Muertos de la Guerra/War Dead

MUERTOS DE LA GUERRA/WAR DEAD

a Día de Los Muertos ofrenda/tribute exhibition featuring work by
Claudia Agraz, John Berrios, Rolando Conseguera, Ignacio Gómez,
Roberto Guerrero, Sergio Hernández, Michelle Juárez, John Carlos de
Luna, Nico, Francisco T. Norzagaray, Christy Ramírez, Hector Silva,
Antonio Sorcini, Anabel Tovar, Arturo Urista, Laura Varela, J. Michael
Walker, Todd Waters and Jaime “Germs” Zacarías.

October 17th – November 10th, 2009
Reception/Altar Dedication: Thursday, Oct. 29th, 8 pm

Plus Special 7 pm Sneak Preview Screening at CASA 0101
(2009 E. 1st St., three doors east of Brooklyn & Boyle) of
As Long As I Remember: American Veteranos
a new documentary film by Laura Varela

An exhibition that explores death in latter day conflicts from Vietnam
and Central America to Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of these wars have
taken our young people to die in faraway places or wounded their
psyches as well as their bodies before delivering them home. These
wars have created hundreds of thousands of refugees, many of whom
eventually find their way to the U.S. as they flee violence and
attempt to reassemble their tattered lives. And on the streets
themselves, gang wars have claimed lives with similar results, leaving
sadness, broken hearts and pain in their wake.

MUERTOS DE LA GUERRA/WAR DEAD is a plea and a poem for peace, for an
end to violence both outside of and within our nation’s borders and
finally, the violence within our own homes and families. MUERTOS DE LA
GUERRA/WAR DEAD is our way of saying that we must let the healing
begin.

MUERTOS DE LA GUERRA DEAD is highlighted on Thursday, October 29th
with the dedication of an altar to veterans by multi-media
artist Laura Varela and a CASA 0101 Special Sneak Peak Screening of
her film, AS LONG AS I REMEMBER: AMERICAN VETERANOS, a documentary
that examines the toll Vietnam took on three Chicano artists in South
Texas. The Dia de Los Muertos tradition figures prominently into the
film as these veteranos attemp to heal the psychic wounds of war.

–
Christy Ramirez
Assistant to the Editor & Gallery Assistant
Brooklyn and Boyle Gallery
323-424-7856

Raul R. Salinas Archives

So yesterday Louis was in town to organize Raul’s archives that are at Resistencia, half are already in the Special Collections Library at Stanford University.  It was Emmet Campos, who is the project archivist, Louis, Rene and I.  Going through boxes and boxes of papers, articles, photos, media, and art.  What an amazing life Raul has led.

There were pictures of him at the founding of the Centro de la Raza in Seattle, at the of the trail of Self Determination,  at the Leanoard Peltier trial when he was co-director of the LP Deffence Committee, in Geneva with the Indiginous Rights Council, one of the first Flor Y Cantos in Califas in the early ’70s, in Nicaragua, in Puerto Rico, etc.  He has worked for human rights and dignity for all, when examining his solidarity work; I will list that another time because I could go on forever.  I am so excited to tell this story of transformation and action for justice and truth for all people.

Raul, we remember you ese.

Raul R. Salinas Leaves Us

I’m sure many of you know that el maestro Raul Salinas passed away earlier this year.

He was a mentor to many young Chicanos and people in general, who dedicated their lives to truth and justice.  I’ve been developing a documentary with raul about his life’s work.  So you can imagine how saddened I was when he passed.  Along with raul, the documentary team consists of some great people who have been there 100%.  Rene Valdez has been a solid foundation for Red Salmon Arts, the non-profit arm of Resistencia Bookstore, and an amazing liason between the project and all things raul.  My heart went out to Rene, as well as Raul’s  family; but Raul was like a father to Rene.

I have a large list of Humanities professor’s if you go to the project site you’ll get the big picture.  They have all been so amazing and are so valuable to this project.  Dr. Louis Mendoza and Dr. Alan Gomez are really the ones who have been in the trenches with raul; they have also been actively involved in the research and development of this film.

Anne Lewis will be co-producing and editing on this project too; she has been a great advisor and solid when it came to making sure we filmed raul at every possible chance.  \r\n\r\nSo yesterday Louis was in town to organize rauls archives that are at Resistencia, half are already in the Special Collections Library at Stanford University.  It was Emmet Campos, who is the project archivist, Louis, Rene and I.  Going through boxes and boxes of papers, articles, photos, media, and art.  What an amazing life raul has led.  There were pictures of him at the founding of the Centro de la Raza in Seattle, at the of the trail of Self Determination,  at the Leanoard Peltier trial when he was co-director of the LP Deffence Committee, in Geneva with the Indiginous Rights Council, one of the first Flor Y Cantos in Califas in the early \’70s, in Nicaragua, in Puerto Rico, etc.  He has worked for human rights and dignity for all, when examining his solidarity work; I will list that another time because I could go on forever.  I am so excited to tell this story of transformation and action for justice and truth for all people.  \r\n\r\nraul, we remember you ese.

Media Kunst at the Blue Star

What can I say, Media Kunst at the Blue Star was a success.  The forum included German interdisciplinary artist Vaago Weiland, Guillermina Zabala and myself.  Installation films and documentations were looping throughout the whole gallery space.  Usually a filmmaker works day and night to complete one project and screen it for an audience. It was a pretty amazing to see all the installations/films playing at one time.

Vaago had his Asmat Shooting Gallery, Attention Burka, Maria, Real Hindus Don’t Eat Meat and Toro Tormentos looping.

Guillermina and I had True of False: Video Altar dedicated to the Muertos of the Iraq War and the documentation of the multimedia installation by Vaago, Gisha and I Exist/Resist Metamorphosis of Destruction.  Plus Gisha and I showed clips from current projects, Gisha showed excerpts of Juanitos Lab and F-Watch and I showed a couple of clips from As Long as I Remember.

The discussion revolved around international collaborations and interdisciplinary work in a contemporary art background.

Raul Salinas and the Poetry of Liberation

Raul Salinas and the Poetry of Liberation has been in development and we are currently filming every opportunity we get with Raul Salinas and trying to get as much information about the trajectory of his life.   The development of this project has been sponsored by Humanities Texas and ITVS.

As Long as I Remember: American Veteranos

As Long as I Remember: American Veteranos is currently in post-production. It’s been along time, have been working on this film at least six years but we are now closer than ever and plan on completing the film by the end of the year.

Saludos!  I just launched this new blog to keep people updated on all the great work that either I or my colleagues are producing in San Antonio and abroad.