NewsTaco

By Teresa Puente, Chicanísima

We’re still waiting for spring to arrive in Chicago, but there are plenty of reasons to get out of the house this month. Here is a selection of events that may interest Chicanísima readers.

Chicago Latino Film Festival
The film festival in its 29th year began April 11 and continues through April 25. There are films from 25 countries, including Argentina, Colombia, Spain and the United States.

Poesía en abril
Poetry in April is the name for a poetry series in Spanish this month organized by Contratiempo magazine. Upcoming events are scheduled for April 15, 19 and 30 at various locations.

Mariachi Opera
“Cruzar la Cara de la Luna” or “To Cross the Face of the Moon” was performed at the Civic Opera House last weekend. Now the world’s first mariachi opera will travel to Pilsen and Waukegan. It will be performed at Benito Juarez Community Academy on April 19 and 20 and at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan April 21.

María de Buenos Aires
This tango opera by the Chicago Opera Theater is set during the military junta in 1970s Argentina. It will be performed April 20, 24, 26 and 28 at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph, Chicago.

Patria Libre
This is a play running through May 4 about a woman who lived through the war in Nicaragua and then fled to the United States. It is showing at the Rivendell Theater, 5779 N. Ridge Ave., Chicago.

This article was first published in Chicanísima.

This article was suggested by Taquista Jules Garza.

Have you read an article you’d like to suggest for the NewsTaco community? Let us know at: tips@newstaco.com

Teresa Puente is a Chicana from Chicago. That’s what inspired the name of her blog. She’s also journalist. She worked as a staff writer for the Chicago Tribune from 1995 to 2002. She covered many different stories but mostly wrote about immigration and the Latino community. In 2000, she was awarded the  Studs Terkel Award by the Community Media Workshop for coverage of Chicago’s diverse communities.

[Image courtesy Chicago Latino Film Festival]

Have you read an article you’d like to suggest for the NewsTaco community? Let us know at: tips@newstaco.com

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

Remember all the commotion about Latinos and the Kennedy Center Honors a few months back? Back in September sharp words were launched back and forth between Center director Michael Kaiser and Felix Sanchez, director of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts. The verbal feud escalated to the point that Kaiser was quoted to have yelled at Sanchez, through the telephone, to “Go F___ yourself!”, all because Sanchez had questioned the reason that only two Latinos had been honored in 35 years.

A lot has happened since. Tempers have cooled, for one. And that has led to some tempered thinking. The result is that a commission has been formed that will put together a criteria that will be used to pick future Kennedy Center Honorees.

One member of that commission is Maria Lopez De Leon, Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) and member of the National Council on the Arts. She, along with ten other commissioners will be tasked with setting up a  criteria that will result in more Latinos and persons of color to be included as Kennedy Center Honorees.

I spoke to Maria in her office on the West side of San Antonio recently, parts of the interview are included below.

[Photo courtesy The Kennedy Center]

By Pete Burn, CNN

Click on picture to read story.

[Photo courtesy richard-blanco.com]

By LIN@R

Felix Sanchez, Chairman of the National HIspanic Foundation for the Arts (NHFA) talks with the Latino Information Network at Rutgers (LINAR) about the Biggest News Story for the Latino community and the NHFA on 2012.

This article was first published in LIN@R.

LIN@R is an archive of the most comprehensive collection of materials relevant to the Latino experience in the U.S. — a national and international combination of Rutgers scholarship in tandem with news stories, studies and reports from reputable news organizations, non-RU-academics and think tanks pertaining to Latino-related research.

By Eduardo Diaz, Huffington Post Latino Voices

Many may have read about the recent flare-up between Michael Kaiser and Felix Sánchez. Kaiser is President of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Sánchez directs the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, established to advance the presence of Latinos in the media, telecommunications and entertainment industries. Annually, the foundation provides scholarships to eight Latino graduate students.

The Kennedy Center, aside from presenting a diverse performing arts season, stages the annual Kennedy Center Honors, which recognizes lifetime achievement in the arts, tending towards the mainstream, and is customarily attended by the President and First Lady. It is noteworthy to point out that Kaiser has spearheaded technical assistance programs benefiting cultural organizations around the country, many of them struggling, a number of them Latino, and has a solid working relationship with the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, this country’s leading service organization for our field.

