RIDING HIS HIGH from last week’s interview with Linda Ronstadt and Dolores Huerta, the author spent some time taking in the conference of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC). Hundreds of artists, academics, philosophers, poets, gallery owners, politicians, curators and other interested folks from across the country descended upon San Jose for the conference, which unfolded last week.
Panel sessions took place in the Marriott, while receptions and performances went down at venues throughout San Jo and at the Mexican Heritage Plaza. Five heroic organizations comprised the host committee: MACLA, Teatro Visión, the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, the Castellano Family Foundation and 1stACT.
Thursday’s ceremonies kicked things off with a bang. Vendors hawked T-shirts, jewelry, Frida Kahlo clutch wallets and more. Playwright Octavio Solis delivered the keynote speech, talking about his work, his failures, his creative process and how he’s sick and tired of being told he’s the “first Latino playwright performed” at any given institution. That statement received a round of applause.
Another highlight was Malissa Feruzzi Shriver, chair of the California Arts Council, whose animated speech rallied the troops on a few fronts: getting the arts back into all California K–12 public school systems, and campaigning for the Arts License Plate Project. The Arts License Plate is the California plate that says ART LVR in front of a now-famous Wayne Thiebaud picture of palm trees on the left and a sun on the right. Amazingly, 60 percent of the council’s current budget comes from the sales and renewals of these plates. Currently, Shriver is spearheading a campaign to get 1 million more folks to spring for plates at $40 a pop. After her talk, Shriver had to split for Beverly Hills where she had a 3pm meeting with Barack Obama’s Council on the Arts and Humanities.
At the conference, a variety of panel sessions were scheduled. One example: a discussion titled “Beyond the Tipping Point: Latinos, Popular Culture and Social Media” was set to explore how the next generation of Latino artists is producing work that is reshaping the U.S. cultural milieu and how pop-culture is interpreting that work. On the dinnertime front, one evening reception filled an upstairs level of the Tech Museum. The Plaza Garibaldi restaurant on Santa Clara Street provided the food, including an explosively spicy ceviche. The author went back for more.
Other highlights—and this is important—included performances by Teatro Visión, Los Lupeños de San Jose and local mariachi ensembles. Delegates also got a chance to attend receptions at neighborhood joints like Mezcal Oaxacan restaurant and Diablo’s Bar & Bistro on San Fernando Street. There was a local hip-hop gig by TurboMex at MACLA, a public-art tour of downtown San Jose, plus a visit to “Xicana: Spiritual Reflections/Reflexíones Espiritúales,” a group show of Bay Area Chicana artists at the Triton Museum. In that sense, the host committee made sure to keep things in the ‘hood, showcasing San Jose attractions rather than cattle-car everyone to San Francisco, Santa Cruz or Monterey, as other conferences most often do. You got the feeling the organizers actually wanted to show off the art and soul of San Jose rather than shrugging their shoulders and pointing everyone to Santana Row or the Great Mall.
“There’s a lot of key decision makers here,” said MACLA’s Anjee Helstrup-Alvarez, “which means a lot. It shows off San Jose as an arts and culture destination. We connected the conference to things here in San Jose for them to see.”
