Here we go! — An Altar/Ofrenda before Election Day 11/05/2024

“Here We Go“, read the caption in the photo Pvt.1st Class Horacio Sanchez Valderas sent home after finishing basic training in 1943. Yuma Arizona was a far cry from Boganville, Guadalcanal and Iojima–the islands that he would be sent into combat in the South Pacific. The world was in the grasps of fascism. The Axis powers were led by dictators in Germany, Italy and Japan ranting to the masses about ideas of nationalism and supremacy. The peace and prosperity of the world was being threatened by power hungry despots with nothing but their selfish egos and pride leading their actions. This did not happen overnight. It developed from a zenophobic movement that had been gaining power fueled by a world depression resulting from WWI. Germany led the way as Adolf Hitler stirred the masses of unemployed and downtrodden blaming the Jewish people and foreign immigrants for their problems. The situation in America was not much better after the Great Depression. The white supremist movement led by the KKK and the American Nationalist movement pushed for a white America with the rally cry “Make America Great Again”, blaming the problems in America on immigrants and calling for all immigrants to be deported. Only when the United States was finally attacked at Pearl Harbor did it become involved in the war. My father was drafted and answered the call. Over 500,000 Latinos (including 350,000 Mexican Americans and 53,000 Puerto Ricans) answered the call as well and served in WWII.

The unfortunate thing is that after 100 years, we as Americans have not learned from the past. We are at the precipice of a tumultuous transition in the timeline of history that is being fueled by the same bigoted white supremist ideas that have been present since the foundation of this country. My altar pays homage to my father who believed this country was worth fighting for. His words “Here We Go” are my hope for the future.

UTSA Teuquiyaoatl(sacred portal) Installation: The Portal of Coatepec—2022

Throughout human history portals have taken many forms and the parallel realities that they connect are described at length in the myths and spiritual practices of ancient cultures of the world. Modern man’s continued fascination with portals in literature, science fiction, and scientific experiments makes them a part of our common reality. The Portal of Coatepec—2022 depicts the top of the mountain/temple where Huitzilopchtli was born from immaculate conception, battled and defeated his sister Coyolxauqui along with her brothers, The 400 Innumerable Ones.

The Portal of Coatepec(snake mountain)—2022 is an installation inspired by the portals that were created by ancient mesoamerican shamans. The array consists of sculptural figures representing cardinal sky bearer deities—Xipi Totec-east, Tezcatlipoca-north, Quetzalcoatl-west, Huitzilopochtli-south, placed on location to make a square arrangement. There are earth monster maw forms placed behind the sky bearers, at an angle, to create an infinity mirror effect showing an infinite number of sky bearers climbing up the mountain/temple. The focus of this installation is on the bridge at the location of the story rather than the ensuing battle and outcome of the story.

An act of decolonization through creation and placement is the path that The Portal of Coatepec (snake mountain)—2022 leads us to consider. The sculptures are made from the discarded styrofoam packing used to keep electronic entertainment devices and components safe from damage while being shipped thousands of miles across many borders. This styrofoam packing is engineered to keep modern communication technologies safe and thus there are specific aesthetic forms and shapes that are consistently present in order to fully protect the items. Like with the glyphs and sculptures of ancient mesoamerican cultures, there is an aesthetic language that is recognizable in this packaging yet not decipherable. After being cut up and reassembled, the new forms are encapsulated in brown shipping paper with the paper maché technique. The result is a completely new manifestation of the shipping material into a deity of cardinal status after traversing multiple borders in this reality. The negative space around these commercial modular forms becomes the empty matter that is used to create these modern manifestations of ancient gods in a new third space of existence.

Expedition to The Xicanx exhibit @ MOA-UBC, Vancouver for Xicanx Speaks

Its 4:30am CST Friday November 18th, the alarm woke me from my sleep and I popped up to get ready to travel to the other end of the continent—Vancouver, British Columbia. The journey to the last scheduled artist talk for the Xicanx exhibit had been a long time in the making. It began in the January 2018 when I met Jill Baird and Greta De Leon for a visit in my studio. They looked around, had questions about my work and listened to my stories. One of my works was selected to be in the Xicanx —Dreamers / Changemakers co-curated by the both of them at the Museum of Anthropology at The University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC. scheduled to open 2022.

