Just a gentle reminder to shake what your Mama gave you this Mother’s Day, and keep in mind how motherhood binds us across generations, cultures and borders. To participate in a pro-migrant, pro-family Mama’s Day arts movement, take a look at the work CultureStrike co-founder Favianna Rodriguez and other artists are doing at StrongFamiliesmovement.org.

–MC

May Day 2013 was awash in pro-migrant art, with marchers painting the streets of many cities with the pride and fearlessness of the movement in bold colors, CultureStrike is proud to be carrying on a long tradition of placing art at the vanguard of the political landscape. Dialing back a bit–check out this documentary about Willie Herrón’s retrospective mural, “Asco: East of No West,” which explores a political, artistic and historical moment originally captured in a photograph of the 1972 Asco performance by legendary LA artist Harry Gamboa Jr. (whose work was recently featured by NPR). This video, produced by Alexa Oona Schulz, was part of the LACMA 2011 exhibit ”Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1972-1987.”

"Walking Mural" (Asco, Harry Gamboa, Jr., 1972, via LACMA)

Can you find the art in your neighborhood?

Backdrop to the video:

In conjunction with the Asco exhibition, LACMA commissioned Willie Herrón to create a mural, “Asco: East of No West”, based on Harry Gamboa Jr.’s photograph of the 1972 Asco performance “Walking Mural”. “Walking Mural” was a street performance in which the artists created elaborate costumes and paraded silently along Whittier Boulevard. The new mural recalls and reinterprets that performance. It is part of a series of mural by Herrón in the alley at City Terrace Drive, behind Alvarez Bakery near Cal State LA.

From Puente, Arizona, speaking truth to power in many languages:

The LA based band, Las Cafeteras heard about the Blanco family who has their mother, grandmother, and grandfather in detention after another work raid done by Arapio’s MCSO. This is a message of love and support dedicated to family unity. Stop the detention of workers, working is not a crime. Stop the deportations. Stop family separations. #not1more #niunamas

Learn more and sign the petition at: http://bit.ly/dropchargesstopraids

A one-minute reminder about why we’re talking about immigration today in Washington, from Jose Antonio Vargas and Define American:

Immigration is a complicated issue. But at its heart, immigration is quite simple: It’s about people. It’s about families and jobs. It’s about a better life for today, and for tomorrow. It’s the question of, how do you define American? 

As Washington prepares to draft and debate an immigration reform bill, undocumented immigrants are documenting themselves- and have been for years. Using Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram and other tools, they are telling their stories and changing the conversation.

Directed by: Ann Lupo and Jose Antonio Vargas
Edited by: Ann Lupo

A short video about, by and for undocumented youth on “the cost of failed immigration policies and the need for comprehensive, more humane immigration reform.”

Created by Hunter College’s Amnesty International + DREAM Team at Hunter College for Campus MovieFest.

Creators:
Angel Sutjipto – Captain
Rachel T. Zamora – Participant
Abraham Gutman – Participant

For more information, visit www.campusmoviefest.com

A dispatch from Logan Phillips, an Arizona-based poet and activist with the Tucson Youth Poetry Slam, and longtime CultureStrike ally, about a small triumph at Pima Community College. Young people have campaigned successfully for in-state tuition for students who qualify for the White House’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a temporary reprieve from deportation that the Obama administration recently launched in response to massive grassroots pressure for immigration relief for undocumented youth:

Pima Community College, Board of Governors Meeting, February 27, 2013. Tucson, Arizona. Tonight the Board will decide whether or not to provide in-state tuition to students who receive work permits through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA). Student and poet Alexia is called up first to speak.

After 60 more minutes of passionate and articulate comments from community members–all in favor–the Board voted 4-1 in favor of the measure.

Support for the measure was organized by ScholarshipsA-Z, an organization that provides resources and scholarships to students, families and educators in order to make higher education accessible to all regardless of immigration status.

Alexia works with the Tucson Youth Poetry Slam and Spoken Futures, Inc.

In a follow-up report, Logan writes that even this modest victory can be a breakthrough for young people like Alexia whose futures have been in limbo as they navigate the immigration crisis: “As problematic as Arizonan politics are, don’t write them off. The course towards the future is being charted here.”

In the media a “Latina” actress can fall under many strange categories, and let’s face it–some are not so great. What is the assimilation process for immigrant women performers today? What kind of associations are made for the political title, Latina? We don’t have all the answers, but we want to express (in our own way) how ridiculous these processes are for women performers with immigrant backgrounds. 

This film, by young University of California-Berkeley graduates Samanta Cubias and Rosa Navarrete, drew inspiration from CultureStrike’s art-activism initiative, UndocuNation. Here, Cubias and Navarrete share thoughts about working with and busting out of stereotypes through theater and film:

UndocuNation seems to be the appropriate venue to share our struggles as performers (for dance, theater, and film). Sometimes it seems like in order to be given a role you must strip yourself from all your ‘Latina-ness’ or over-dramatize it in order to fit a stereotype. With the help of Luna (a pug who gets judged for not being Chihuahua enough for a Taco Bell commercial) and Jean Luc (a sassy puppet with an eccentric accent) we will share our experiences as students, lady performers, and daughters of immigrant parents.

