Latino Perspectives Magazine » Features

The cerveza report

Ruben Hernandez — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:40:50 +0000

In the Southwest, the month of May heralds the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo – or, as it has come to be known among U.S. beer lovers, “Cinco de Drinko.”

Beer aficionados in festival crowds and in noisy cantinas will be guzzling popular cerveza brands. But, the true beer connoisseur doesn’t need a holiday as an excuse to sip a cold brew.

A true beer connoisseur has a year-round, life-long affair with the frothy elixir that is the alcoholic lubricant to get feet dancing, throats singing and the party rolling.

Cerveza and tequila go mano a mano for the title of the national drink of Mexico (although some historians contend that pulque deserves that title); both have evolved from humble homemade beginnings to be the country’s largest domestic and export products. Some brewers have even tried mixing the two in certain brands. However, according to the Beverage Media Group, there are more beer consumers than tequila and wine drinkers in Mexico and the United States.

A primer of beer’s evolution in the country south of the border is as colorful and boisterous as Mexico’s history. So this month, Latino Perspectives tips its bottle in salute to this fascinating tale of the ale.

Cerveza derives from the Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the scientific name of the ale yeast

Fermented drinks similar to beer in Mexico date back centuries to ancient Mesoamerican cultures, according to the book, La Cerveza en México, published by Cervecería Cuauhtémoc. Long before Hernán Cortés and his soldiers crashed the Aztec party, imbibing native tribes were micro-brewing their own. Pulque, from the fermented sap of the maguey plant, was the pre-Colombian drink of choice. Tesgüino, made from fermented maize, created a low-alcohol, amber liquid that gave a light buzz. It canbe found in Mexico today among the Tarahumara in Chihuahua, who still drink it from a gourd, and in Sonora and Colima. Another ancient beverage, pozol, is produced in Oaxaca, Chiapas and Tabasco with corn and cacao beans.

After the Conquest, Spaniards introduced European-style beer brewed with barley, which most beer fans in Mexico and the United States have since come to know and love. However, the brewery industry in Mexico took off with the arrival of German immigrants in the 19^th century. By 1918, there were 36 brewing companies quenching the thirst of Mexicans.

By 1925, cerveza had displaced pulque as the alcoholic drink of choice for Mexicans. European immigrant beer-brewers campaigned against native drinks by claiming they were produced by unsanitary methods, including the use of feces as fermenting material, and promoted beer as “rigorously hygienic and modern.” This negative campaigning effectively ended pulque’s popularity.

Throughout the 20^th century, consolidation eliminated the multiple competing breweries until only two survived: Grupo Modelo and FEMSA (Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V.). These two conglomerates control 90 percent of the Mexican beer market. Today, beer is a big export, with most ending up in the nearby U.S., which ranks 12^th in the world for beer consumption per capita. In addition, Mexican beer is sold in more than 150 other countries.

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Landfill Harmonic

Ruben Hernandez — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 17:15:54 +0000

The lilting, graceful notes of Mozart’s “A Little Night Music” emanate from a violin made from a battered aluminum salad bowl with dinner-fork tuning pegs for strings. Tania Vera is the 15-year-old violinist. She, her mother and sisters live in a wooden shack surrounded by a contaminated stream in Cateura, a shantytown atop one of Paraguay’s largest landfills.

Tania and 19 other children in the orchestra, named La Orquesta de Instrumentos reciclados de Cateura (“The Cateura Orchestra of Recycled Instruments”), perform classical music by Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, as well as pop by the Beatles, Henry Mancini and even Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” About 120 children have gone through this music training program, and currently 50 students are taking lessons.

Most of these young musicians are sons and daughters of parents so poor they must settle on the trash hills near Paraguay’s capital city of Asunción and pick through society’s cast-offs to eke out a living. In effect, these families are throwaway people that have found a useful, needed niche – they recycle the tons of garbage that the nearby metropolis sends to them daily.

One man, Flavio Chavez, an environment engineer and music teacher who started the orchestra, has created a remarkable story of hope amid squalor, beauty amid trash, and has discovered innovative ways to address the major global themes of our time – poverty and garbage management. What he has accomplished in Cateura offers creative ways to promote “green” ideas while encouraging young people born in poverty to improve their lives.

One of the handiest shantytown dwellers, Nicolas Gomez, a former carpenter known as “Cola,” has re-purposed dump trash into instruments that have thrilled audiences. Cast-off X-ray film becomes drum skin. Metal cans become the body of a classical guitar. A tall barrel transforms into a double bass violin. A tin can forms the body of a cello. Tito Romero, the other luthier of the orchestra, makes the wind instruments such as saxophones, made of water pipes, metal bottle caps, plastic bottoms, metal spoons and fork candles. Their instruments are rasquache, a term coined by Chicano artists that means high quality aesthetic expressions from recycled discards.

All these young musicians make impeccable sounds with their instruments and, thanks to a trio of filmmakers from the Valley, their inspiring story is setting the music world abuzz.

The fame of this unusual music group has spread to other developing countries and to the United States on account of the Landfill Harmonic documentary, and the passionate, talented filmmakers behind it.

In April, the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in Phoenix plans to host a permanent exhibit of the recycled instruments.

A documentary is born

The genesis of the Landfill Harmonic film occurred when Phoenix filmmaker Alejandra Amarilla Nash (founder and executive producer) contacted Juliana Penaranda-Loftus (producer) to work on a documentary about the underserved children of Paraguay. Together, they started an extensive research process in 2009, during which they traveled to Paraguay to interview different leads, among them: the Minister of Education of Paraguay, community leaders, school principals and children from low-income families.

Through their research, Alejandra and Juliana discovered the Recycled Orchestra. In 2010, they returned to Paraguay to do some initial filming. Since then, the production team has developed strong connections with the orchestra and the community and continue to follow the story to the present.

