IN THE 20 years that the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture has flourished as an advocacy group, it has never convened on the West Coast, which is especially surprising given the large Latino population and fertile arts scene in California. That changed, however, when the association made the decision to hold its biannual conference in San Jose.
“Latino Creativity in the 21st Century: Beyond the Tipping Point” is the theme for the seventh national conference since the inception of Texas-based NALAC in 1989, according to Maria Lopez de Leon, the organization’s executive director, and is the culmination of a series of events honoring the group’s 20th anniversary.
This year’s gathering will take place in San Jose because of what de Leon attributes to a large constituency represented by organizations spread throughout the state. “[NALAC] just thought it was time to go to California,” she says. “We had so much confidence, and we valued the work of the people that are a part of the host committee. They’ve been fantastic. This is the only venue where the national Latino arts field gets to come together. There’s no other Latino arts and culture national conference in this country.”
The event, which runs April 14–18 in downtown San Jose at the Marriott Hotel and other venues, will include speeches, workshops and panel discussions as well as concerts and exhibits drawing Latino artists from across the country. One highlight of the event will be a performance for conference goers on Friday by South American singer Susana Baca. On April 17 at the San Jose Women’s Club, there will be a concert with Sones de Mexico of Chicago, the New York Puerto Rican group Los Pleneros de la 21 and the East Bay folk ensemble Los Cenzontles.
Coinciding with the anniversary of NALAC—and demonstrating some of the depth of home-grown Latino arts in this area—will be the opening of Leonard Madrid’s Perla, a production by San Jose’s Teatro Visíon, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The show offers a glimpse into the life of a Latino family living in New Mexico, taking audiences on a journey through “Hispano” culture with food, the veneration of saints and music.
Perla tells the story of a young female who sidelines her wedding plans to search for an estranged father once famous as a Norteño vocalist, longing to establish a relationship with an important piece of both her life and her identity. Having won the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Latino Playwright Award, Perla serves as the embodiment of what the conference hopes to achieve.
NALAC takes special pride in its efforts to support local endeavors and artists outside of its home state of Texas. Since 2006, the advocacy group has awarded more than $500,000 to various artists and organizations throughout different regions of the country and has graduated 175 alumnae over the course of nine years from its Leadership Institute.
Of the five contributing members of this year’s host committee, two are based in San Jose: 1stAct Silicon Valley and Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA). Tamara Alvarado, director of Multicultural Leadership for 1stAct, is chairperson of the local host committee and happens to be a graduate of NALAC’s leadership program. She recognizes the value of what groups like NALAC have committed to.
“One of our key activities is involvement with next generation leadership,” Alvarado says. “One of the things about trying to impact the region is saying, ‘What are we doing in terms of leadership?’ We’re not necessarily equipped to sit at the table and actually create change. If we don’t know how to create policy, change policy, input policy, then really how are we moving our community forward? How are we actually breaking down progress between communities? So the [Multicultural Leadership] initiative is really about decreasing isolation between communities of color, and specifically through leaders that are involved in arts and culture.”
Working in collaboration with MACLA’s executive director, Anjee Helstrup-Alvarez, the two organizations have been successful at raising around $40,000 to date in order to fund the activities that will take place over the course of the conference. Helstrup-Alvarez has supported the Latino arts and culture field since 1994, using MACLA as a vehicle to showcase the talent brewing in the city of San Jose, in large part by raising money to commission new works by Latino artists at least once per year.
The importance of NALAC holding the 2010 conference in the city is paramount given the demographics of its population, which account for 26 percent of Santa Clara County’s total residency as of 2008, as reported by the U.S Census Bureau.
“It’s important that people from all over the United States that are working in the field of Latino art and culture see San Jose as a destination, so, in the larger sense a kind of cultural tourism, ” Helstrup-Alvarez says. “[NALAC] didn’t choose San Francisco. They didn’t choose Oakland—which are both great cultural cities. San Jose, I really think is up-and-coming in terms of being a cultural destination, and so I think this conference being here really validates that.”
It was almost five years ago that Alvarado and a few of her colleagues presented the initial proposal to make Silicon Valley an anchor point for one of NALAC’s national conferences, which at the time was not accepted.
De Leon, however, didn’t close the door on the possibility of coming here eventually. According to de Leon, San Jose made a good case for the importance of the city’s role in the overall future of Latino culture.
“Latino arts and culture really have impacted this country greatly, and it is only going to continue to impact the culture of this nation,” de Leon says. “With the increase of our demographics in the population, I think that it’s even going to take a greater role as part of what is American culture. Latino culture is a part of that.”
SUSANA BACA appears Friday (April 16) at 8:30pm at the Soto Theater, 701 Vine St., San Jose.
LOS CENZONTLES, LOS PLENEROS DE LA 21 and SONES DE MEXICO ENSEMBLE appear Saturday (April 17) at 8pm at the San Jose Women’s Club, 75 S. 11th St., San Jose.
PERLA, a Teatro Visíon production, runs April 15–May 2 at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, 1700 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose. One-day registrations are available. For details, see www.conference.nalac.org.