As reported by the Washington Post and several other media outlets, when Sánchez called Kaiser to express his inquietude over the relative dearth of Kennedy Center Latino/Latina awardees, a heated conversation ensued where Kaiser used some strong language. News services immediately took note. Some Latino advocacy organizations rallied to the foundation’s cause. Kaiser later apologized, acknowledging that his “was an unfortunate choice of words.” In his letter of apology to Sánchez, Kaiser stated, “I assure you that the concerns you raised during our conversation were heard and will be given serious consideration.” What becomes of the dust-up remains to be seen; however, Kaiser is off to a good start, having initiated a revamping of the selection criteria and process for the Kennedy Center Honors, ensuring representation by more diverse constituencies.

Near the end of the initial Washington Post article, Sánchez stated,

We see that [trend] at the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, art exhibits — we see that across the board in arts institutions: a preference for Latinos who are coming from their country of origin, as opposed to artistic contributions from U.S. Latinos.

As the director of the unit charged with ensuring Latino presence at the Smithsonian, I’m surprised that Sánchez did not contact our office to learn about the Institution’s current programs, research initiatives and collecting efforts pertinent to the U.S. Latino community.

The Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture and Latino Center, in collaboration with units around the Institution, is engaged in several initiatives by, for and about the diverse resident Latino population. Some are exhibition-focused; others geared to web presence, educational impact, or leadership and professional development. Soon, the Institution will bring on six new Latino curators at five of our key units. Below are other examples of what’s happening:

1. Latino DC:…

READ MORE HERE

This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.

Eduardo Díaz is the director of the Smithsonian Latino Center and a 30-year veteran of arts administration.

[Photo courtesy The Kennedy Center]

By Susana G. Baumann, Voxxi

A genius is someone whose unparalleled intellectual ability and creativity has allowed them to understand the inner nature of things and reach mastery in their activity or discipline. For Natalia Almada, a 2012 MacArthur Foundation ‘genius grant’ winner, it is the recognition of her mastery to push boundaries in documentary filmmaking while addressing social issues that are close to her heart. She is also the first Mexican American to receive such an award.

A dual citizen of Mexico and the United States, Almada is more a storyteller than just someone who informs about issues. She uses her camera to relate images and people she encounters in her discovery journey, as if those characters and places were just coming to her instead of her going after them, in the eyes of a bicultural observer.

She was born in Sinaola, Mexico, from a Mexican father and an American mother. Her first short film All Water Has a Perfect Memory (2001) is a racconto of memories, photographs and home videos about her sister Ana Lynn’s life and death in a drowning accident in their childhood home in Mexico. The film exposes her parents’ different cultural and gender perspectives in the face of this tragedy.

Almada’s bicultural viewpoint was also marked by her divided childhood between rural Mexico and “Say no to Drugs” Chicago. While in Sinaola, she came in contact with many of her second feature film’s characters, Al Otro Lado (2005), a gallery of border and rural landscapes’ natives, in a world of borders being crossed in more than the physical sense, and the reasons behind it.

Aldana’s  characters are confronted with life changing options, none of which are ideal, and their decisions will mark their destiny. The film is chronicled in corrido style, a song genre that features oppression, popular history and other socially important narratives.

Winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s US Directing Award for documentary, “El General” (2009) portrays the life of Natalia Almada’s family strongly tied to a notorious period of Mexican history and the life of her great-grandfather, General Plutarco Elías Calles.

Calles, a controversial figure also known as “el dictador” (dictator), “el bolchevique,” (bolshevik) and other strong epithets alike, became President of Mexico in 1924. The film presents audio recounts of Almada’s grandmother, Alicia Calles, photographs, historical newsreels, and old Hollywood films as a contraposition to present-day images of modern Mexico City and interviews with members of the Mexican working-class. The documentary portrays this double gaze at her family and her country’s history, painfully connected.

Another look at violence is offered in Almada’s latest film, “El Velador” (2011), an ordinary guardian of a non-ordinary cemetery where Mexico’s most infamous drug lords are buried. The documentary shows a parade of characters related to the buried personages, from widows to enemies to laborers, which constitutes a microcosm where violence opposes non-violence, and life opposes death.

Almada graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in Photography in 2001. However, fascination for the moving image prevailed in her work while allowing her to use other tools including essays, audios, historical archives and photography.

Her films have been said to pose more questions than answers. Natalia Almada reaffirms the strength of documentary filmmaking both as an art and a tool to remind us of the often ignored implications of social conflict.

This article was first published in Voxxi.

Susana G. Baumann is a writer, editor, and blogger for all topics related to Latinos, Hispanics and Latinoamericans.

