on a scaffold to finish a mural,” he tells me. “As much of a struggle as it is to get up and down, I’m motivated by my love of painting,” he assures me. That and his love of the people of Chicano Park.

Shifra M. Goldman, September 1992

 Shifra M. Goldman
1926-2011

By Carol Wells

    Shifra Goldman, a pioneer in the study of Latin American and Chicano/a Art, and a social art historian, died in Los Angeles on September 11, 2011, from Alzheimer’s disease.  She was 85.

    Professor Goldman taught art history in the Los Angeles area for over 20 years. She was a prolific writer and an activist for Chicano and Latino Art. In Dimensions of the Americas:  Art and Social Change in Latin America and the United States, one of her award winning publications, she stated that part of her life’s work was to “deflect and correct the stereotypes, distortions, and Euro-centric misunderstandings that have plagued all serious approaches to Latino Art history since the 50s.”

    Born and raised in New York by Russian/Polish immigrant parents, art and politics were central to her entire life. Goldman’s mother was a trade unionist and her father, a political activist. She attended the High School of Music and Art in New York, and entered the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a studio art major when her family moved to Los Angeles in the 1940’s. As an undergraduate, she was active in the student boycott against the barbers in Westwood who refused to cut the hair of the Black Veterans entering UCLA on the GI bill following the Second World War.

    After leaving UCLA, she went to work with Bert Corona and the Civil Rights Congress, a national organization working to stop police brutality against African and Mexican Americans, and the deportations of Mexicans and foreign born political activists. Living in East Los Angeles, Gold-man learned Spanish and became immersed in Mexican and Chicano culture. In the 1950’s, during the repression of the Cold War, Goldman was subpoenaed before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC). Two decades later, she lost her first college teaching job because a background check revealed that she had been called before HUAC.

    In the 1960’s, after supporting herself and her son, Eric, as a bookkeeper for fifteen years, Goldman returned to UCLA to complete her B.A. in art. After receiving her M.A. in art history from California State University, Los Angeles (CSLA), she entered the Ph.D program at UCLA where she ran headlong into Eurocentrism when she was unable to find a chair for her doctoral committee because her topic of choice was modern Mexican art.

    Goldman refused to choose a more mainstream topic, and waited several years until a new faculty member finally agreed to work with her. Her dissertation was published as Contemporary Mexican Painting in a Time of Change by University of Texas Press in 1981, and republished in Mexico in 1989.  She also initiated and co-authored the bibliography and theoretical essay, Arte Chicano: A Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography of Chicano Art, 1965-1981 (1985) with Dr. Tomás Ybarra-Frausto.

    Professor Goldman taught her first class in Mexican Art in 1966, possibly the only one given at that time in all of California. She later went on to a full time teaching position in art history at Santa Ana College where she taught courses in Mexican Pre-Colombian, Modern and Chicano Art for 21 years.  She was one of the organizers for the Vietnam Peace Tower in 1966. Goldman also cofounded the Los Angeles chapter of Artists Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America, in 1983, and was instrumental in bringing solidarity with the Central American struggle to the Los Angeles community.

    In 1968, she began the campaign to preserve the 1932 Siqueiros mural America Tropical in Olvera Street, and in 1971 approached Siqueiros for a new mural derived from the original. According to the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA), he agreed but the plan was thwarted by the artist’s death in 1974. His last mural in Los Angeles, Portrait of Mexico Today, 1932, was restored and moved to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California with Goldman’s advice and assistance.

    Goldman has published and lectured in Europe, Latin America and the United States and led several delegations to Cuba to attend their Art Biennials. In 1994 she became a Research Associate with the Latin American Center at UCLA and taught art history there. Goldman is also Professor Emeritus from Santa Ana College, Santa Ana, CA.

    In February 1992, she received the College Art Association’s (CAA) Frank Jewett Mather Award for distinction in art criticism and, in February 1993, an award from the Women’s Caucus for Art for outstanding achievement in the visual arts. She was elected to the board of the CAA, 1995-1999. In 1996 she received the “Historian of the Lions” award from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics.

