Presented by Ana Pescador Executive Director of The Latino Museum of History, Art & Culture

Los Angeles California All copyrights reserved by the author Ana Pescador 2010

La Nueva Ola is a very adequate title for this gathering; we are surfing a wave that is changing America’s cultural landscape. Whether institutionally or individually, we are all contributing to this transformation and we should feel stoked about the prospects for la gente. In what follows, I offer a reading of our current cultural context, an analysis of where we are heading and a vision of how we ought to write our destiny. Cultural contexts are determined by time, place and space. We understand “reality” in unique and often distinct manners. Thus, a brief personal introduction is in order before sharing my reading of the world. I grew up in a household where single mothers raised two generations, first in ranches and then in metropolis. With them, I learned how to use my hands and with their support I became the first college graduate in my family. Over the past two decades I have been working with Angeleno communities in different capacities: mentoring youngsters, supporting community leaders and contributing my artwork to non-profit organizations. As an artist, I have always portrayed what I feel. My work can only express what has nurtured me: a deep respect and love for a magical culture. My creations do not venture into the unknown, the lofty, the avant-garde. I am an optimist who gives shape, color and form to what my people have enunciated since time immemorial: a love for nature and life, an understanding of mysticism and death and a connection to a spiritual omnipresence. Although I have been navigating in “la nueva ola” for years, it was until I became an institutional representative with leadership responsibilities that I began “labeling” my work. I am a cultural agent sailing in search of cultural equity. My vessel, TLM, is led by a virtuoso captain, UCLA Ethnomusicology Professor Steve Loza and a talented crew including our Board of Trustees. We are committed to increasing awareness and expanding knowledge about Latino art. We recognize that our essence is multicultural, born in Aztlán and Tiwanaku, developed in the Mixteca and Cochabamba, and maturing in Lynwood and the Bronx. Now let me share my reading of our cultural context. The United States is immersed in a process of cultural hybridization in which discrete, independent socio-cultural structures; practices and products are combining to create new ones. We have never been in a better position to participate in the definition and preservation of Latino identity and patrimony. We are writing the preface of the United States’ cultural future. We are the largest minority in the country (so we have the critical mass to effect social change); we have a high number of youngsters in our population (so our purchasing power will continue to grow) and we have made gains in professional and political structures (so we have strategic allies). Yet, we are still a marginalized community economically, educationally and culturally. Given the examples the world has seen over the last millennia, I am not sure if we will ever see a society where everyone has the same amount of “wealth.” Yet I do know that

cultural hybridization is inevitable and it is up to us to make the best of the process. We need to read critically the reality of Latino culture and act strategically upon it. We must preserve and cultivate our cultural patrimony. Since one in two young Latinos in Los Angeles does not finish high school, the cultural richness of our people rapidly erodes. The distress of most academics, businessmen and officials witnessing this tragedy lies in the diminished productivity, low political participation, and low levels of income that accompany high school dropouts throughout their lives. For us, the catastrophe is material and existential. Political and economic systems are external; they come and go, and operate on the material level. Culture and spirit are internal, irreplaceable and live in the metaphysical dimension. Because half of our children do not complete their basic education, it is impossible for them to know who they were (Mayas and hidalgos), who they are (heroes and creators) and who they can become (astronauts and presidents). The fleet of Latino artists riding la Nueva Ola fights for the dignity of all people regardless of race, color, gender and identity. Our crew believes in TLM’s ability to create a better world for our children. But are we heading in the right direction? As we surf a hybrid swell changing mainstream culture, it is important to remember that hybridization is not a new phenomenon in the Americas. Mestizaje and syncretism gave birth to a cosmic race that has been replenishing, re-symbolizing and recreating itself for more than 500 years. But economic, demographic and technological forces have accelerated the velocity of change, and intensified the magnitude and the spatial scope of this process over the past two decades. Latino artists, consumers and publics are reshaping contemporary popular culture. We are adding linguistic, idiosyncratic and distributional layers to a previously off-limits cultural milieu. Just as burritos, nachos and margaritas gained a space in American culinary traditions in the 20th century, today enmascarados, corner fruit stands and state-of-the-art roach coaches are taking root in Southern California and other metropolitan centers. In sports and musical markets, corporate agents aggressively cultivate Latino audiences and acquire proprietary rights over artists’ and athletes’ skills and, more importantly, ownership of their broadcast persona (for example, the Shakira’s and Mark Sanchez’ of the world). Mainstream cultural institutions are integrating Latinos into roles that were unattainable last decade. Although entry to the elite markets is still limited to a handful of artists, it is increasingly common to find creations from American barrios by artists without Anglicized names commanding asking prices of 5 to 6 figures. Over the next two generations, hybridization will expand Latino cultural production and consumption in communities beyond the coasts and the borderlands. A growing number of Latinos will share cultural artifacts, meanings and identities through multidirectional and instantaneous information flows.