Turn off the Sun

latinopm — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 17:06:00 +0000

By Julio César Morales

Francis Alÿs. Cuando la fe mueve montañas (When Faith Moves Mountains), Lima, Peru, April 11 th, 2002, multi-media installation. Courtesy of the artist and La Colección Jumex, México

In 2002, I took a group of graduate students from the California College of Arts and Crafts in San Francisco to Mexico City, where I was teaching at the time. The class, titled “Multiplicity,” focused on the issues and history of contemporary Latino art and Latin American-based movements. For one week, we did studio visits with artists and curators, as well as viewing current exhibitions in galleries and museums in Mexico City. We visited Museo Rufino Tamayo, the Modern Art Museum, Museo de la Cuidad and some galleries not then known, such as Kurimanzutto. After a studio visit with visual artist Miguel Caldéron, he mentioned that we should visit this new space called Colección Jumex; it was on the way to the Teotihuacán pyramids anyway.

We made an appointment (as it is a boutique museum) and visited the “fresa” Colección Jumex. The first thing that hit me when we arrived at the location was the smell of mango, tamarindo and guava, then a mix of jalapeños with spicy picked mystery veggies. It was as if I had walked into a story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez or the Food Network’s Iron Chef competition, where the secret ingredient was habañero peppers. La Colección Jumex is located inside the industrial plant that produces jugos Jumex and canned spicy products from La Costeña, both intertwining family fortunes. If you are unfamiliar with Jumex, just visit your neighborhood Safeway or Fry’s and you will spot the juices at the end of the American colas and Arizona ice teas; they are the Minute Maid of Latin America.

What is the connection between fruit juice and art? The answer is Eugenio López Alonso, heir to the Jumex fortune, who started to collect art in the early 1990s, following a private passion. López decided to make this passion public in the spring of 2001 and opened the space he created inside the juice factory. The museum has existed for more than 11 years now, and the collection showcases over 2,700 artworks representing the production of more than 700 different artists. The oldest piece in the collection is a painting by Alfred Leslie dated 1953; most of the artworks in the collection were produced after 1995.

Today Fundación/Colección Jumex is the largest and most important contemporary art collection in Latin America, a spectacular collection of renowned and established contemporary artists from Mexico, Latin America, the United States and Europe ranging from Gabriel Orozco to Andy Warhol. Perhaps even more important than the collection, Fundación/Colección Jumex supports the development of contemporary art in Mexico, spending more than $1 million annually in support of art and educational projects.

The exhibition, Turn Off the Sun: Selections from la Colección Jumex, which opened March 9 at the Arizona State University Art Museum, presents 36 major pieces and installations by artists rarely or never seen in Arizona, exploring diverse media and practice. The works were selected by the curators of the show, myself, Heather Sealy Lineberry (ASU Art Museum Senior Curator and Associate Director) and Michel Blancsubé of Jumex, to reflect the complex relationship between our state and Mexico, with broad references to borders, labor, movement and site.

The earliest work in the exhibition, and very much related to the theme of site, is Upside Down Tree (1969), by American artist Robert Smithson, who traveled throughout Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and documented the landscape using 35 mm transparency film. Smithson temporarily placed square mirrors into the ground, grass, stones and branches, and named these interventions “mirror displacements,” visually shortening the distance between earth and sky, and developing a new kind of horizon line made by the artist. Another work, made in the same year just months apart from Upside Down Tree, is Dan Graham’s From Sunset to Sunrise, a spectacular installation of 160 photographs shot from the United States looking directly into Canada mounted in a single line measuring 82 feet.

Another work related to site and labor is Santiago Sierra’s 2002 3000 huecos (3000 holes), which explores what Sierra calls “non-places” – phantasmagoric locations where hope and deception collide. Conceived in Spain, this project looks at the rise in immigration, both legal and illegal, from Africa to Spain. The 3,000 hand-dug huecos (holes) also became a temporary monument to the deaths of people searching for a better way of life. In Cádiz, Spain, on a lot facing the coast of Morocco, Sierra hired workers to dig 3,000 holes in the soil (each measuring 180 x 50 x 50 cm). The work was performed by a group of African day laborers, most of them Senegalese, the minority Moroccans and a Spanish foreman. They worked with shovels for a month, receiving a salary equivalent to the one stipulated by the Spanish administration for workers – 54 euros for eight hours. From an aerial view, the work reads disturbingly like a graveyard. Every day, African workers like these risk death and board small boats to cross the Strait of Gibraltar to Europe in search of work and better living conditions; their corpses are often expelled by the sea onto the southern coast of Spain. Here, Sierra reveals the laborers’ disconnection from the work they do and from the product that is its ultimate result and uncovers the conditions of marginality promoted by an exploitative system of which everyone is a part – including the artist. The large-scale triptych photographs in the exhibition have an uncanny effect that mirrors that of the current social climate of SB1070 in Arizona, as African participants in Sierra’s project experience ongoing racial profiling against them as immigrants in Spain.

An obvious link between the Sierra piece and another work by Francis Alÿs completed in the same year, When Faith Moves Mountains (Cuando la fe mueve montañas; 2002), is a shovel, which appears in both pieces. As a European living in Mexico City, Alÿs assumes the role of a foreigner and an urban dweller. This role, along with a post-surrealist ability to see the beauty in the everyday, fuels his creativity. Trained as an engineer and architect, he produces paintings, sculptures, works on paper and video, but his primary medium is a form of performance art, a kind of acted-out metaphor produced by a body or bodies in motion, often his own. He enacts “walks,” or paseos, in which he takes long strolls through city streets. He has pushed a block of ice through the streets of Mexico City until it melted away to nothing, trailed a line of green paint from a leaking can through divided Jerusalem, and chased tornados while filming his attempts to run directly into the eye of the storm. In When Faith Moves Mountains, a group of 500 volunteers armed with shovels formed a line at the end of a 1,600-foot sand dune in a desolate landscape just outside Lima, Peru. Together, one shovel-full at a time, they moved the entire geographical location of the dune by a few centimeters. Though the physical displacement was short, this collective act is a powerful allegory, a metaphor for human will that has the potential for contemporary myth-making.