    The Shifra Goldman Papers, including her slides, books, and videos are part of the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her extensive Chicano poster and print collection is at the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles.  She will be remembered for her important contributions to Latin American Art scholarship and for her seminal work in Chicano/a Art History and support of the Chicano/a art community.

    Professor Goldman is survived by her son Eric Garcia, daughter-in-law Trisha Dexter, and grandson Ian of Los Angeles. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Avenue 50 Studio [www.avenue50studio.com], Center for the Study of Political Graphics [www.politicalgraphics.org] and/or Tropico de Nopal [www.tropicodenopal.com]. The date and location of an October memorial will be on all of the above websites.

Photo and text: David Avalos

Chicano Park muralist Octavio Gonzalez admires Niños del Mundo, brought back to life by Norma Montoya during the Chicano Park Mural Restoration Project’s First Phase. Looming in the background Leyes (La Familia), painted by José Montoya (no relation) and the Royal Chicano Air Force in 1975, is one of five murals to be repainted during the Second Phase from September to November.

    On July and August weekends this summer Norma Montoya traveled from Los Angeles to San Diego’s Chicano Park painstakingly repainting Niños del Mundo. The hardworking artist first came south in 1975 with Charles “Gato” Félix, invited by local muralists to paint Niños on the Coronado Bridge’s concrete pillars.

    Montoya had been a commercial window painter recruited by Felíx to teach her skills to aspiring young women artists at Estrada Courts, a low-income housing project in LA’s Boyle Heights. In 1973 murals first appeared at both Chicano Park and Estrada Courts. Aware of each other’s barrio reputations artists found a way to connect. Montoya, who had painted Innocence (1973) and Sleeping Woman’s Dream (1974) at the projects, arrived in San Diego as an established Chicana organizer and muralist.

    She and Felíx responded to the geometry of the pillars with a three-dimensional image directing children to break repressive chains and pursue happiness by means of books and artists’ brushes, to expand consciousness through reason and imagination, and to behold the terrors and fasciations found beneath twinned Quetzalcoatl’s watchful eyes.

    Traveling back through time Montoya hopes that Felíx, now deceased, is satisfied with her efforts to be faithful to their original vision. She made changes necessitated by her lifetime of acquired technical knowledge, as well as a developed consciousness that prompted her, as one example, to add braids or “trencitas” to one of the figures in the mural so that girls would feel included.

    UCSD Professor Gail Pérez, collecting oral histories of Park muralists, recorded Montoya’s account of an interaction while working here. When one niño del barrio asked her if the UFW eagle was a gang sign, she said, “let me tell you a story about a man named César Chávez.” She stopped painting and went on to describe the farm workers’ movement to the young boy. Norma Montoya returns to LAs leaving all of us with wonderful gifts including a revitalized mural pointing to a bright future for a new generation.

    Two San Diego artists that were selected to create the art for an important development project in Shelltown will be accepting input from the community.

    Artists Ingram Ober and Marisol Rendón will be having a conversation on Sept. 13 with community stake holders to get suggestions for the public art component of the Southcrest Trails Park Development.

    After a temporary suspension of projects within the City of San Diego Public Art Program, the art project for Southcrest Trails Park has been authorized to proceed. The selected artists will hold their Treasure Hunt meeting as a component on the September Southcrest Recreation Council meeting agenda.

    At the Treasure Hunt, which will take place at 5:30 p.m. at the Southcrest Recreation Center, 4149 Newton St., San Diego, the artists wish to learn about the history and character of the neighborhood, the demographic make-up of the neighborhood, notable local folks and their personal histories, legends, folklore and anecdotes about the neighborhood, what the neighborhood is most known for, and prominent images, geography or landmarks in the neighborhood.

    If you can’t attend the meeting, the artists will be accepting input through Friday, September 16, 2011, 4:00 p.m.

    You can email comments and ideas to Nigel Brookes, Arts Management Specialist for the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture (nbrookes@sandiego.gov) and he will forward them to the artists. Please title such email suggestions “Southcrest Trails Art” in the subject line.

    San Diego’s Southcrest Trails Park is within the Chollas Creek floodplain, part of the smallest watershed in San Diego and containing the highest population density. The Park itself is located northeast of the Interstate 5 and Interstate 15 freeway junction, south of Boston Avenue and west of South 38th Street.