[Photo by altamurafilms.com]

By Lalo Alcaraz, Pocho Ñews Service

“Latinos can go “blank” themselves!” 

This is what Kennedy Center director Michael Kaiser must have been thinking when he screamed, “Go F___ yourself!” into the telephone when confronted by Felix Sanchez, director of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts (NHFA) on the continuing Latino Lockout at the Kennedy Center honors.

Since its 1978 founding, the Kennedy Center has only honored Latin@s Chita Rivera and Placido Domingo. I spoke to Sanchez about this disturbing incident, and the even more disturbing third-of-a-century-long diss against Latino artists in the United States.

LA: Felix, first of all I want to applaud you for revealing the media what Kaiser said to you on the telephone. Most people would defer and not speak up about a private and embarrassing (to Kaiser) conversation. Can you briefly re-tell what happened?

For two years we’ve been trying to reach the Kennedy Center chair, president, producer, and even Caroline Kennedy. We’ve sent letters, emails, phone calls and we’ve gotten ZERO response. We were able to talk to the assistant to Kaiser. This is the buffer they set up between us and the administration of the Kennedy Center. They refused to meet with us, saying they cannot meet with anyone lobbying for individuals to receive the honor. They have been fighting anyone who wants to get to the truth of the matter. They have no interest in resolving or cooperating this issue. So on September 12th they announced the 2012 honorees.

LA: Even Led Zeppelin has been honored this year! This is a choice that many longhaired Chicano rockers and stoners from Texas to Califas would bang their heads in approval, but it only proves one thing: even the British are ahead in line of U.S. Latinos, right?

Yes, even the last remaining members of Led Zeppelin, a British rock group, can be honored before Latinos. And lesser-known musicians, like Buddy Knight. Look, there’s a formula for the Kennedy Center TV show. Each year there’s one black person. Every few years there’s an Asian. Then a dancer or opera singer. And a major actor or comedian. So that’s the formula: black, white, occasionally Asian.

LA: Is this is a stated formula?

NO. In 35 years shows been going on, different chairman and directors have come and gone. The consistent producer is George Stevens (and now his son) who has been the co-writer and producer all these years. The producer gives you the vision of the show, and its the same creator and producer since 35 years ago. To make matters worse, he has been appointed co-chair of Obama’s Arts & Humanities Council!

Official Washington is present at each show. This formulaic year’s show tapes Dec. 2. The State Department hosts a Dec. 1 black-tie gala for the winners.

LA: Seems like an official stamp of approval.

It is an approval of a “Separate But Equal” policy for the Kennedy Center Honors.

LA: This is official institutionalized racism, right?

Here’s a very important way to get this: We get bigotry from the right. Like the stuff spewed by Jan Brewer. When we see it from the left, its just as harmful! These are bookends of bigotry. It’s infinitely harder to fight on the left. Art, news, entertainment, the bigotry of the left edits it out for us. And Latinos are excluded. This is what bigotry looks like. And nobody blinks.

LA: Have they apologized?

No. Kaiser made a statement saying something like: “I regret the strong language. I was upset at being called a racist. etc.”

LA: Boo hoo, Michael. So you’re not worried about getting an apology?

No. What is indefensible is the exclusion of Latinos from the Kennedy Center Honors. The White House is complicit in this! The Kennedy name and legacy has always been tied to Latinos. RFK and Ethel Kennedy marched with Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Ted Kennedy on his deathbed spoke about immigrant rights. Caroline Kennedy has hosted the awards for nine years.

LA: Every abuelita has a picture of Kennedy somewhere in their casa. What a disconnect!

The Left sees us, but we are still invisible to them. We are kept on the periphery. We are unable to be seen in the mainstream. Both right and left Latinos get this issue.

LA: Isn’t the KC’s stated non-apology the same thing they’ve been saying all these years?

“We aren’t racist, we support Latinos in the arts in other countries, we have Emilio Estefan on the board.”

Their decision process is cloaked in secrecy, always same result, no accountability.

LA: How can the structure of the KC board be changed? Is that the problem leading to institutional racism in this case?

What has to happen, is picking a new producer. Switch horses. One that has a vision for the country that is inclusive, reflects what we are today. There’s no way to redeem these producers whether they’ve won Emmys or not, Emmy awards are for the way it looks, not for the vision.

LA: Do you have any suggestions to Michael Kaiser for things to do to himself?