5:30am CST finds me at the San Antonio International Airport finding my bearings after the security check and waiting for my partner on this voyage, artist Celeste De Luna. The huge cold wave that swept across the U.S. was affecting flights on the Friday before the big Thanksgiving travel week. After some tense re-routing of flights we took off to Vancouver via LAX. The rest of the flight after LAX was a hazy waking dream that turbulence shook me out of just in time to catch Mts. St. Helens, Rainier and Baker under me. The cold lush rain forest coastal setting of Vancouver BC was a welcome site compared to our crispy golden fried fish colored lawns in San Antonio.

1:30pm PST arrived and were greeted by Musqueam artistSusan Point's "Flight-1995"the worlds largest spindle whorl. Then at the bottom of the waterfall was were the'Salish Welcome Figures" by her as well. I had a distinct feeling of unexplainable familiarity when I looked at the figures. For me, it brought up memories of the Toltec, Olmec, Zapotec. We made our way to the UBC campus and set out to explore. Jill and Ana Neilson met up with us for dinner. Afterwards Celeste de Luna made a couple of phone calls to some of her printmaker peeps, we were lucky enough to be able to visit Master Printer Peter Braune at his studio New Leaf Editions on Granville Island. First thing I saw on a table was a large scale relief plate. It turns out according to Peter, he had pioneered large scale printing back in 1988 with dogsled dogs pulling a water drum because all the asphalt rollers were being used for road work.

6:59am PST and I needed some coffee so I set out to find it and get my bearings on the place. I took a good walk around the campus then discovered the entrance to Wreck Beach. The idea of stepping to the edge of the northwest edge of the continent was what i needed to do after flying this far north. After walking down almost 500 steps I got to the beach where I came upon some Irish vacationers swimming and sitting round a camp fire. The view to the north of Cypress Mountain was captivating sereneness that was expansive as it kissed into Vancouver Island to the south.

11:45am PST after a good brunch Celeste and I head to our rendezvous with Jill at MOA. We were going to see museum and show for the first time, meet with Jill and review for the talk and sit down for the talk. I think it that fitting and important that a show of this caliber was hosted at the Museum of Anthropology. The way I see it, The Xicanx Exhibit @ MOA presented an intergenerational survey of chicano art that recognizes time, place, space and identity thereby shattering colonial ideas of the homogeny our brownness/xicanéness. Set in the northwest rainforest the in a location that is the traditional territory of theMusqueam people the museum is nestled at the tip of the mouth of an inlet. When you make your way onto the museum you step down into it and into a great hall of large sculpture and textiles. To get to the Xicanx exhibit you are welcomed into it by older indigenous art works and contemporary indigenous artist works by Susan Pointe, Bill Reid and others as well.

The talk began as scheduled and there was a delightful group of people from as far as Boston and North Carolina as well as students and locals. The discussion topic was varied but circled around to printmaking with Celeste's large scale pieces placed across from my mixed media piece that harkened to the earliest method of printing—the hand or finger stamp. The idea of print being the media of the people was brought up with questions from the audience and we spoke about the Royal Chicano Air Force and about Large Scale Printing events and how they connect communities and heal. We also spoke about the need for mentorship and agency. Exhibit the like of this one establish agency for our gente. The results of intergenerational exhibits like this one establish important validation evidence when you are able to connect artists that work collaboratively within a mentorship structure. The group of artists in this exhibit know or are connected to each other one way or another, have collaborated one way another and mentor in various capacities. This example of Xicanx Art shows without apology the contemporary aspect rooted in our history. The digital organization to the exhibit presents an invaluable Educational Resource for art historians and I would highly recommend it to humanities and art educators that reveal the personal sides and interests in music, film, literature and love. The Xicanx recipes shared by themselves are enough to teach two semesters of culinary examples. Read more about what others are saying about the exhibit and please share.