    As to the timeline, there is a delay in the park construction because of an environmental review regarding noise from the junction of the two nearby freeways. Construction of the park itself is anticipated to be complete in early 2014, Brookes said.

    Ober and Rendón will design, fabricate and install an artwork or artworks, responding to the unique history and context of Southcrest Trails Park in Southeastern San Diego.

    Ingram Ober was born in Santa Barbara, and grew up in Coventry, CT. He attended Eckerd College in St Petersburg, FL, where he studied Marine Biology and Visual Arts. He received his Masters of Fine Art in 2003, from Claremont Graduate University in Claremont.           

 Marisol Rendón was born in 1975 in Manizales, Colombia. She began her BA in the School of Arts at the Caldas University, where, after her graduation, she worked as a professor for four years. In 1999 she acquired the title of, Specialist in Semiotics and Hermeneutics of Art, offered by the National University of Colombia.

Baritone Gregorio Gonzalez recently sang in Vienna, Austria at Theater an der Wien.

    Palomar College Alumnus Gregorio Gonzalez, of Poway was honored at the College’s May 20 Commencement Ceremonies as 2011 Alumnus of the Year.

    Gonzalez was born and raised in Mexico, and came to California at age 16. He was a student in the music area of the Performing Arts Department, graduating in 1996. He has gone on to a successful international career in the world of classical opera.

    Gonzalez recently sang in Vienna, Austria at Theater an der Wien in the role of Di Cosimo for the European premiere of Daniel Catán’s Il Postino. His European performances also include the operas I Puritani and La Traviata at the Nederlandse Opera, and at Amsterdam’s Concert Gebouw, concert versions of Donizetti’s Poliuto and Verdi’s Othello. When the BBC produced animated film versions in Spanish and Catalan of the opera The Cunning Little Vixen by Janacek, Gonzalez sang the part of Harasta. These performances were released on DVD and televised throughout Spain.

    On the American continent Gonzalez has sung for Opera de Panamá to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Teatro Nacional.  In his native México he has sung for Opera de Tijuana and the Vive La Magia Festival in Guanajuato.

    Gonzalez has performed extensively throughout the United States. A three-season residency with Los Angeles Opera began in 2002. While there, Gonzalez created the roles of Count Obolenski and Avdeev in the world premiere of Nicholas and Alexandra, and also sang in more than a dozen productions including La Bohème, Carmen, Romeo et Juliette, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Fanciulla del West, Madama Butterfly, and Le Nozze di Figaro.  Later invitations from LA Opera led to his performance in Luisa Fernanda in 2008 and his rendition of the role of Di Cosimo in the world premiere of Il Postino in 2010. He also sang along with Plácido Domingo at Los Angeles Opera’s 20th Anniversary Gala Concert in 2006.

    Other U.S. performances include Lucia di Lammermoor at Virginia Opera and Street Scene at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. He has appeared with Connecticut Opera where he debuted as Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Des Moines Metro Opera, San Diego Opera, San Diego Comic Opera, Moonlight Amphitheatre, and at the Ojai International Festival under the direction of Maestro Kent Nagano. On the concert stage, Gonzalez has sung various repertories from Handel to Daniel Catán.

    Gonzalez has been distinguished as a finalist in competitions such as Plácido Domingo’s Operalia World Singer Competition, The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and The Francisco Viñas Competition. He won the first place award at the Gerda Lissner, Violetta Dupont, Palm Springs Opera Guild, La Jolla Symphony and Chorus Young Artists, and Virginia Hawk competitions. He has received additional awards from The Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, The Young Patronesses of the Opera Competition, The Loren L. Zachary Society, The San Diego Musical Merit Foundation, and The Leni FeBland Foundation.

MoMita is the child of a larger exhibit “Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement” presented at the MoMA

    You’ve heard of MoMA, New York’s Museum of Modern Art but you probably haven’t heard of MoMita, Casa Familiar’s newest housing project translated into an exhibition at the facility’s The Front located in San Ysidro.