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Leading the way

latinopm — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:30:15 +0000

In commemoration of Women’s History Month, LPM and the Raul H. Castro Institute at Phoenix College will celebrate the life and dedication of four remarkable Arizonans. Join us for a community celebration in their honor on March 27, 2013, from 5:30 – 8:00pm, at Phoenix Art Museum. Free admission.

By Joan Westlake

Throughout Arizona history, when people ventured out to pursue dreams of a better life, there have been legendary Latinas leading the way. The spirits of these women shine brightly, serving as beacons of courage, hope and determination for countless generations. Drawing on their heritage of hard work, caring and generosity, they followed familia-instilled values to help others. Motivated by selfless dedication, they struggled on the paths of service to the community to achieve equality, justice, education, prosperity and all that creates a quality life.

The four Trailblazers that Latino Perspectives Magazine and Phoenix College’s Raul H. Castro Institute honor in 2013 are accomplished in many areas, always driven by strong commitments to their families and neighbors. Each has taken up the torch seeking fairness and opportunity. They often tread a rocky road toward basic human rights, some by taking their fights to a political arena, others in service organizations.

Narcisa Monreal Espinoza

What extinguishes the spirit of some, only makes others burn more brightly. Discrimination made Narcisa Margarita Monreal determined to achieve and to choose a career that lights the path of equality across the entire nation. Starting with being renamed by teachers because they said “Narcisa” was not English enough in elementary school, she surmounted prejudices against being female and Hispanic all the way to becoming director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Phoenix and being recruited by the Housing Department of Health and Human Services in Baltimore.

She was born with her twin sister on February 28, 1923, in Winkleman, Arizona, near the mining town of Mammoth where her father Vincente Monreal toiled. In the early 1930s, the family moved to Coolidge where her father worked on ranches. She remembers a life rich with family and friends.

Narcisa experienced the time of segregation when kids were separated into Mexican and Anglo schools. The teachers said “Narcisa” was not an English name, so they changed it to Narcissus, like the flower. It wasn’t until high school that she was able to insist she be addressed by her real name.

Narcisa asserts that the discrimination she encountered made her angry and highly determined to succeed. In the second grade, she was bumped up a grade and eventually was the Coolidge High School valedictorian, both feats unheard of for young Latinas at that time and place.

She met her husband, Jesus Baca Espinoza, in high school. In 1942, before they married, she came to Phoenix, signed up for the Civil Service and got a job at Williams Air Force Base. This position kicked off what became a 30-year career of increasingly prestigious federal positions.

Narcisa and her husband lived in Eloy, near Coolidge, and had a son and two daughters. She continued to work while raising her family and, in 1959, she transferred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the Salt River Pima Reservation, where she worked until 1968. Realizing that more education meant promotions, she enrolled at Arizona State University in 1963. She received her bachelor’s degree in social work in 1967 while she was working, raising two children and expecting her third. She went back to earn a master’s in 1972.

It was in 1960 that Narcisa became involved in establishing the Tempe Council of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). She began as Arizona’s LULAC secretary in 1966; she was state director in 1967; and, in 1968, became the National LULAC vice president. While working in Baltimore in 1982, she became president and founder of a LULAC council there.

Because she had acquired knowledge from studying discrimination cases during the 1960s, Narcisa was asked to go to California with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) in 1967. A Phoenix EEOC was opened in 1970 and Narcisa returned here with the title of acting director. Being one of the first Latinas to head a federal commission was a bonfire of accomplishment. In her position, she went to influential men, major companies and national organizations to point out violations, diplomatically but forcefully.

At the end of the 1970s, she was offered a promotion in the Housing Department of Health and Human Services in Baltimore. With her husband holding down the fort in Arizona, she and her youngest daughter lived on the East Coast until 1983.

She “retired” and became an award-winning realtor and remained active in Tempe, especially at the Historical Museum. She founded one of the city’s most popular festivals, the Tempe Tardeada. It began when descendants of the town’s original settlers wanted people to know that Tempe was founded by San Pablo and that there were Hispanic families living in what we now know as Tempe. Each year the event spreads pride among Latinos and educates those unaware of local history.

At 90 years young, Narcisa is still involved in Tempe affairs, but is happy to let the next generation keep fighting the battles. She has been researching her family history so that generations to come can follow the Monreal Espinoza legacy of determination and achievement.

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Girl power

LPM Staff — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:23:46 +0000

Photos by Steve Craft and Jared Austin

This past fall, the lives of 23 teenage girls forever changed. High school students in Jessica Horton’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) class at the Girls Leadership Academy of Arizona (GLAAZ) were selected from a nationwide pool of candidates to receive the 2013 Lemelson-MIT Program InvenTeam grant. This money enables them to develop the prototype for a unique drowning prevention device – the “WataWescue.”

Competition was keen among applicants, but the GLAAZ InvenTeam’s proposal for an inflatable water-safety shirt, the “WataWescue,” surfaced as one with considerable inventive potential. The team received $7,500 to create, test and perfect their invention throughout the spring. Then, ten of the GLAAZ students – the core development team – will travel to the 2013 EurekaFest, which is held at MIT, to showcase their working prototype to other high school teams, college students and professors representing various universities from around the nation.