No. (laughs) I’d like the Kennedy Center to do this to itself: Implement institutional reform, remove the decision process from a small insular group, shine sunlight on decision making.

LA: The Kennedy Center is supported by corporate and private donations, how much do we the taxpayers pay?

According to the Los Angeles Times, we pay $37 million in Federal funding.

LA : Don’t get me wrong. I pride myself on being pro-immigrant. But if and when the Kennedy Center honors the next Latino artist, their sympathy pick will most probably be a foreign-born Latino. The Kennedy Center must now be scrambling to search Wikipedia to see if Cervantes is still alive.

If you can have British rockers, and a Russian-born dancer why can’t you have a Latino? It seems that Latinos are only of value when they directly are from their country of origin.

LA: I suppose there are zero Latino artists and performers out there worthy of their honors. We must not be a very talented bunch.

Look at Rita Moreno! Last year was the 50-year anniversary of West Side Story.

LA: And she’s won every award in the book. I guess the Kennedy Center doesn’t want to burden her with yet another honor. Her shelves will creak!

This is pure isolationism in TV news, English language networks, it is segregation in the digital age.

THEY don’t know who we are. Totally misunderstanding who we are. For a third of a century they haven’t bothered to learn who we are. Thats what exclusion does.

LA: The “unapology” also touts Michael Kaiser’s Order of the Aztec Eagle medal awarded to him by Mexico. The Order of the Aztec Eagle medal should be surrendered by Michael Kaiser. It’s either worthless or defective. Maybe it should be replaced by a ceramic Bart Simpson.

Mexico should demand the Award be returned.

LA: Thank you Felix Sanchez for the interview, and for your activism.

You’re welcome. Let’s keep the heat on for a while longer.

Latinos are not asking to be represented. We have been doing that for 35 years.

Latinos are DEMANDING that the Kennedy Center realign itself to the true spirit of John F. Kennedy and all the Kennedy family legacy and recognize the greatness of American Latino artists and performers. Then maybe I will shout Viva Kennedy! again.

This article was first published in Pocho.com.

POCHO ÑEWS SERVICE PNS IS A WHOLLY-FICTITIOUS SUBSIDIARY OF POCHISMO INC., A CALIFORNIA CORPORATION, WHO IS A PERSON ACCORDING TO THE SUPREME COURT.  DON’T ASK US, WE JUST WORK.

[Image courtesy Pocho.com]

Earlier this month, the city of San Antonio, Texas inaugurated its first Poet Laureate, UTSA scholar Dr. Carmen Tafolla. Tafolla, currently the university’s writer-in-residence for Children’s, Youth, and Transformative Literature was selected by Mayor Julián Castro for her influential body of work and her accomplishments as an educator and poet.

A San Antonio native, Tafolla is regarded as a pioneer in Chicana literature. Honored by the U.S. Library of Congress in 2010, her other accolades include “two Tomas Rivera Book Awards, two ALA Notable Books, a Charlotte Zolotow, the Art of Peace Award, Top Ten Books for Babies, and recognition by the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies for work which “gives voice to the peoples and cultures of this land,” according to her webpage.

As highlighted in her UTSA bio, Tafolla’s work has appeared in over 200 anthologies, readers, journals, textbooks and more, making her one of the most highly anthologized of Latina writers. Though one place Tafolla’s work is not appearing is in classrooms in Tucson, Arizona, where her work Curandera, published in 1993, was placed on the school district’s banned book list. (But that just makes us want to search it out at our local library even more.) Find out more about her prose and poetry here or watch her discuss her writing technique in the video below.

Spread the word! Our weekly Bien Hecho segment, highlights the good deeds and achievements of Latinos across the U.S. If you feel that someone you know is deserving of recognition, let us know at tips@newstaco.com.

[Screenshot from video by WittliffCollections; Video by akajaysun]

California Governor Jerry Brown swore in Juan Felipe Herrera as the state’s new Poet Laureate last week.  Herrera currently serves as Chair in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside.

Aside from being the first Latino to hold the prestigious position, Herrera is has also authored  28 books, served as professor and chair of Chicano and Latin American Studies at California State University, Fresno, and was a teaching assistant fellow at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Herrera’s work has often dealt with the experience of being Chicano in the United States and Latin America, using poetry and prose that has been described as “both personal and universal in its impact, themes, and approach.”