    The show features two progressive architectural designs: “Living Rooms at the Border” or “El Salon” and “Senior Housing with Childcare” also called “Los Abuelitos”. Both are one of eleven projects selected Worldwide as exemplary for there social engaging designs procuring alternative housing density and affordability in undeserved communities. This project in particular also carries awards for being one of the most sustainable living proposals.

    MoMita is the child of a larger exhibit “Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement” presented at the MoMA last October through January of this year. The main exhibit included other proposed projects for places like Bangladesh, Paris, Chile, Rio de Janeiro and South Africa amongst others. The project for Casa Familiar was designed over a ten-year span by Architects David Flores and Estudio Teddy Cruz, owned and operated by Teddy Cruz, also a professor in the Visual Arts Department at UCSD.

    In talking with David Flores during a special tour, he expressed “the way we see humans isn’t only measured by the problems they bring along, we see a bigger picture. We see a person in need of the arts, education and a safe place to live.” This is exactly what they will accomplish in providing once the projects are put to ground. Flores is excited to see the construction through, during the walkthrough of the “El Salon” showcase, his eyes lit up every time he moved over from describing one of the settings to the next.

    After all, this isn’t the first time a designed project he works on for Casa Familiar gets ready to come to life. In 1998, he saw “Las Florecitas” the first first-time homeownership project realized. If all goes as envisioned “El Salon” will be just a block south of “Las Florecitas” and “Los Abuelitos” just 400 feet over.

    Each of the two complexes will have a personality of their own. “El Salon” aims to enrich families by offering a stimulating array of artistic opportunities. It will include twelve affordable housing units. The church that now sits on the property, the first to be built in San Ysidro back in 1927, will be turned into a community center where residents will have the option to create on their own or through an alliance with UCSD students and professors willing to share their insight through workshops at the center. The church’s attic will serve as Casa Familiar’s offices. A minimalist designed garden will be the connecting element between the units and the center, also serving as a community link to public events.

    “Los Abuelitos” will bring two generations together under one roof. This project is specifically for Grandparents whose grandchildren are under their full custody. “With ‘Los Abuelitos’ we keep the same idea of service integration as with ‘El Salón” explained Flores. “During community forums held at Casa Familiar, one of the most resonant needs came to light from seniors whose sons and daughters were away in prison, ill, working all the time, or gone for good leaving their children behind with the grandparents who live in studios or small one-bedroom apartments and can’t afford to rent a larger apartment to live in better conditions with the grandchild” shared Leticia Gómez who has been working at Casa Familiar for the past five years. The 13-unit project seeks to give those grandparents that opportunity, it not only offers affordable housing it also comes with a daycare facility and will be built with easy access for both senior and child.

    Solar panels make the project energy efficient which in turn also helps keep costs down. The projects are still undergoing certain city permits but should begin construction by 2012. Casa Familiar is one of the first local non-profit organizations making a strong effort to shift cultural demographics caused by immigration within many mid-city neighborhoods and whose primary goal is to aid families not simply through affordable housing but by creating social engagement within those housing projects.

    MoMita will be at Casa familiar’s The Front through July 31, 20011. If you’re interested in exploring the rest of the projects in Small Scale, Big Change they are: Primary School, Gando, Burkina Faso (Diébédo Francis Kéré, 1999–2001); Quinta Monroy Housing, Iquique, Chile (Elemental, 2003–05); Red Location Museum of Struggle, Port Elizabeth, South Africa (Noero Wolff Architects, 1998–2005); METI – Handmade School, Rudrapur, Bangladesh (Anna Heringer, 2004–06); Inner-City Arts, Los Angeles, California (Michael Maltzan Architecture, 1993–2008); Housing for the Fishermen, Tyre, Lebanon (Hashim Sarkis A.L.U.D., 1998–2008); $20K House VIII (Dave’s House), Hale County, Alabama (Rural Studio, 2009); Metro Cable, Caracas, Venezuela (Urban Think Tank, 2007–10); Manguinhos Complex, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Jorge Mario Jáuregui, 2005–10); Transformation of Tour Bois le Prêtre, Paris, France (Frédéric Druot, Anne Lacaton, and Jean Philippe Vassal, 2006–11); and Casa Familiar: Living Rooms at the Border and Senior Housing with Childcare in San Ysidro, California (Estudio Teddy Cruz, 2001–present).