The prototype continues to evolve through testing, but includes a lightweight T-shirt for toddlers that automatically inflates if the child falls in the water. It also has an alarm to alert parents. The students are separated into various teams to finalize each of the prototype’s components including Alarm Research, Garment Construction, Inner Tube Design, Logo Design, Communications and Public Relations, Trigger and Mechanics and Finances. Science, engineering, health and other professionals within the Phoenix community are advising the students and facilitating the testing of the final prototype.

The InvenTeam project is just one example of how GLAAZ’s academic mission connects the work of the school to community life. Drowning prevention in Phoenix is significant to the students, some of whose families have been impacted by near-drownings. Most of the GLAAZ InvenTeam students have never traveled on a plane, out of state, or even as far away as Flagstaff, so, being part of this opportunity will truly be life changing. The school’s mission affords all students additional opportunities to participate in academic experiences that otherwise would be cost prohibitive, including free college courses beginning freshman year.

While the grant paid accommodation costs for six girls to attend the 2013 EurekaFest, GLAAZ’s InvenTeam raised the money for transportation to and from Boston, as well as lodging, for four additional girls (the maximum number of team members allowed). The school is grateful for an anonymous donor whose generous contribution will open minds and continue to create future opportunities for each young woman.

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Latinos at the Oscars

latinopm — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:15:49 +0000

By Guillermo Reyes

“Latinos sweep the Oscars!” Now there’s a headline that allows film fans to inhabit an alternate universe. The Academy Awards has featured a few of these rare sightings – Latinos – exotic beings who occasionally manage to get nominated or even win now and then. But, we all know that most of the time this headline could be followed by a cruel joke about maintenance practices at the Academy. A series of articles in the L.A. Times in 2012 revealed that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is no more diverse than, say, the United States Senate, which is largely represented by white, male legislators over the age of 60. Only one woman has ever won for Best Director, and no U.S. Latino has ever been nominated in that category.

The Academy is an institution of privilege. In order to join, artists need to be invited on the basis of significant achievements in the industry. But there’s the catch – since Hollywood rarely finances the making of films with important roles for Latino actors or rarely hires a Latino director to begin with, the chances of developing a prestigious career are minimal. For all this, the list of Latinos who have featured prominently at the Academy Awards isn’t long but it’s a form of counter-narrative: people who have swam upstream and somehow survived to belong to an exclusive list.

I have taught a class on the Oscars for two years at Arizona State University and I start with a caveat: the Oscars represent a public relations hustle of the film industry and, ultimately, the main story boils down to an elite within an elite of accomplished Hollywood insiders that vote themselves the awards. I’m too jaded to think there’s anything particularly wrong with this. The alternative is to have only critics vote for awards, and they’re an even more exclusive club of carping, sniveling cognoscenti, and People’s Choice Awards? Puh-lease! The average filmgoer, for instance, can’t handle subtitles; for those of us with Latino backgrounds, we know what type of ethnocentricity that represents among the American public. The Academy is what Winston Churchill said about democracy – it’s the worst system, except for all the others. Nonetheless, for those of us who can withstand a bit of glamour and take it straight, there’s great satisfaction in discussing the best films of the year, rating them, and second guessing the winners and the nominees.

Here’s a list of Latinos at the Oscars, culminating in a little surprise for those of who didn’t know to what extent the Oscar statuette itself is Latino. Along the way, I also bring up the issue of how difficult it is at times to define “Latino.” Are the Spaniards included? That’ll be my first question, not to be easily resolved within this article because Latino identity itself appears to be a work in progress in this country. Many of you will have your own choices and issues. Let the second guessing begin!

#12 The Spaniards/los españoles

We may have declared independence more than 200 years ago, but the Spaniards stand in for some of our genes and some of our issues about what it means to be Latino in the United States today. When Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem get nominated or win Oscars, we celebrate for them, but we know that they are not actual Latinos. Does the rest of the country know the difference? Ellen DeGeneres, as the host for the Oscars in 2007, celebrated Penelope Cruz as an example of a Mexican artist, and then had to come back after a break and promptly apologize. Penelope is, in fact, Spanish. She won for best supporting actress in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), and Javier Bardem took home the supporting actor prize for playing a vicious, un-charming killer in the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men (2007). Colonialism remains a relevant topic, and the frequent confusion of Spaniards for Latinos might be an important subject of discussion – but we may still celebrate the achievements of these artists without blaming them for the dissonance of this historic mix-up.

#11 The Oscar factory at the R & S Owens Company in Chicago

Mr. Anacleto Medina has been sculpting, casting and polishing the Oscar into shape for more than 40 years. (Several YouTube entries show Mr. Medina at work, e.g., youtube.com/watch?v=p9LvVPkmHtE.) The dedicated workers at R & S Owens, who hail from a variety of backgrounds, are eligible every year for a free trip to the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, according to Noreen Prohaska, the sales manager for the company. The workers alternate in terms of seniority, she explains. This special invite allows the actual Oscar makers to participate in the show itself.

#10 Brokeback Mountain

Bring up Brokeback Mountain at your next Oscar gathering and people might blurt out “gay cowboys!” How about you tell them Basque gay cowboys? Heath Ledger plays the sexually conflicted Ennis del Mar. The character not only suffers from sexual repression of his gay identity, but from ethnic dysmorphic ambiguity as well. The film presents Randy Quaid as Aguirre, the homophobic boss, but only his name suggests a background and a history. Aguirre is a Basque name. Is Ennis del Mar a Basque gay cowboy? Are Basques Latinos? The presence of Basque immigrants in the Wyoming setting opens up the dialogue about suppressed identities: this year it’s called the “Argo syndrome” (see entry #6). The Oscar in 2005 went to Ang Lee for directing this groundbreaking gay Basque-American cowboy romance, and to Argentinian composer, Gustavo Santaolalla, for his score.

