Zócalo: Jaguar Speak

Oaxacan culture showcased at Newport Visual Arts Center
By Laura Eberly of the News-Times

Artist and musician Martha Toledo will share the music of Oaxaca during a special film presentation today (Friday) at the Newport Visual Arts Center, and will also host “The Soul of Juchitan” on Saturday featuring music, a slide show, and feast reflecting the traditions of the Oaxican region of Mexico. (Courtesy photo)

As the revolution continues in Oaxaca, Mexico, where a movement of the Assembly of the People of Oaxaca has ousted of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Newport artist Ann Miller Frances is among those working to share the vitality of Oaxacan culture with those beyond Mexico’s borders.

Ann is one of nine artists who comprise La Guenda - Zapotec for “the soul of all things” - a group of native-born Oaxacans and foreign compatriots who hold in common a love for Oaxaca. An exhibit featuring the multi-media works of La Guenda, “Crucero/Crossroads,” has been on display for several weeks in the Runyan Gallery of the Newport Visual Arts Center and will end today (Friday) with a public celebration of Oaxacan culture.

Ann and fellow La Guenda artist Martha Toledo, a native of Chimilapa, Oaxaca, invite the community to a special screening of the film “Blossoms of Fire,” a documentary about the vibrant Zapotec culture of Juchitán, Oaxaca, set to begin at 5:30 p.m. today in the Runyan Gallery. Admission is free.

The film was created over the course of 10 years and was crafted as the study of an indigenous, matriarchal culture that continues to thrive through the generations. Among its numerous accolades, “Blossoms of Fire” was named Best Foreign Documentary About Latin America at the Havana International Film Festival and received the Award for Excellence from the American Anthropological Association.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to view the artwork included in “Crucero/Crossroads” and enjoy music performed by Martha, who is currently on tour and will perform at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley and the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco after her visit to Newport.

“I wanted my Oaxacan community and my Newport community to meet and Martha’s a part of that,” Ann said of her part in organizing the event.

For the past decade and a half, Ann has lived in both Newport and San Pablo Etla, Oaxaca, where she spends several months with her compañero René Bustamante and her Oaxacan family then returns to Newport for several months before repeating the cycle. San Pablo Etla is located about 30 miles outside of Oaxaca City, the center of the revolution.

Before her recent return to Newport, “my town, the people were watching (the revolution) - they were alert, but they were just watching,” she noted. “Now, my compañero tells me at this point, the people are involved. They are participating, so it’s spreading. The people are doing everything possible to keep it going.”

The revolution was sparked in May during the annual teacher’s strike at the zocalo, the city plaza, which began as an effort to secure more funding for Oaxaca’s schools and turned into a call for the resignation of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, the acting state governor widely accused of allowing greed and corruption to supercede the best interests of the people.

On June 14, Ortiz sent 3,000 troops to the zocalo to break up the strike and instead fueled a revolution. Since then, military forces have refused to go against their own people and the members of the rebellion have organized into the Asamblea Popular del Pueblo de Oaxaca (APPO), which has placed representatives throughout the state’s governing entities to help maintain order during what they view as a transition of power back to the hands of the people.

“The people have established patrols to maintain safety in the communities,” Ann said. “It’s exhilarating to watch.” The national government - currently embroiled in a controversy of its own with a contested Presidential election and the establishment of a parallel government by Presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador - has neither relinquished control of Oaxaca nor taken a hard stance against the people’s revolt, seeming instead to be waiting to act.

Businesses and schools throughout the state are not operating and “now Oaxaca is in a critical place, because they’re running out of food,” Ann said.

Several pieces by artist Ivonne Kennedy in the “Crucero/Crossroads” exhibit depict the Oaxacan revolution and include images and articles taken from current newspapers and collaged into frames of traditional architectural structure.

“Ivonne is somebody who has spent a lot of time in the streets of Oaxaca,” Ann said. “She works intuitively with space and volume, architectural form - in this case, she’s been so moved by the current Mexican revolution that her work reflects it.”

Ann’s own work has turned toward softer elements of beauty and light, a departure from her recognized style of stark contrast and jutting edges. “I know my own tendency has been to invoke images of beauty, whereas before the revolution my work tended to be more edgy,” she said. Her part of the exhibit includes several photographic images embellished with pastels depicting Oaxaca’s natural world.

Photographer Marcela Taboada’s work is also included in the show. “She’s really considered the new generation of Mexican photographers,” Ann said. Taboada was recently honored by National Geographic for her work and will be featured in October at the Photographic Center Northwest in Seattle.

Textile artist Natividad Amador’s hand-sewn embroidery designs add bold colors to “Crucero/Crossroads” and share the gallery with detailed oil paintings by Mona Lang, clay sculptures and muslin prints by Katy McFadden, figure drawings by Rowena Galavitz, and works of nostalgia incorporating found and saved items by Sandra Luz Morales Garfias.

In January, “Crucero/Crossroads” will be on display in Portland then travel on to galleries in Mexico and Germany.

Before leaving Oregon’s central coast, Martha will host “The Soul of Juchitán” from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, offering an experience of Oaxaca including a slideshow of images reflecting life in her hometown of Leica, traditional and contemporary stories and songs rooted in her Zapotec heritage, and a traditional Juchitán feast. Tickets to “The Soul of Juchitán” are $35 each; reservations may be made by contacting Nancy Jane Reid at 265-6569 or Ann Miller Frances at 265-9747.

For more information about La Guenda, visit www.arteguenda.com.mx. More information about “Blossoms of Fire” and its director Maureen Gosling is posted at www.maureengosling.com.

Laura Eberly is a reporter for the News-Times. She can be reached at 265-8571 ext. 217, or laura.eberly@lee.net.