Fandango veracruzano en el festival de Fandango Fronterizo.

   Invitados por Casa de Cultura Playas Cortijo San José para asistir al IV Festival de Fandango Fronterizo, nos enteramos que la nueva administración, está desarrollando un trabajo extraordinario a favor de la comunidad de esta zona tijuanense: apoyando, promoviendo, presentando proyectos, festivales, exposiciones  y múltiples actividades.

   A esta institución pueden acercarse los artistas que deseen un espacio donde presentar alguna exposición, artistas o instituciones que necesiten espacio adecuado para presentar algún festival musical o de danza, eventos sociales o alguna otra actividad, ejemplo de esto es la apertura al Campamento de Verano, al cual se le dan los últimos toques para activarlo a partir de los primeros días de junio.

   El pasado sábado 21 de mayo se desarrolló el IV Festival Fandango Fronterizo, en el que se presentó un festival de luz y color, en el se escuchó el sonido alegre y resonante de las jaranas, guitarras; arpas y demás instrumentos, fueron 8 horas de baile, alegría y zapateado de las 4:00 pm. a las 12:00 am.

   La música, lazo de unión y fraternidad, sirvió de enlace de dos culturas unidas por la amistad, sin la mínima intención de proponer una línea divisoria entre los dos países, entre las dos ciudades fronterizas Tijuana y San Diego, disfrutaron de esta propuesta musical en todo su esplendor, con la asistencia de músicos, artistas y público en general.

   En otra actividad que se desarrolló durante el transcurso de la pasada semana, se pre-sentó también el “Festival de Cultura Popular Binacional Tesoros Humanos Vivos en Baja California y California, Migración Identidad y Frontera”, festival en el cual del martes 17, al sábado 21 de mayo, se presentaron diversos eventos.

   Dentro de este marco se presentaron los días martes 17 y miércoles 18,  el programa “Cultura Vaquera en Baja California: Cabalgatas, Música, artesanías”, con el desarrollo de conferencias, presencia gastronómica, artesanías, presencia musical con minuétes, valses, polcas, corridos con diversos grupos musicales y grupos folclóricos; el jueves 19, el programa “Expresiones juveniles de frontera: Grafiti, videos y cortometrajes de cultura popular”, mesas de memoria histórica, conferencia, exposición; viernes 20, “Migrantes michoacanos en California y Baja California: Memoria histórica, identidad y cultura popular”, exposición fotográfica, exposición de dichos populares, sin faltar música y danza y el sábado 21 fecha de cierre, “Tijuarochos y veracruzanos en la frontera”; se presentaron con-ferencias, el libro “Veracruz, fiesta viva. Vol.II”, exposiciones: Fotografías de los carnavales de Veracruz, Jaranas por colectivos de Acayucan y Oaxaca en técnicas diversas, Oleo y graffiti de los artistas nahua, Miguel Sánchez Quirino y Aldo Daniel Hernández, música y danza, con la presencia de músicos populares que tocan son tradicional.

   Para información sobre las actividades de Casa de la Cultura Playas Cortijo San José, solicítela al teléfono 01152 (664) 630-1825.

Mural representativo “The Cuban Five” donado por el artista Mario Torero.

    El arte de Antonio Guerrero llegó a San Diego en forma de pintura y poesía; cada una de sus obras no son más que el reflejo del difícil recorrer de su vida y vivencias tanto en su natal país Cuba como el interminable tiempo que ha transcurrido en prisión. La organización “Free the Cuban Five” y el Centro Cultural La Raza de San Diego han hecho posible la visita de esta colección titulada “Desde mi altura”, la cual estará  en exposición del 3 al 29 de Mayo del 2011.

    Para inaugurar dicha exposición, se llevó a cabo una velada llena de solidaridad el pasado viernes 6 de Mayo en el Centro Cultural La Raza, donde acudieron compatriotas, estudiantes y público en general para apreciar las muestras pictóricas y literarias de Antonio Guerrero, así como las de otros artistas locales que se suman a la causa por medio de su arte.