#9 Best Actor nominees

Edward James Olmos, Demian Bichir and Javier Bardem. The list of winners and nominees in the supporting actor/actress categories may have a greater abundance of Latino names, but Latino actors competing in the top category is a rare feat that can still be counted with less than one hand. Olmos played the embattled Bolivian-American teacher, Jaime Escalante, who struggles to educate underprivileged students in L.A.’s Garfield High School in Stand up and Deliver (1988), and Demian Bichir plays an undocumented worker attempting to earn a living and give his son, as the title implies, A Better Life (2011; a loose adaptation of the Italian classic, The Bicycle Thief). Javier Bardem rounds out the list; he has been nominated twice, in 2000 for Before Night Falls, and in 2010 for Biutiful.

#8 Salma Hayek plays Frida

Virtually alone in the Best Actress category as one of two Latinas to have been nominated for Best Actress (again, I’ll leave aside the Penelope Cruz nominations as a Spanish phenomenon which we celebrate separately), Salma Hayek brought to life the monumental epic life of the great Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo, in the film, Frida (2002). Critics in Mexico criticized the film for its “lack of authenticity.” But how many Latina actresses have managed to bring their talents to a mainstream audience with this degree of success? Brazilian actress, Fernanda Montenegro, was also nominated as Best Actress in the Brazilian-French film, Central Station (1998), completing the slim list of Best Actress nominees.

#7 Los directores

U.S. Latino directors have not been nominated for the Oscar at all. We leave this type of achievement to foreign-born directors such as the Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu for Babel (2006) and Argentinian-born Brazilian Hector Babenco for Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985). Then there’s Pedro Almodóvar, one more entry into the Spaniards-as-Latino debate, whose films have been nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category several times and won for All About My Mother (1999). Almodóvar achieved the even more difficult feat of winning Best Screenplay for Talk to Her in 2002, the first time a foreign language film had won in that category. But, then again, that year also included Y Tu Mamá También, nominated in the same category for the humorous, nimble screenplay by the Cuaron brothers, Carlos and Alfonso. Up until then, only English language screenplays had won. In 2007, director/screenwriter Guillermo del Toro was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Pan’s Labyrinth. Del Toro is a Mexican citizen who lives in California and considers himself an “involuntary exile” from Mexico because kidnapping attempts on his father led him to resettle. The lack of opportunities for American-born Latinos in directing becomes especially urgent as directors usually make the crucial choices that affect the fortunes of all Latino talent, which is made worse by the phenomenon described next.

#6 The Argo syndrome

Ben Affleck plays a Latino in Argo, and he’ll likely be a strong nominee this year for his accomplishments, at least as a director. What are we to do? Blame the artist for casting himself as the Latino CIA operative Tony Mendez? Unfairly target Affleck’s achievements because financial decisions call for “name” actors such as Affleck? The syndrome repeats itself from year to year. Take the example of Jennifer Connelly winning the Best Supporting Actress award in 2001 for her role of Alicia Nash, the wife of mathematician John Nash. The actual Alicia Nash was a Salvadoran immigrant. In the film, A Beautiful Mind, directed by Ron Howard, she’s represented by the American model/actress who speaks without a hint of an accent and makes no reference to her background whatsoever. This woman’s ethnicity and nationality are entirely erased. The net result is a form of American blindness towards the Latino presence in the United States. This year we also saw the curious phenomenon of a Spanish-financed film, The Impossible, in which the Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona films the story of a Spanish family struggling to survive in the tragic tsunami of 2004. The couple is cast with Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor and any references to “home” are completely deleted. This family has no apparent background and no nationality, and the accents of the actors suggest a vague Australian/British mishmash. Spaniards – who are Europeans after all – are apparently still too foreign, or too ethnic, for American white audiences, and even Spanish financiers seem to think this is a fair business decision. Here’s where the colonialist argument becomes urgent: the Spaniards don’t seem to understand that their casting decisions become especially destructive for Latino talent in the United States.

#5 Winner: Benicio del Toro

The casting of the Puerto Rican actor to play a Mexican cop in Traffic also came under attack given the lack of opportunities for Mexican or Mexican American actors. This is the problem with “the syndrome” (see above), as Latinos of different backgrounds end up battling among themselves for the few opportunities available in the industry. Del Toro took the Best Supporting Actor prize home, while Steven Soderbergh also won for Best Director that year.

#4 Anthony Quinn

A two-time winner, Quinn was a bicultural, binational Mexican-born actor of Mexican parents with an Irish grandfather brought up in East L.A. An international star (Federico Fellini cast him without problem as an Italian male in La Strada), Quinn won two Supporting Actor Oscars, playing the French legendary painter, Gauguin, in Lust for Life and also as Emiliano Zapata’s brother in Viva Zapata! He was also nominated twice for best actor for his roles in Wild is the Wind and Zorba, the Greek.

#3 Rita Moreno

A Puerto Rican woman actually playing a puertorriqueña in West Side Story (1960) counted as a breakthrough at the time but, nonetheless, Ms. Moreno has spent the rest of her life lamenting that her career after winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress amounted mostly to fielding and rejecting various offers to play the usual stereotypes, the “Conchitas” and “Lolitas.” Instead, she pursued other interests on Broadway, television and recordings and is the first Latina to not only win an Academy Award, but also an Emmy, a Tony, a Golden Globe and a Grammy in a legendary career that continues unabated to this very day.

#2 José Ferrer

The only Latino actor to have taken home the top prize, Best Performance by an Actor, in 1950 was also a puertorriqueño. Schooled in theater at Princeton University, New Jersey, Ferrer was cast to play the title role in the Broadway production of the classic French play, Cyrano de Bergerac, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Actor. Director Miguel Gordon cast Ferrer in the lead role in the film version as well, without any apparent reservations about Ferrer’s background. By then, Ferrer had also been nominated as best supporting actor in Joan of Arc (1948). This great actor broke through the curse of the “mainstream syndrome” with excellent classical training that allowed directors to see him not so much as a Latino actor, but as a great stage actor who could also duplicate his performances on film.