According to the official press release from Governor Brown’s office, Herrera has worked his way up from humble beginnings to an academic life full of accolades:

The son of migrant workers from Mexico, Mr. Herrera earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, a Master of Arts in Social Anthropology from Stanford University and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa. He was elected to the Board of Chancellors for the Academy of American Poets in 2011, was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry in 2010 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry in 2009.

It doesn’t seem as if he’s let all of the awards and recognition go to his head, as Herrera appears laid-back and sincere talking about his love for libraries in this video:

Spread the word! Our weekly Bien Hecho segment, highlights the good deeds and achievements of Latinos across the U.S. If you feel that someone you know is deserving of recognition, let us know at tips@newstaco.com.

[Photo By Slowking4]

On August 29, 1970 in East Los Angeles, a group of Chicanos got together in order to discuss how to best oppose the Vietnam War; included in the mix were Brown Berets, walkout leaders, and an assorted mix of activists. The National Chicano Moratorium Committee put on the event, which would come to be known as the Chicano Moratorium, in what was then Laguna Park.

What was meant to be a peaceful protest to address real and salient issues unfortunately turned into a riot after police said they chased robbery suspects into the park, and began harassing protestors. When the dust settled, four people were dead, including journalist Rubén Salazar.

Now this historic event will get the literary treatment when students from Monterey Continuation High School in East Los Angeles present the plays they wrote based on interviews with four participants in the moratorium.  The staged version of the plays will be presented on January 25 and 26 in Los Angeles and be titled “2012 Meets 1970.”

According to a report from Latino LA, those interviewed by the students include:  organizer Rosalio Muñoz, Consuelo Flores, artist Vibiana Aparicio-Chamberlin and film/tv director Jesus Treviño. If you would like to attend the free plays:

WHAT: Staged Readings of “2012 Meets 1970″

WHEN: Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 10 a.m., and Thursday, Jan. 26 at 7 p.m.

WHERE: Margo Albert Theater at Plaza de la Raza, 3540 N. Mission Rd. Los Angeles, CA 90031

Spread the word! Our weekly Bien Hecho segment, highlights the good deeds and achievements of Latinos across the U.S. If you feel that someone you know is deserving of recognition, let us know at tips@newstaco.com.

[Photo By Losanheles]

Alondra Gomez of Chattanooga, Tennessee may only be 14 years old, but she’s already making history in the state’s local ballet company as the first Latina to be cast in a major role.

Gomez came to America six years ago from Mexico and started learning ballet before she could speak English. Telling the Times Free Press that she had never even heard of ballet before she came to this country, she claims that her dream is to dance with the American Ballet Theatre in New York City.

Although she’s one of the youngest dancers ever cast to play the Sugar Plum Fairy in Ballet Tennessee’s production of The Nutcracker, those who know and work with her say she’s a natural and that in this case, age doesn’t matter:

“She has the technical skills, the maturity and the ability to carry herself onstage and command that stage by herself in that leading-role position,” [Ballet Tennessee artistic director Anna Baker] VanCura said.

Watch an interview with the prima ballerina rehearsing on The Times Free Press‘ website.

Spread the word! Our weekly Bien Hecho segment, highlights the good deeds and achievements of Latinos across the U.S. If you feel that someone you know is deserving of recognition, let us know at tips@newstaco.com.

[Screenshot From Video By Patrick Smith]

Like many kids his age, my nephew is obsessed with superheroes.  With Halloween right around the corner, his current 4-year-old life dilemma is choosing between a Batman or Spiderman costume.  My biggest struggle with him, aside from convincing him to eat his vegetables at dinner, is getting him excited about speaking Spanish.  After coming across the comic book Amigoman, I found something that can satisfy us both.

Antonio Alvarado, aka Amigoman – The Latin Avenger, a mild-mannered History teacher by day and a bilingual vigilante by night in the City of Del Oro.   Alvarado fights crime while helping kids improve their reading and Spanish skills.

The story of Amigoman began when creator Anthony “AO” Oropeza couldn’t find any comics with Latino superheroes at his local book shop.  So he decided to develop one of his own, and gave the main character a background similar to his and the people he knew.  Regarding Amigoman’s origins Oropeza writes:

I wanted my character to be like guys from my neighborhood – blue collar with some the ambition to do something with their life as being one option and then the opposite as the other.

I ultimately would give him an American type of story with a positive twist. Just like many from my neighborhood my character would have a difficult youth but eventually would be set on a path to make himself a better person.