In seventy years, Latinos will comprise nearly half of the population in an increasingly mixed-race America. In the interim, a growing Latino bourgeoisie with greater purchasing power will multiply and diversify art collector circles and demand for affinity works. Also, the National Latino Museum will set de facto standards for the classification, dissemination, valuation and acquisition of Latino art by public cultural institutions and museums. The exponential growth of mixed race marriages in the U.S. during the last decade, the current market strength of African American popular icons, and sheer demographic diversity are indicators that ethnic and aesthetic hybridization will continue to gain momentum in America. We, as Latino cultural agents, have a formidable opportunity to engage strategically in these early stages of North American transculturation. Latinos have demographic, geographic and linguistic assets that ought to be used, if our cultural stature is to flourish in tomorrow’s America. We need to confront the cultural siege of the dominant media by becoming the most proficient practitioners of the commercial creed without abandoning our principles of solidarity, respect and dignity. Interestingly, it was in a letter written in English by Maestro David Alfaro Siqueiros—a radical communist—where I found the key to riding the wave of Latino cultural patrimony. Exiled in Los Angeles and frustrated by “expert” criticisms of his work, he shared the following comment about American collectors with Carl Zigrosser: “Disgraciously, the ones that favor me have been inviting me to their houses to feed me, but so much that I am tired of it, instead when they should buy pictures from me.

July 14, 1932 Siqueiros’ work in Los Angeles transformed contemporary art. He created a plastic medium, mechanized tools and dynamic techniques for what he saw as a revolutionary era. Yet in the midst of his socialist dissertations, he acknowledged that one needs cash to change the world. Our young athletes, artists and creators should look how the “Golden Boy” transitioned from talent to promoter, from property to owner. And by doing so, he increased his share of the pie and his ability to give back to the community. Latino talent sells—even in culturally closed markets. Scores of Brits, particularly the young, can’t get enough Chicharito. Thousands of Mexican elites are replacing Donald Trump ties with Pineda Covalin designs inspired in indigenous art. Chicanitos, to use a preferred term of Maestro Sal Castro, seek what reminds them of home, what brings back the love of their parents: the flag, la virgen, la selección, los tacos, etc. The Asian entrepreneurs who developed Plaza Mexico in Lynwood and those who sell hundreds of thousands of flags in downtown LA, Santa Ana or Huntington Park during El Grito ceremony are surfing the wave. Why can’t our children start surfing? I will conclude by describing how our vessel is engaged in promoting cultural equity. Culture is a museum’s space and the people inhabiting that space are its time. The vision of a transformative museum is defined by its historical moment, the geographic region

where it resides and the creative heritage it protects. Although in our cyber era we can be everywhere at the same time without taking up physical space, transformative museums reside in one or multiple cultures. TLM is anchored in the Latino capital of the United States. As agents of cultural transformation in Los Angeles, we know that the scorn poured on immigrants is not founded solely on difference, on the unfamiliar or the undesirable. The alarm of the nativists, minutemen or tea partiers also arises from desire and attraction. It stems from the fraternity and solidarity created through cultural equity. What terrifies those who believe that there are inferior people and cultures, is the possibility that their children will fall in love with our children. It is that love, a feeling they cannot control, what annoys them. And no matter how ignorant they are, it is impossible for them to deny a hug or a kiss to the granddaughter who hops on their lap. This happened more than five hundred years ago in the infancy of Latin America and this is happening today in the gestation of Latina America. Our President, Barak Obama, son of an African father and an American mother, exemplifies the fruit of hybrid love. He is the offspring of love between two cultures that respect each other; love between two people who support each other; and love creating a child in whom the best values of the cultures which gave him life are blended. Our Museum embarked in the quest for cultural equity over two decades ago. We believe that respect for multiculturalism is as important as freedom of speech and as necessary as social justice. Culture is the education of the soul; museums are temples of creativity and cultural agents are the priesthood of the people. Our mission is directly related to our social function and to our pedagogical work. In TLM, our temple of creativity, we focus our attention on the community rather than on objects; we cultivate social heritage and not only institutional collections; we prioritize communication over classification; and we promote participation as opposed to contemplation. Our programs and educational services strive to instill in the young sensitivity for art in all its manifestations and our collection reflects the diversity of cultures in Los Angeles. Mainstream cultural institutions in the US and other elite cultural centers of the world have started using the methodologies of transformative museums. We already perceive the results with many more young people participating in the afternoons dedicated to them; with more ethnic minorities appreciating art produced by them and with new audiences generating revenue through cultural consumption stimulated by an institutional openness to the hybrid genesis of a cultural transformation.

All copyrights reserved by the author Ana Pescador 2010