#1 Oscar is Mexican

The Oscar statuette isn’t just Latino, but Mexican. That’s because the young man who posed naked for designer Cedric Gibbons was an unknown Mexican actor who happened to have been friends with legendary actress Dolores del Rio who, in turn, introduced him to her then boyfriend, Gibbons. Emilio “El Indio” Fernandez returned to Mexico, perhaps not fully understanding that his body image resulted in giving the famous statuette a character, not just a shape. Bette Davis claimed the statuette reminded her of her husband, Oscar, but the Academy’s librarian, Margaret Herrick, is credited for renaming the award after claiming that the “Award of Merit” (as it was known then) reminded her of her uncle Oscar. The fetishization of the award as a male figure has been one of the strangest developments for an award that was never officially called “Oscar.” The widespread use of the nickname, “Oscar,” can be attributed now to the sculpting of the youthful and athletic body of Fernandez as the model. Fernandez went on to become an accomplished director, winning the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his film, Maria Candelaria (1947), but he’ll be forever remembered as the body image of the Academy Award.

So that’s how the Oscar can be said to be Latino. There’s your conversation starter for your next Oscar party as you celebrate for the winners with a touch of Latino-flavored trivia.

Guillermo Reyes began his research on the Oscars at Arizona State University where he has taught a class on the subject for the last two years as a professor in the School of Theatre and Film. He is otherwise known as a playwright, director and author of the recent book, Madre and I: A Memoir of Our Immigrant Lives, which delves into his early life in Chile and later in Hollywood as an immigrant.

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Experience the continuous present

latinopm — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:03:39 +0000

By James K. Ballinger

Carlos Amorales (Mexico, b. 1970), Black Cloud, 2007. 30,000 paper moths, dimensions variable. Diane and Bruce Halle Collection.

Throughout time, there are moments of happenstance that can result in profound changes and innovations, instances when the flutter of wings initiates a series of events with major implications, half a world away. Sometimes, those moments result in something that is incredibly meaningful and impactful, and such is the case with the art collection of longtime Valley residents and supporters of the arts, Diane and Bruce Halle.

The Halles’ art collection, a part of which is on view in Phoenix Art Museum’s Steele Gallery in the new exhibition Order, Chaos, and the Space Between: Contemporary Latin American Art from the Diane and Bruce Halle Collection, is one of the most important collections of contemporary Latin American art in the United States and internationally. Previously exhibited in Houston in 2007 and in Tucson more than a decade ago, this exhibition is a kind of homecoming, as the Phoenix Art Museum (PAM) was the original site of its conception.

In 1995, Diane Halle was a Museum docent and trustee. It was in a series of discussions with Clayton Kirking, then librarian and subsequently the Museum’s first curator of Latin American art, that the idea for the Halle Collection first emerged. That same year, the exhibition, Latin American Women Artists 1915-1995, opened at Phoenix Art Museum, and introduced Mrs. Halle to many fascinating artists who would later become the core of the collection, such as Mira Schendel, Lygia Clark, Liliana Porter and Ana Mendieta.

What grew from that early introduction was the Diane and Bruce Halle Collection, consisting of diverse works that pertain to the most significant artistic trends in Latin America from the mid-twentieth century to the present. The Halle Collection has become an investment in a region long under-recognized, and often under-appreciated, for the scope and value of its artistic contributions to art and culture on the global scale.

Félix Gonzalez-Torres (Cuban-born American, 1957-1996), Untitled (Rossmore II), 1991. Green candies, individually wrapped in cellophane, endless supply. Dimensions variable. Diane and Bruce Halle Collection.

The Halles collected art of this region to explore not only for themselves, but also to make the public more aware of the remarkable art production of Latin America. As such, this exhibition offers many opportunities for educational engagement. Hundreds of students from Valley schools will be visiting the exhibition, along with ASU students who will be working with artist Carlos Amorales on the installation of Black Cloud, a work consisting of 30,000 black paper moths and butterflies that will weave its way from the Museum’s Greenbaum Lobby to the Steele Gallery. PAM will also host a series of lectures by artists whose works are featured in the show, including Carlos Amorales (Mexico), Luis Cruz Azaceta (Cuba), Alessandro Balteo Yazbeck (Venezuela) and Jorge Macchi (Argentina).

In addition to these activities, the exhibition will introduce members of our community to outstanding artists working throughout Latin America over the past sixty years. The cutting-edge, contemporary works will surprise and intrigue visitors of all ages, who may have come with fixed expectations of what Latin American art has been and can be; these works will inspire any visitor to leave those preconceived notions behind.

Co-organized by PAM’s Beverly Adams, Ph.D. (Curator of the Diane and Bruce Halle Collection) and Vanessa Davidson, Ph.D. (the Shawn and Joe Lampe Associate Curator of Latin American Art), Order, Chaos, and the Space Between is an expansive look at contemporary works from across Latin America. It includes more than 50 individual works from renowned artists, such as Doris Salcedo, Gego, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jorge Macchi and Hélio Oiticica. Together, the curators selected works by artists who actively question the nature of the creative process, thereby entering into a dialogue with fellow artists working across the globe. Whether working on canvas, in sculptural media, photography or installation, these radical innovators have helped forge new artistic languages in their home countries. The collected works showcase the diverse means by which artists working in Latin America have overcome their geographic marginality in relation to global centers of artistic innovation to initiate new aesthetic currents with international resonance.