Aware that comics are enjoyed by readers of all ages, Oropeza made an AMIGO-Reading Rating System, creating different levels of stories and plot lines so that  kids and adults could learn from Amigoman’s adventures.

So with my nephew’s penchant for reading the same books over and over again, he can finally pick up some more Spanish words through a positive Latino role model.  And maybe  next year, he’ll want to be Amigoman for Halloween.

[Photo Via Amigoman.com]

By The National Committee For Responsive Philanthropy

America’s dynamic arts and culture landscape continues to evolve along with the changing needs and demographics of our communities. Yet, findings from a new report show that a majority of U.S. foundations that provide financial support to arts and cultural institutions have largely ignored these changes in their giving, according to the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (www.ncrp.org).

In “Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change: High Impact Strategies for Philanthropy,” author Holly Sidford observes that the more a foundation is focused on giving to the arts, the less likely it is to prioritize supporting artistic traditions from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America, Native American tribal cultures, rural communities and other underserved populations. NCRP is urging arts funders to rethink their practices and consider the benefits of broadening their audience to include underserved communities and supporting arts that promote equity and justice.

Only 10 percent of grant dollars made to support the arts (such as visual arts, performing arts and museums) explicitly benefit the poor, ethnic and racial minorities, the elderly and other marginalized populations. Less than 4 percent of grants dollars support advancing social justice goals through the arts.

Further, 55 percent of arts grants go to organizations with budgets greater than $5 million, which represent less than 2 percent of the more than 100,000 arts and culture nonprofits. Recent research demonstrates that the primary audience of these large institutions is predominantly white and upper-income.

“Culture and the arts are vehicles for expressing our struggles and accomplishments, our identity and hopes for the future as individuals and as a society,” said Sidford, a consultant to cultural organizations and philanthropists. “When philanthropy ignores the breadth of artistic practices taking place today, it ignores large segments of our society and misses the tremendous opportunities to help build and strengthen our communities, fight for justice and protect our democracy.”

The report includes a useful guide for all types of foundations that give to the arts on how they can make equity a core principle in their grantmaking.

“There is a mismatch between the priorities and strategies of foundations that give to the arts and the needs of our communities,” said Aaron Dorfman, executive director of NCRP. “Arts grantmakers need to revisit their policies and practices if they wish to continue to be relevant and increase their effectiveness given the evolving demographic, economic and cultural landscape.”

“Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change” is available on NCRP’s website at http://www.ncrp.org/paib/arts-culture-philanthropy.

The is a press release from the National Committee For Responsive Philanthropy in Washington, D.C. a national watchdog, research and advocacy organization that promotes philanthropy that serves the public good, is responsive to people and communities with the least wealth and opportunity, and is held accountable to the highest standards of integrity and openness. Visit www.ncrp.org.

La Raza Galeria Posada, a Sacramento forum for Latino arts could be shut down soon due to budget cuts and other financial pressures while the recently inaugurated La Plaza de Cultura y Artes in Los Angeles struggles to attract visitors and raise funds.

The Northern California gallery, known for showcasing visual arts, dance, music, and film made by Latinos, originally opened in 1972 and according to the Sacramento Bee, is one of the oldest non-profits in the city and will soon shut its doors if it fails to raise $50,000. A recent article in the LA Times states that, despite starting off with a budget of $36 million in public funds and a splashy, celeb-studded inaugural event in April, the Southern California art and culture space is short $400,000 in terms of covering expenses for this year.

As reported in the Sacramento Bee, La Raza Galeria Posada is important to the community considering:

If the organization were to close its doors, it would leave a gaping hole in the fabric of Latino arts nonprofits in Sacramento, said Tere Romo, a former curator and executive director at the Galeria. Romo is credited in the late 1990s with adding the gallery component.

“The reality is that Latino artists do not get the kind of exposure they deserve,” Romo said. “And these are the kind of spaces that afford that first-time exhibition.

As for six month-old La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, the LA Times reports that everything seems to have gotten off to a bad start including staff cuts, executive mismanagement, low attendance in one of the largest Latino markets in the country, and complaints from unpaid contractors. Yikes.

Perhaps the center’s predicament was summed up best in the LA Times:

“La Plaza has gone through an unbelievably painful birth,” said L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina, the center’s primary backer. She remains optimistic but added: “It’s not going to be easy.”

It sure won’t be easy for either La Raza Galeria Posada or La Plaza to pull through in this economy, but we’re rooting for them.

[Photo By La Raza Galeria Posada]