    Esa noche, alrededor de 80 personas disfrutaron de la poesía de Jim Moreno, Sylvia Telafaro y Muriel Sobelman-Jencks; la música de la mexicana Tema Quiñonez y mensajes de solidaridad por parte de la encargada del comité de los cinco cubanos Gloria La Riva; por supuesto, sin dejar atrás la comida y el ritmo de la música cubana de fondo poniendo el ambiente, todo esto con el fin de obtener un mayor número de simpatizantes que conozcan la causa y se sumen a la intensa lucha por la liberación de los cinco.

    El artista Antonio Guerrero, junto con Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino y René González forman parte del grupo denominado “Free the Cuban Five” (Liberen a los cinco cubanos). Cinco hombres de nacionalidad cubana residentes de Miami, culpados por el gobierno de los Estados Unidos a cadena perpetua desde el año 2001 tras haber sido capturados en 1998 por supuesta conspiración de ataques terroristas al país americano. Por ello, Gloria La Riva —Presidenta del comité para la liberación de los cinco—  se ha hecho cargo de tomar acciones  en el caso de estos héroes nacionales para promover su liberación.

    Con un extraordinario manejo de las diversas técnicas de pintura —lápiz, pasteles, oleo, carbón, acrílico y acuarela— este héroe nacional ha sabido transformar los sentimientos negativos experimentados en prisión tales como la tensión y la violencia, hasta convertirlos en bellas piezas de arte y así poder comunicarle al mundo parte de su experiencia  tras las rejas. A pesar de haber muchas interrogantes sobre su condena en la cárcel, Antonio decide tomarlo a bien y poder trascender en diversos ámbitos como él mismo lo llama “desde su altura”.

   Sin algún conocimiento previo sobre dibujo y pintura, Guerrero decide buscar una alternativa de distracción dentro del reclusorio de Florence, Colorado para poder hacer más ligera la espera. Es ahí donde conoce a su profesor de pintura Andre, un preso de raza afroamericana que le enseña las diversas técnicas y con quien comparte una gran amistad; más tarde ambos reos comparten la misma celda, hecho histórico jamás permitido dentro de prisión, pues según las reglas internas prohíben mantener reclusos de diferentes razas en la misma celda.

   Dentro de la colección del cubano avecindado en Miami, abunda una conexión muy intensa con sus raíces –personajes históricos, paisajes de la isla— y una sencillez de cada detalle que a su vez son el elemento que proporciona el esplendor en cada uno de los lienzos que suman un total de 100 trabajos. Entre ellos destaca una serie inspirada en las aves de su país, representando cada una de las especies existentes en Cuba basada en estampas; paisajes como “La Habana de su infancia”, “Camino a Santiago”, “Surfero y Ola” y el morro; además de personajes emblemáticos como el Che Guevara o el propio Fidel. Entre lo más destacado se encuentra una serie de retratos a lápiz de cada una de las madres de los cinco reos.

   La Obra de Antonio Guerrero estará expuesta hasta el próximo 29 de mayo en el Centro Cultural La Raza, acompañado de algunas obras de otros artistas que apoyan la causa como Mario Torero y Christopher Oleata. Los donativos recaudados serán utilizados para continuar con la gira de esta  colección por diferentes estados del país, y a través de ella dar a conocer el caso para conseguir el apoyo de más hispanos ante el gobierno estadounidense y lograr que el Presidente Barack Obama tome cartas en el asunto.

Imogen Cunningham --Frida Kahlo - 1931

    Art Expressions Gallery of San Diego is presenting an exhibition of portraits, botanicals, and nudes by Imogen Cunningham, one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century, now through June 11.

    The works in the exhibition span her 70-year career. They range from a soft-focus almost nude self-portrait photographed in a secluded part of the University of Washington campus in 1906 to abstract photographs taken in the 1970s.

    The exhibition includes Cunningham’s portraits of some of the most renowned artists of her time, including painter Frida Kahlo, dancer Martha Graham and photographers Dorothea Lange, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Weston. 

    Cunningham was a founding member of Group f/64, a society of prominent West Coast photographers that included Ansel Adams and Weston. The society was devoted to furthering the art form through the unique qualities of the medium.

