Boom! Oaxacan culture gets five-month spotlight at Arte

To describe the cultural richness of the southwestern Mexican state of Oaxaca, one would need to talk about its history, food, dance, art and much more.

That is why ‘Boom Oaxaca: Conversaciones de Campo a Campo’ (Field-to-Field Conversations) is spread from its March 4 opening through Aug. 14 at Arte Américas. The exhibit includes drawings, video lessons and artwork. Tons of artwork.

Arte Américas executive director Ruth Saludes said the center embarked on the exhibit two years ago after receiving a $310,000 grant from The McClatchy Fresno Arts Endowment of The James B. McClatchy Foundation.

The Latino cultural arts center on Van Ness and Calaveras needed some sprucing to meet requirements for the exhibit, one of the largest the center has undertaken since its inception in 1987.

“We believe in the Indigenous communities of the Central Valley, and we believe in the arts for what it represents,” said Priscilla Enriquez, chief executive officer of the foundation, at a Feb. 27 special reception.

Enriquez compared Boom Oaxaca with efforts to preserve culture during military invasions in Ukraine and Afghanistan.

“Boom Oaxaca is about preservation, giving voice and visibility to a culture, a peoples’ language that is so important, and its expression through the arts,” said Enriquez.

There are an estimated 50,000 residents with Oaxacan roots in the Central Valley. Their presence has grown in recent years through their food, their Guelaguetza Festival, their dances, and their labor in the region’s rich agricultural fields.

The exhibit builds on those contributions and moves from there.

“Boom Oaxaca is an invitation to participate in local and transnational conversations around food sovereignty and Indigenous sovereignty as issues that uniquely converge in the Central Valley’s Oaxaqueño community,” states the special website – boomoaxaca.com – about the multi-layered exhibit.

The exhibit leans heavily on the art of Narsiso Martínez and Tlacolulokos, whose works are described as using “self-representation and visibility as an act of political rebellion, and as an autonomous approach to an ownership of culture.”

The exhibit explores California and Oaxaca spaces to draw attention to a community that has often become invisible in México and the U.S.

Fabiola Santiago was born in Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca – the world capital of mezcal.

“There are at least three generations of mezcal-makers behind me, but this ancestral inheritance has not been passed down to me,” said Santiago, the keynote speaker at the special reception.

She did not, however, inherit that livelihood because her family was forced to migrate to the U.S. when mezcal production plummeted in the 1980s.

“As the demand for tequila continued to grow, Agave Tequila Weber became scarce so tequileros illicitly purchased agave from Oaxaca and emptied our fields,” said Santiago.

Her family moved to West Los Ángeles in 1992, where her parents “worked too much, with the hopes of saving up and going back to run their own business in Oaxaca.”

That never happened.

Her mother was deported in 2008; followed by her father in 2010. Santiago got her green card in 2013.

Similar stories are shared in video and artwork in the exhibit.

Martínez, who lives in Long Beach, draws on flattened produce boxes. Sometimes, he stacks the boxes and uses the exterior sides as a canvas.

He draws inspiration from his time as a farmworker for his art

“I’m hoping that a lot of these people will go to the show and will see themselves in the work,” Martínez told KVPR reporter Madi Bolanos. “I want them to feel represented. I want them to feel proud of what they do because what they do is important.”

Martínez will be at Saturday’s (March 5) opening reception from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The event, which is sponsored by the Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño will feature food, music and dancing.

The biggest murals in the exhibit belong to the art collective Tlacolulokos, whose public art draws on issues of transnationalism, migration and tourism. The group, which is made up of Darío Canul and Cosijoesa Cernas, both natives of Tlacolula, Oaxaca.

Their work has been featured at the Los Ángeles Public Library.

Boom Oaxaca will include workshops the first Saturday of each month.

The April 2 workshop, ‘Tejido de Palma,’ will explore the 1,000-year-old tradition of weaving palm leaves into baskets, bags and petates (mats).

Arte Américas is open Thursday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 per person, $3 for children over 5, and free for children under 3.

Details: boomoaxaca.com or (559) 268-6240.