We hope the video expresses how immigration affects not just those who physically cross the border, but also the generations that come after them. We believe that confidence, a sense of self, and a desire to belong (acceptance) can be affected by someone’s immigration status and history. These issues are then amplified when we are bombarded with negative portrayals of ‘Hispanic/Latino’ themes in the arts and media. This short film will show how some choose to carry the pain of the past, and how some choose to ignore it in order to forget. Our goal is to inspire and have people question the problems that we see on our stages, in our movies, and on television shows. We want to share our personal stories, and how the pressures of assimilation have affected us as performers. How is immigration being portrayed in our country? How are people of color being portrayed? Our wish is that someday, generations after ours will perform any role without the need to fit into a mold.

The subject of immigration and migrant rights continues to influence both our lives. To us, immigration is not an act with a clear beginning or end, it is a cultural phenomenon that affects everyone that surrounds it. We hope you enjoy the film.

Credits: 

Written and Directed by: Rosa Navarrete & Samanta Cubias

Director of Photography: Lucía Sanchez/Lux Nueve  Actor: Alex Bonte

Learn more about Navarrete‘s work at her blog.

Featured artists:

• Favianna Rodriguez, visual artist
• Julio Salgado, artivist
• Aracely Mondragon, Chicana poet
• Yosimar Reyes, Two Spirit Poeta
• Josh Healey, poet and comic storyteller
• Berenice Dimas, Queer Jaranera
• Persia, International Glamorous Drag Queen
• Hertz Alegrio, visual artist
• Alex Bow, transgender surrealist pop artist
• Jesús Iñiguez, spoken word artivist
• Khushboo Kataria Gulati, Kali Desi Artist Storyteller 
• Melanie Cervantes & Jesus Barraza

The event also showcased a production by El Teatro de Estánfor directed by Cherríe L. Moraga, in addition to a performance by Poetry for the the People directed by Aya de León.

For more information on Undocunation, find us on Facebook.

As Washington gears up for a debate on immigration reform, and the DREAM Act once again becomes a focal point for easing the draconian laws that have shattered so many families over the years, Asian American youth are campaigning in New York City to protect and empower undocumented youth. On Wednesday January 30th, KORE (Korean Americans Organized for Reform and Equality), a partner of the MinKwon Center for Community Action, is holding a benefit concert to raise education scholarship funds for undocumented immigrant youth in the Asian Pacific Islander community. The concert takes place from 6-9pm at Toshi’s living room (1141 Broadway), and features a range of young performers and musicians. Go here for more information.

Here are a couple of the artists on the bill:

Taiyo Na, hip hop artist: “My body of work traverses across music, film, theater and poetry to narrate the inner and outer lives of immigrants and people on the margins of society.”

Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, poet: ”It always excites me when I’m able to use my artistic work in support of social change work. The DREAM Act and the movement of young people across the country who’ve been motivated to organize, develop leadership, create strong networks in service of this legislation is truly inspiring to me. We are in a shifting world now that is far more global and connected than ever before. It speaks to the strength of this generation that young people are coming together to recognize that and really acknowledge all of the different people that are a part of making America. The DREAM Act is just one step forward in a much larger continuum of work that must happen in order for this country to value our diverse communities.”

On Monday, Richard Blanco became the first Latino and first gay poet to read at the inauguration, as well as the youngest. His poem “One Today” spoke to common experiences of cultural distance and interaction, heritage and hybridity. He ends with a note of unity as well as tension surrounding the country’s nebulous path toward a “new constellation”:

One sky, toward which we sometimes lift our eyes 
tired from work: some days guessing at the weather 
of our lives, some days giving thanks for a love 
that loves you back, sometimes praising a mother 
who knew how to give, or forgiving a father 
who couldn’t give what you wanted.

We head home: through the gloss of rain or weight 
of snow, or the plum blush of dusk, but always—home, 
always under one sky, our sky. And always one moon 
like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop 
and every window, of one country—all of us—
facing the stars 
hope—a new constellation
waiting for us to map it, 
waiting for us to name it—together.

In an interview with NPR, Blanco talked about the odd sense of fate with which he views his journey as the child of a Cuban migrant family:

My mother … was seven months pregnant with me when she left Cuba, and at that time, in 1968, since there were no diplomatic relations, everybody had to go through what they called a third country, so we ended up in Spain. Forty-five days later I was born, and a few weeks after that, we got in a plane and immigrated once more to New York City. So by the time I was about 2 or 3 months old, I had figuratively and literally been in three countries, and could probably have claimed citizenship in any one of the three at that moment. And then eventually when I was about 3 or 4 we settled down in Miami. And it’s kind of, you know, as I look back on my life, as we all do, you kind of think, ‘Is this some kind … of foreshadowing, of course, of what my work as a poet would be obsessed with?’ This whole idea of place and identity and what’s home and what’s not home, and which is in some ways such an American question that we’ve been asking since, you know, since [Walt] Whitman, trying to put that finger on America. You know, it makes for a very confusing childhood. Like, most of my family calls me el galleguito, which means the little Galician, and yet we were Cuban, and in my, you know, 5-, 6-year-old mind, I was going, ‘What the hell are they talking about?’ Not only that, I’m not from Galicia, I was born in Madrid, I’m a madrileño! So, it somehow seems like it was all fated.

Blanco probably harbors no illusions that he would be the poet to definitively “put that finger on America.” But for a moment on that day in Washington, he did point Americans toward something bigger than themselves, something we can’t quite define, but of which we’re all a part.

–Michelle Chen