Since its opening in 1959, PAM has exhibited the art of Mexico and Latin America. Order, Chaos and the Space Between brings much more South American art to the fore, including works from Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Venezuela, in addition to works from Cuba and Mexico. The exhibition will introduce our audience to a wider range of artists from this part of the world.

Among the artists that will be exhibiting at PAM for the first time is Antonio Dias, a Brazilian artist whose eponymous work, The Space Between, provided not only the title for the exhibition, but a metaphor for both the Halle Collection and the role of Latin American art at PAM. In 1970, Dias’ seemingly simple work is composed of two cubes, the granite cube bears the words, “THE BEGINNING,” and the marble cube the words, “THE END.” Its title, The Space Between, evokes a continuous present, a space and time in a latent state of becoming. Through this work, the artist reminds us that all things in life have a beginning and an ending, but that it is the space between that really counts.

Antonio Dias (Brazilian, b. 1944), The Space Between, 1970. Marble and granite cubes. Collection of Diane and Bruce Halle.

This is a worthy metaphor for Diane and Bruce Halle’s collection, which continues to grow, evolve and expand in new directions. This exhibition is a snapshot of the Collection at this particular moment in time – still growing, still becoming. But it is also a worthy metaphor for Latin American art at PAM. It is the second exhibition of contemporary Latin American art in less than a year’s time. Like the 2012 exhibit, Politics of Place, featuring photography from Latin America, Order, Chaos, and the Space Between is a sensitively built exhibition of compelling works from areas that exert tremendous influence on the Southwestern United States and beyond. The Museum plans to develop more opportunities, not only to present great works of art, but also to create connections that will enhance our understanding of the contributions that Latin American arts and culture bring to our city and state.

It is exciting to realize that a conversation that began in the library at PAM became the spark that led to one of the most important collections of Latin American art today, one that continues to create new conversations, build awareness, change perceptions and effect change throughout Arizona and the world.

For more information about lectures, films and other exhibition programming related to Order, Chaos and the Space Between, visit phxart.org/exhibitions/orderchaos

James K. Ballinger has been the Sybil Harrington Director of the Phoenix Art Museum since 1982, and has been with the Museum since 1974.

Order, Chaos, and the Space Between is presented through the generous support of the Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation, APS (Arizona Public Service) and JPMorgan Chase, with additional support provided by Joan Cremin. Promotional support is provided by The Phoenician and US Airways.

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Ay, what a year!

Ruben Hernandez — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:19:12 +0000

In Arizona, 2012 was auspicious, not because our state was being destroyed along with the rest of the world (as erroneously predicted by some based on a Mayan inscription indicating that something big was to happen on 12/21/12), but because of the emergence of Latinos center stage, here and nationally.

In December, 2012, the latest U.S. Census estimated that Latinos will become the majority population in the U.S. by 2023, a mere generation away. That national trend is reflected in Arizona. Latinos here will become the majority about the same time. As Joseph Garcia, director of the ASU Morrison Institute Latino Public Policy Center, noted in the September 2012 issue of Latino Perspectives: “If Arizona were to take an honest look in the mirror, she might be surprised by the permanent tan looking back.” Arizona is getting browner and younger, with 46 percent more Latinos living here than a decade ago, and, as Garcia points out, Latino issues are now, and for the future, Arizona’s issues.

Looking further back, Arizona has been no stranger to controversy this past decade, with a Republican-dominated state legislature creating the harsh anti-immigrant, anti-abortion, anti-voter fraud laws that other, like-minded lawmakers in other states used as models for laws passed in their own backyards. Certainly, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has angered some in the Latino community because of his anti-immigrant law enforcement and imprisonment policies.

The year 2012 marked not only the Centennial of Arizona’s statehood, but also the start of a transition in power from the status quo. This review of 2012 shows patterns both positive and negative for Latinos and, by extension, for our state. For example, more Latinos voted, but Latinos also dropped out of school at a higher rate. Arizona voters sent more Democrats to Congress, although Republicans still hold almost all statewide elective offices. More Latinos were elected to the state legislature, but more Latino elected officials were forced to resign because of criminal or corruption charges.

In this edition, Latino Perspectives presents an array of the highlights and “lowlights” of 2012. As the Mayans indicated, something big did happen in 2012: The world is changing and Latinos are on the transition team.

JANUARY

Brewer wags finger in Obama’s face

Arizona governor, Jan Brewer, aroused her critics and supporters by waving her index finger in President Barack Obama’s face after greeting him at Phoenix-Gateway Airport in Mesa on January 25. The state official and the U.S. leader debated fiercely and briefly on the tarmac, an image that local and national media distributed widely. Brewer claimed that the President chided her for describing him in her book, Scorpions for Breakfast, as lacking in cordiality when she met him at the White House. Brewer’s body language during their little chat had tongues wagging in Arizona, Washington, D.C., the nation and the world; arguments for and against Brewer’s reaction set social media on fire. The Republican governor’s angry gesture in early 2012 foreshadowed the sometimes rancorous presidential election debates between the two major parties’ candidates.

Congresswoman Giffords resigns

January 25 was a sad day for Arizonans; U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford of Tucson resigned. Just after the one-year anniversary of her being shot in the head in front of a Tucson supermarket, she announced on Facebook that she was resigning her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. “My district deserves to elect a representative that can give 100 percent of their time,” she wrote in a prepared statement read by a colleague on the House floor because the shooting affected her speech. The shooter, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, killed six people and shot a dozen others who had gathered to greet Giffords on that tragic day. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole this year. After the shooting, state politicians eased up on the bitter debate between the political parties – at least for a while.

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Socially responsible giving changes lives

LPM Staff — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:14:13 +0000

The sights, sounds and aromas of the holiday season can evoke a swirl of emotions.