    Unlike Adams and other members of the Western School of Photography who emphasized nature on a grand scale, Cunningham created intimate compositions that call attention to the abstract qualities of nature.  She is famous for her exquisitely detailed, sensuous photographs of botanicals that expose her subject’s inner structure. 

    A stridently independent woman, Cunningham avoided all stereotypes, refusing to be pigeonholed as a feminist, although she supported women’s rights. In 1913 at age 30, she published Photography as a Profession for Women, an article urging women to take up careers in the profession, not to outdo men, but to try to do something for themselves.

    Now through May 22, the Oceanside Museum of Art is presenting Botanicals: The Photography of Imogen Cunningham, which was sponsored in part by Art Expressions Gallery.

Serpientes y escaleras, juego infantil que dirigió el “Payaso Mufote”.

   El pasado lunes 21 de marzo oficialmente entró la primavera en nuestro hemisferio, además se celebró en México el nacimiento del Benemérito de las Américas Lic. Don Benito Juárez García y, en el marco de estas celebraciones se realizaron múltiples actividades culturales, artísticas y patrióticas.

   Por ejemplo, en Uxmal,  Tajín, en Teotijuacan, miles de conciudadanos se reunieron en los centros ceremoniales de nuestros ancestros, para renovar y recargarse de energías.

   En Tijuana, el Centro Cultural Tijuana se sumó a estas celebraciones, uniéndose a las inquietudes de la población realizando una extraordinaria Verbena Cultural.

   Esta verbena se realizó en los diversos espacios con los que cuenta la institución, dirigiendo sus actividades a toda clase de público, dentro de los que pudimos apreciar: cine infantil, exposiciones, talleres, música y danza.

   En este año considerando una iniciativa del Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA), circularizó a nivel nacional sumando todas las sedes de la institución, vinculando la producción artística con toda la población, la cual participó con entusiasmo.

   Las actividades iniciaron al medio día con un espectáculo de narración oral a cargo de Francisca Soto, en el que hizo uso de títeres. Alternativamente, en la Sala de Usos Múltiples, el grupo Péndulo Cero, con un ensayo a puerta abierta, presentando la obra con la que participará en la XIII Muestra Internacional de Danza Cuerpos en Tránsito Tijuana 2011, en mayo próximo.

   Continuó el juego “Serpientes y escaleras” en el Vestíbulo del Edificio Central, espectáculo que dirigió el “Payaso Mufote”, asimismo en la Sala de Video de la Cineteca Nacional, se proyectaron las cintas: “Toy Story 3”, y “Fábulas de Disney No. 1”.

   En esta verbena también participó el Ballet Folclórico Ticuán y finalmente se presentó el Grupo Datz Jazz, el que deleitó a la concurrencia con sus estupendas interpretaciones.

   En este evento se incluyó una visita gratuita a la exposición “Obra Negra. Una aproximación a la construcción de la cultura visual de Tijuana”, la que se exhibe en las tres salas de El Cubo, asimismo se sumaron recorridos teatralizados al Museo de las Californias y la asistencia a talleres de artes plásticas para niños, así como 50% de descuento para ver las películas en cartelera de la Cineteca Tijuana Domo IMAX.         

   El Centro Cultural Tijuana lo invita a la inauguración de la exposición Arte en Contacto, el próximo viernes 25 de marzo, en el Vestíbulo del Museo de las Californias, a las 7:00 pm..

   Arte en contacto es un proyecto dedicado a las personas invidentes y de debilidad visual, con el fin de acercarlos al mundo del arte mediante interacciones volumétricas /táctiles de 8 obras emblemáticas del arte universal, donde se aprecian manifestaciones pictóricas de la época medieval hasta principios del siglo XX. Las obras seleccionadas incluyen autores como: Leonardo Da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso y Salvador Dalí, acompañadas de notas biográficas y otros textos en sistema Braille.

   La Opera de Tijuana, está circulando una cordial invitación al culto público amante de la ópera, a que asista a la gran Gala de Opera, que se realizará el próximo jueves 7 de abril a las 8:00 pm., en la Sala de Espectáculos del Centro Cultural Tijuana.