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westernartgirlJosefina Quezada: A Lifetime of Fighting for Public Art
A Mexican artist who was responsible for starting the drive to restore David Alfaro Siqueiros’ downtown Los Angeles mural América Tropical was honored Monday, June 11, in perhaps the best way possible: with the start of conservation work on one of her own murals. Josefina Quezada died about three weeks ago in Mexico, but she … Read more
As American as July 4th — on May 5th
It’s true that Cinco de Mayo is more popular and more celebrated in California than in Mexico, where the Battle of Puebla that it commemorates actually took place. But contrary to popular belief, that is not because of U.S. Latinos’ flimsy grasp of history, says David Hayes-Bautista. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Hayes-Bautista, an … Read more
Tere Romo and a Seven-Year Quest for Art Along the Hyphen
Updated Jan. 10, 2012 — As much as Domingo Ulloa’s painting Braceros has become a symbol and one of the most admired works in the Autry’s current exhibition Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican-American Generation, there was a time when its very existence was little more than a theory. The large canvas, which depicts a … Read more
Roberto Chavez Maintains His Sense of Humor
Probably my favorite artist in the Autry’s show Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican-American Generation (part of the mammoth Getty initiative Pacific Standard Time) is Roberto Chavez. The six artists show a range of styles from frankly abstract to realist to surrealist. Chavez, 79, falls largely in the representational, figurative category, though there is much … Read more
An Interview with Louie Perez of Los Lobos: Evangeline’s Long Road
Louie Perez gets a little flummoxed when he reflects on his partnership with fellow Los Lobos bandmate David Hidalgo. “I’ve been writing songs with David and the band for forty years!” he said. “That’s kind of scary.” Perez chatted with me ahead of the Autry’s presentation this week of Evangeline, The Queen of Make-Believe, an … Read more
Dora De Larios: Sculpting a Mexican-American Identity
Most days, you can find Dora De Larios at her happiest in her Venice studio, surrounded by vases, plates, plaques, sculptures and even giant totems, all of her own making, in various states of completion, and made from stoneware and a variety of other materials. De Larios, one of the six artists featured in the … Read more
George Sanchez: Disentangling Mexican-American Identity
George Sanchez believes those who try to “protect” their culture from “attack” or “invasion” — as immigration restrictionists do today and as Chicano Power warriors tried to do in the sixties and seventies — are like a thirsty man trying to catch water with a sieve. In other words, they fight a losing battle. Sanchez, … Read more
A Latina Writer With Something to Say About Immigration — and Motherhood
Recently I asked the writer Melinda Palacio whether Latino writers still have something to say in 2011. The question is somewhat rhetorical, but she knew what I was referring to: through the 1980s and 1990s, it seemed like every new literary star was a Latino, and readers clamored for any novel with a slightly exotic … Read more
Reyna Grande — Mexican Past, American Present
Updated May 11 — Author Reyna Grande looks off into the middle distance while she thinks about an interviewer’s question. She is mentally traveling in familiar but painful territory, and she seems to want to make sure she picks the correct words. She is in no hurry to answer. Grande, who was at the Autry … Read more
Siqueiros Exhibition Closes, but Leaves Its Own Legacy in Music and Poetry
There was poetry and music in the galleries, to add to the art on the walls, at the Autry when Siqueiros in Los Angeles: Censorship Defied closed on Sunday. As a special swan song of the exhibition, actresses Yareli Arizmendi and Rose Portillo performed a dramatic reading, simultaneously in Spanish and English, of Rey David … Read more