Diverse feelings, such as the anticipation of parties, savoring tamales and pan dulce, the excitement of gifts to come, pride of families gathering, laughter of camaraderie, and the quiet satisfaction of celebrating holiday religious services.

Truly, the year-end holiday season enriches our lives and lifts our spirits.

The downside of this river of emotions is the anxiety about a limited gift-buying budget, dread of mall crowds and the frustration of ever finding that perfect gift. In other words, the negative feelings of being trapped in a “giving crunch.”

It’s so easy to be swept up in the commercialism, the festivities and the things to eat that we rarely stop and reflect on the true meaning of the season – the joy of expressing love for our fellow humans, and sharing our abundance with others.

An alternative to all the stress of frenzied gift exchange is creating a holiday tradition of socially responsible giving. If you haven’t already done so, include giving to nonprofit charities as part of your family’s sharing this holiday. This December, give a gift that can change lives.

Don’t think that your personal contribution can’t make a difference. More than 90 percent of donations to charities in 2011 were from individuals, according to Giving USA 2012, an annual report on philanthropy.

Philanthropy literally means the “love of mankind,” and what greater expression of compassion for those less fortunate can there be than to donate money or volunteer time to a local charity?

You also can donate in the name of a loved one. In addition, help ease the stress on those who want to give you gifts by encouraging them to donate to charity instead.

Donating to social service organizations with a mission to help others also sets an example of giving and serving to children. By becoming a role model for responsible social giving, you raise children who learn to give, share and care for others, too.

Latino Perspectives has its own proud December tradition of sharing vignettes of local charities that serve the suffering, the poverty-stricken and the outcasts of our society.

This is our way of offering our readers positive opportunities to invest in making our community a better place for everyone.

Socks for Seniors

Jaime Coyle, founder of the Socks for Seniors organization based in Columbus, Ohio, says he got the idea for the sock drive and giving program while playing music at a home for retirees.

“One older lady who was usually upbeat seemed down,” Coyle says. “I asked her what the problem was. ‘My feet are freezing,’ she said. So I got her and all the other residents of the home socks to warm their cold feet.”

Coyle reports that the first program in Ohio has led to the establishment of Socks for Seniors giving programs in 250 U.S. cities. Last year, 25,000 socks were given as gifts.

Phoenix is one of the big metropolitan areas that needs local Socks for Seniors coordinators to collect and give the gift of warm feet and holiday comfort to the elderly in nursing homes, community centers or isolated in their own houses.

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Tinsel, toys, ladders & lights- ¡cuidado!

latinopm — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:12:01 +0000

By Penny Krich, M.D.

While the holiday season is usually a time for family, decorating everything from the outside of the house to the top of the tree has become part of the holiday tradition. However, no one wants to dampen the festive spirit with a trip to urgent care or, even worse, the emergency room. Every year, emergency department doctors treat a variety of patients with serious injuries, from children who have eaten tinsel to those with trauma from a serious fall from a ladder or even a new bike.

Unfortunately, this scenario is all too common in the average American household. In recent years, more than 13,000 people have been treated in the emergency room for holiday-related injuries. This is an increase of 30 percent since 2007, with a majority of these injuries resulting from falls. Emergency room traffic also gets a significant bump after the holidays, suggesting that many try to keep the holiday spirit and tough it out with their injury. While the holidays are a busy time of the year for everyone, it is important to make sure and take safety precautions seriously in order to avoid common mistakes that can have serious consequences.

Fall-related injuries can result from a variety of activities. These include standing on the top of a ladder, using unstable furniture to decorate the tree, slipping on a wet surface, or even a child falling from a new bike, skateboard, etc. Here in Phoenix, we do not have to worry about injuries such as slipping on ice. However, because we experience more mild weather, families are more likely to spend time outdoors. This can mean more time playing outdoors with new toys, or deciding to hang holiday decorations yourself instead of leaving it to a professional.

Because we like being outdoors so much during winter, one of the most common holiday traditions, besides decorating a tree, is putting lights up on the house. According to the Home Safety Council, four out of five U.S. households use ladders around their homes in preparation for the holiday season. However, when not used properly, ladders can be extremely dangerous. In a study completed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it has been reported that of all holiday fall-related injuries, 51 percent were specifically from falling from ladders and 46 percent of all people treated had injuries to one of their extremities (hands, arms, legs or feet). Other common trips to the emergency room include burns caused by candles or Christmas tree fires, lacerations from broken bulbs or ornaments, and tragic injuries resulting from crowds and even stampedes during the busy shopping season.

During a fall, our first instinct is to brace ourselves by putting hands and arms out in front to shield our body from the impact. This creates a well-documented mechanism of injury known as “falling on an outstretched hand,” or simply called FOOSH. It is because of this natural reaction that 34 percent of holiday injuries end with fractures of the extremities, especially the hand and wrist, along with lower leg injuries including the ankle. While we can’t change our body’s reaction to help us break our fall, we can lower our chance of injury by making sure the surface we stand on is safe and stable.

Soft tissue injuries, such as sprains and strains, bruising and minor swelling, are very common. Each of these injuries can be treated at home with rest, ice, compression and elevation (RICE). However, should the injury become worse, I recommend visiting the doctor, because a more serious injury can initially have similar symptoms and appear minor.

If a fall does happen, there are specific signs adults should keep an eye out for to let them know whether a trip to the doctor is necessary:

Swelling: This can happen at, or around, the point of impact and can be a symptom of a break, also called a fracture, in the bone or even a sprain to the joint. Look for rapid or severe swelling. A large, quickly expanding bruise can mean a significant pocket of blood is forming under the skin.

Pain and loss of function: Intense pain is a warning sign and a good indicator to seek medical attention. Be aware that symptoms, such as loss of strength (loss of grip strength in the hand), reduced range of motion, and nerve pain or changes in sensation, can be equally worrisome.

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