Art show examines half-century of Mexican history in Escondido
By: PATRICIA MORRIS BUCKLEY - For the North County Times | ∞
"Mi Corazon Escondido (My Hidden Heart)"
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m. Sundays; through July 4
Where: California Center for the Arts, Escondido Museum, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido
Tickets: $5, general; $4, seniors/active military; $3, students with ID; children under age 12 admitted free
Information: (760) 839-4120
Web: www.artcenter.org/museum.htm
While Cal State San Marcos teacher David Avalos is cited as the creator of the exhibit "Mi Corazon Escondido (My Hidden Heart)," he really is the one who assembled the works of many artists to give a rarely seen look at Escondido.
"You hear about art being site specific," he said, "but this is place specific. My interest is to do something about the place. I selected artists from Escondido and others as well to contribute to the exhibit."
Artists with an Escondido connection include Escondido natives Brandon Cesmat, who teaches a humanities class with Alvalos, and Marco Garcia, one of Avalos' students. Another contributor is Carlos Von Son, a Spanish professor at Palomar College, as well as several other artists, poets, activists and residents.
"Collaboration is a way of recognizing that we're not just a bunch of people," said Avalos, who has participated in several collaborative projects in the past. "We can dig in our heels or dance together."
By combining all these different voices, the result is a richer, more comprehensive look at Escondido's past, especially when it comes to its Mexican population.
"The project has a couple of themes," he said. "It's based on the Mayan philosophy 'Iam lak ech,' which means 'You are my other self.' It's a more profound version of the golden rule."
Artists contributed photographs, poetry and artifacts. There are many found objects, such a scrap wood, junk metals and cast-off gewgaws. Avalos put these objects together in a way that invites the viewer to an emotional response.
For example, one work combines photographs of everyday objects in the homes of Escondido's immigrant population.
"It's in response to Escondido's ill-conceived and incendiary housing ordinance," he said, referring to the Escondido City Council's decision last year to require landlords to verify the residency status of all tenants. That policy has since been withdrawn. "We felt that what got lost in the discussion is that we are talking about people's homes. So we took photographs of objects such as a grinding bowl, tortillas and other common everyday objects. I assembled them into a collage to try to communicate the feel of these people's homes."
The immigration issue also gets touched on in a manner that reflects the collaborators' feelings on the subject.
"It's all about recognizing our common humanity," he said. "We need to think in terms of humans and human rights."
He also addresses the Bracero Program, a government program for immigrant workers that brought many people from Mexico to the United States. This program, started during the WWII labor shortage, lasted until the 1960s.
"Escondido has a long history of interacting with the Mexican population," he said. "That's why we brought in photos of Bracero from the '50s. This is not an issue that fell out of the tree last month. It's been around at least half a century. It's time we started acting as if Mexico was our neighbor, not our enemy."
That's a broad spectrum of ideals for one exhibit to communicate. But by combining many different mediums from a large variety of artists, Avalos hopes that "Mi Corazon Escondido" will do just that.
"I think that people will enjoy it visually," he said. "I want them to take some visual satisfaction as well as an emotional response."
"Mi Corazon Escondido (My Hidden Heart)"
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m. Sundays; through July 4
Where: California Center for the Arts, Escondido Museum, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido
Tickets: $5, general; $4, seniors/active military; $3, students with ID; children under age 12 admitted free
Information: (760) 839-4120
Web: www.artcenter.org/museum.htm
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THIS is an outrage but what wrote on Mar 14, 2007 3:02 PM:can you expect from the NCT's and a Cal State SM teacher with students who aren't qualified to be enrolled in any college. Diversity is what they teach when they need to teach english and math. Shame on you!
Al wrote on Mar 14, 2007 10:27 PM:History? Let's see- avacado pickers, ILLEGAL migration, gang members, nonassimilation, not paying taxes, anchor babies, highest high school drop-out rate, etc. Such admirable historical lineage deserves a showing alright! It's called the I5 southbound.
Can't wait to see wrote on Mar 15, 2007 5:27 PM:The black velvet Elvis!!!
I was born and raised in wrote on Mar 16, 2007 9:31 AM:Escondido... and I am old! LOL We had a ton of Hispanic families and they all spoke ENGLISH, were legal immigrants or born here. The immigrants were allowed in for short periods of time to pick and they went HOME to Mexico when the season was over. They were provided homes to live in. Remember the "little houses" where the Bus Depot is now? Back then you didn't have to lock your car, your house or worry about your kids walking to school. We didn't have gangs and everyone got along. Escondido was SAFE. Those days are over and unless we start fighting for our rights and demanding deportation of ILLEGAL aliens we will never see them again.
Well-Conceived Ordinance wrote on Mar 17, 2007 7:44 AM:A political statement through art. News? No. CSU San Marcos has lost much academic credibility, especially since Gerardo Gonzalez, the former head of the National Latino Research Center at CSUSM, came to the Escondido City Council under the title of Interim Associate Vice President for Research at CSUSM and claimed misuse of its research contained in the Escondido Mission Park report. However, a reader of the Mission Park report can only conclude that illegal immigration is a key factor causing growing poverty in the Mission Park area. (pages 15, 16 and 25) CSUSM's National Latino Research Center was founded by past President Alexander Gonzalez who has proudly pointed to his membership in the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA), a national organization for Chicano/a students. We have now come to the understand that MeChA is a racist organization that spreads a hatred of the 'gringo' invaders of Aztlan. Thus, a rational observation is that the NLRC at CSUSM is a platform for latino political hacks to spew out biased research under the guise of sound research using the respectability of the CSU system as cover. From this article, it appears that the CSUSM art department is another similarly structured La Raza front designed to promote illegal immigration. This lack of academic integrity appears to infect the entire CSUSM campus.
Concerned wrote on Mar 17, 2007 9:39 AM:Leave it to the racist idiots to post things about immigration when reading an article about an ART SHOW. It's an art show you ..., not a place for you to expound on your idiocy and ill-conceived positions on immigration. Only a fool would disagree that immigrants (legal or otherwise) have made this country what it is today. Ignorant ... ....
Escondodo wrote on Mar 18, 2007 4:35 AM:I've been in Escondido since early 1988. From my own experiences, Mexico and its friends in Washington D.C. ARE our enemies. This stuff permeates our society. I could give you other examples but will wait for the right time. Just how stupid do you think we are??? I am still capable of telling the differences between common humanity and national sovereignty. Nice try but still no cigar. I stand ready for the next volley. Where's a Trojan Horse when you need one? The ball's in your court. Game's still on.
Is there... wrote on Mar 19, 2007 8:48 AM:...any art work in the show that depicts Cesar Chavez's efforts to destroy the Bracero program because it was interfering with his efforts to organize Filipino farms workers? Or this just limited to the currently approved, politically correct, version of history?
Concerned... wrote on Mar 19, 2007 8:52 AM:you just don't get it. It isn't racist, it is WAR. We are being invaded, and brainwashed, but most of us are not going to lay down and play dead. Go right ahead if you want to.
Feck wrote on Mar 19, 2007 1:12 PM:I am SO TIRED of celebrating Mexico. I've had it. Seriously.
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