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just words vol two : no two 06.21.02 |
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1/28/02 All's Unquiet on the Western Front by Victor Payan
(Published in Spring 2002 issue of El Aviso) The attacks on public arts funding which occurred in the mid-nineties resulted in dealing a double blow to the Chicano/Latino arts community. First, many organizations adapted their community based missions to the new funding environment, one in which private corporate sponsors emerged as the new funding sources. Secondly, the climate of fear and anxiety begat an ideological "restructuring" which continues today and poses a more profound and lasting threat to the needs of Chicano/Latino communities throughout the U.S. In the ensuing years, new forces such as gentrification and the increased power of the corporate elite to set the public agenda have also left their mark on the cultural landscape. The most visible force impacting Latino culture has of course been the new "Latin Explosion" and its marketing of a generic "Latino Experience," which, at its best promotes watered-down, consumer-friendly notions of Latinoness. At its worst, it seeks to erase historical, cultural and political identities among communities. For Latino communities, in which art, culture, politics and advocacy have been intrinsically linked, this potentially undermines the ability for communities to address local concerns. Such a trend worries Loyola Marymount University Assistant Professor Karen Mary Davalos, author of the book, Exhibiting Mestizaje: Mexican (American) Museums in the Diaspora. "The trend is appropriation. That's how we are made to fit in on the terms of capital. If we can be bottled and marketed, that's okay, and we pretty it up for the lowest common denominator, which means least political resistance," says Davalos. "Don't talk about difference if you're going to say difference can create conflict. Don't talk about conflict if you're going to talk about oppression." For many communities, the grass roots cultural center has performed an important function, creating a critical forum for organic self-expression, empowerment and advocacy in what has all too-often been a traditionally hostile environment. Because many organizations have existed below the commercial radar, this resulted in a relative freedom in programming decisions. That, however, has changed, as corporations, banks and advertisers seek an inroad to El Dorado: the growing Latino market. In this time of increased purchasing power and Latino entry into the middle class, Davalos urges Latino organizations not to sacrifice autonomy or parity in relationships with corporate funders. In other words, they must not give away their gold. "We educate the corporate sponsor and do it on our terms," she says. "I don't think we should allow them to dictate. They're not the scholars, they're not the artists, they're not the activists. "And the biggest battle probably is well-intentioned middle-class middle management who are in the corporation. The one they send out to us who does this outreach on behalf of the corporation, so the corporation can get a tax break, is the middle class Latino." Whereas the introduction of corporate values may not be contradictory to other segments of the Latino community, they have generally been antagonistic to the missions of grass roots Latino community cultural arts organizations. Many organizations have defiantly turned down corporate funding, regarding it as "dirty money" which promotes the exploitation of their communities. In San Diego, San Antonio, San Francisco, and elsewhere, the new corporate culture brokers have aligned themselves with banks, developers and other forces which contribute to the gentrification of working class communities. This new alliance is regarded by noted author and art historian Dr. Shifra Goldman as part of larger global appropriation of museums and media outlets designed to redefine culture as commodity. In a talk titled "Globalization and Privatization of Culture in the Americas," Dr. Goldman warns, "Museum expansion and construction...are expressive of the new role of museums as lead partners of finance capital in the age of global communication and the transformation of the museum as a family entertainment, educational, and souvenir sales center exploiting symbolic production and cultural capital for an ideological and commercial program consistent with the postmodern capitalist agenda." Different communities have reacted to this new environment in different ways. Luis Rodriguez, author of the book Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., cautions against compromising the freedom of cultural expression for the corporate dollar in the quest for survival and stability. "It seems like when people are talking now again (about) bottom line, marketability, all of these things, freedom of expression is the first thing they're going to pull out," says Rodriguez, adding, "When commerce comes in, it mutates all that, mutates the relationships and starts making arts only for the profitable. "To me, the way through chaos is not from chaos to order, it's from chaos to creativity. And people forget that. When you're in a chaotic state, the best way to go through that is to go toward your imagination and