Cultural

Fiestas Patrias 2009

Seattle, WashingtonSeptember - December 2009

LatinoYear 3

Special Edition

Latino Cultural 3

Director

Hugo Ludeña

English EditorDavid Preston

Spanish EditorJavier Amaya

Associate EditorLiliana SidoineJavier Amaya

Design

LC Design Group

Public RelationsTess Morgan

Cultural

Latino Cultural Magazine

Copyright © 2009

Latino

Cover image by

Hugo Ludeña

“Danza Azteca”, 2008

Azteca dancer performing in

a ritual ceremony at Día de

Muertos presented by Taller

Mexicano Para La Cultura y

Las Artes.

Image courtesy

Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle. This special edition of Latino Cultural Magazine was made possible with the

kind support of the Bellevue Arts Commission and the Seattle Office of Arts and

Cultural Affairs - SmArt Ventures Program.

www.latinoculturalmagazine.com

Latino CulturalP.O. Box 5721

Bellevue, WA 98006latinocultural@aol.com

206 . 992 . 3930

C o n t e n t s

5. Literature Bárbara Jacobs

7. Sculpture Carlos Espinoza

10. Photography Photovoice - 2009

14. Poetry Eugenia Toledo

17. Film The Seattle International Latino

21. Painting Jose Orantes

Film Festival

This special edition of Latino Cultural Magazine was made possible with the

kind support of the Bellevue Arts Commission and the Seattle Office of Arts and

Cultural Affairs - SmArt Ventures Program.

Latino Cultural 4

Sculpture

Carlos Espinoza

www.carlosespinozaart.com

hen Carlos Espinoza started sculpting, almost im-mediately he noticed the influence of the Mayan cul-ture on his work, which was no surprise to him, since his grandfather had Mayan roots. In his early pieces he used red and white cantera stone that comes from the Mexican state of Chihuahua, where he grew up. As he looked at the form taking shape, Carlos felt that he was holding a piece of ancestral art in his hands, really dis-tant in time, with an almost mythical feeling to it.

In the beginning, Espinoza’s favorite subject for sculp-ture was hands. He was always trying to reproduce those silent and mistreated hands . . . When he looked at the people whose hands he was sculpting, he saw campesinos, indigenous people, and workers—people from both sides of the border. Eventually, he started to portray other facets of these people in his sculpture, incorporating their daily activities, customs, and cloth-ing into the designs. Then he started looking at other areas of their world, at their mountains and valleys. From there, his repertory began to extend to experi-ments with the beauty of the animals in the altiplano—jaguars, eagles, coyotes. Even fish. Espinoza began looking deeper into the history of indigenous people. He visited the sites of their ancient buildings in and around Mexico City, studying the motifs and looking for the influence of indigenous art on the Spanish-style architecture that followed. He gave his own interpreta-tion to these motifs, which comes out in the totemic columns he carves.

When Espinoza came to Seattle, he was fascinated by the totem poles carved by Northwest tribes, which gave him another source of inspiration to create his own unique pieces. In these pieces you can see elements of indigenous civilizations from both Central and North America.

Espinoza does both abstract and realistic sculpture. Of course, with the realistic pieces—Aztec warriors with their jaguar skins and eagle feathers, or campesinos with their palm hats and work tools—he maintains a close fidelity to the subject. Some arists have a recognizable style, but Espinoza doesn’t think he does. Each idea that he brings to life in stone or clay is just one more piece from his “creative machine,” which is constantly searching for new forms of expression.

Hugo Ludeña ©

By David Preston

W