your creative impulses." Rodriguez, who recently opened Tia Chucha's Cafe Cultural in Sylmar, California, is part of a new generation of culture workers who resist the potential control of the corporate funder. "I think it's important that the community rally to not let the (corporatization) of our arts institutions happen. I think it's destructive," says Rodriguez. "Really good, innovative ideas go by the wayside, and very mundane, tiring, boring programming happens at the other end of it." Still others have managed to attract corporate funders without compromising their missions. One such organization, says Rodriguez, is the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago. Rodriguez, who spent fifteen years in Chicago, before moving to Southern California recently, says, "They got millions of dollars, but the vision of the director, his name is Carlos Tortolero, was always to keep it in the barrio and make it so relevant and meaningful for that neighborhood that they couldn't really get a top-down type of control." El Centro Su Teatro in Denver is another organization that seeks to uphold the mission of service to the grass roots community, preferring to develop programming for and revenue from an internal audience base rather than cater to external support. In New York, strong community involvement has also provided a successful alternative to sacrificing an organization's mission, as in the case of the Museo del Barrio, where the Board of Directors wanted to remove the word "Barrio" from the name. "That's a very active center, and it hasn't been taken over by anybody," says Dr. Shifra Goldman. "(Instead of) distorting or Anglicizing the title of the Museum and relocating it, they're going to stay right where they are, but in a bigger space." Dr. Goldman notes that the strength of the New York Puerto Rican community has played a large role in defending the independence of their spaces. "They have a lot of clout, because they're a big voting bloc in New York," she says, "and people like Giuliani were not going to take on Museo del Barrio and the Taller Boricua." At the Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego, where the Board has asserted more political clout than the community, many allege that the current Board has used parliamentary procedure, forced restructuring and the police to intimidate and disenfranchise the grass roots community. Rather than allow their images and work to be appropriated for a cause which was hostile to them, local artists and activists chose to organize the Save Our Centro Coalition and boycott the institution. The boycott, which is still in effect, has been underway for nearly two years. Brent Beltran, a member of the Save Our Centro Coalition and co-founder of Calaca Press, joined the Centro's Arts Advisory Board shortly before it was unilaterally disbanded and replaced with a "Programs Advisory Board." At the same time, artists were prevented from participating in Centro programs unless they signed an Affirmation of Conduct Values statement, which many regarded as a loyalty oath designed to control dissent. "It's offensive that art that was created on our own terms for ourselves is used for an alternative purpose, which is to exploit our culture," says Beltran. "It's like they're re-doing history. They're taking away any semblance of struggle over the Centro and making it something it isn't," says Beltran of the actions of the new Centro board. "These people have given it back. In 1970, (the community) took the land, and in late '99, they're giving it back for a handful of beads." Similarly, in Fresno, artists at Arte Americas have also chosen to defend the mission of their organization by calling attention to the board's unresponsiveness through pickets. "Under the current administration," says Patricia Wells-Solorzano, who has been an artist at Arte Americas for fifteen years, "their future is to exclude people of low-income backgrounds. And they have already brought in the alcohol corporations like Hennessey. They're seeking money from corporations that have never been allowed into Arte Americas." Regarding the importance of their resistance, Wells-Solorzano says, "There is no dignity in walking away from this fight. If we walk away, it would be hypocrisy on our part after encouraging our students to expand their learning and open their minds. We ask people to be brave...and for us to walk away from something so blatant and so unjust would be a total contradiction to what we have been teaching." As different communities react to the realities of the current state of the arts, new resources and models for resistance, survival and even success emerge. In a complex funding environment which has become even more problematic in recent months, the relationship between commerce, freedom of expression and culture becomes more acute. In a time of few certainties, it is perhaps enough to know that there is hope. And in addition to hope, there is also the knowledge that the vision of the Chicano/Latino community cultural arts center is alive and well, and that today's cultural workers have a clear understanding of what is at stake in this New Kind of Culture War. Victor Payan is an award-winning arts writer and a member of the Save Our Centro Coalition in San Diego. Website: http://www.saveourcentro.org. | ||