June 13, 2001
Subject: [AztlanNet: ARTS|LETTERS] NM CyberCircus
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 01:43:09 -0000
From: "Pedro Romero Sedeno" <romesedeno@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
To Octavio Oromano: I don't have trouble getting any of YO YO art. I use the computers at the public libraries. As the song goes: "You can't sing the blues if you own your own computer" This month and July , I am working 4 days a week in a summer art institute out of town. I am one of four artists working with 20 high school students doing a ceramic mosaic project on a convention center, so I have limited time for cybercharla, but I enjoy Oromano graphics like "arteesta hamericana.
----------I finally figured out what ticks me
off so much about the LupeSirena payasadas and CyberChapel, here in N.M., is
that it has made a circus of the religious folk art tradition, a tradition which
is "de lo nuestro", of us manito/raza. The dominant culture,
i.e. the Museum and the media, is propagandizing the whole commotion its
way of course. : To me, the whole commotion reinforces the racist stereotype
that us Hispanic/Chicanos,etc, are "just a bunch of stupid Mexicans".
That's what really bugs me.
Alma Lopez's digital jingoisms and Tey Marianna Nunn's "computer-altar" have provided the substantiation for this stereotype, but their supporters "just don't get it" and are blinded with that "you go, girl" attitude. You notice their only defense of Alma's work is to villainize the critics, like you and me? No real debate. Anyways, oro, Keep up the good work.
Subject: hello
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 02:39:29 -0400
From: mariam <mr24716@aol.com>
i think your work is great and no matter what anyone says you should keep expressing your opinions and you cant always please everyone but that doesn't mean you should stop what your doing. i love your work and hope you keep coming out with more. my teacher showed it 2 the class and a lot of the kids were like whoa about the "our lady" but i like how u captured the beauty and dominance and strength of a woman.i have 2 go to bed now but keep up the greta work bye bye
Subject: Re: [AztlanNet: ARTS|LETTERS] NM CyberCircus
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 11:15:46 EDT
From: RR2001RR@aol.com
Reply-To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
To: romesedeno@hotmail.com, AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
Pedro Romero Sedeno wrote:
"To me, the whole commotion reinforces the racist stereotype that us
Hispanic/Chicanos,etc, are "just a bunch of stupid Mexicans."
Perhaps this is the most revealing statement
of this entire debate... isn't that the dominant psyche of Raza in this country,
particularly those from New Mexico... and Northern new Mexico to be precise...
I respect all peoples' beliefs... about what is sacred... and so I do understand
that point of view... this is in response to that other attitude that many
of us confront... that is, the atitude of "don't confuse us with those
stupid Mexicans from south of the border." That atttitude can be found
everywhere in the United States... in L.A. and El Paso... and New Mexico.
It's vicious... and based on his response, seems to cloud the ability to think.
Regarding one's faith, an image should not shake
one's faith unless one actually has no faith... but again, I do respect all
things sacred...
Sincerely
Roberto Rodriguez
Subject: Our Lady
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 13:13:16 EDT
From: Gerrigerling@cs.com
To: almalopez@earthlink.net
Why do you feel it necessary to depict Our Lady
as a defiant, provocative ,"in your face" woman? She is the gentle,
loving Mother of Our Lord- you cheapen her and all womankind by your depiction.
I have no problem with your right to express yourself, but with that right
should come responsibility, and sensitivity to others. We do appear to live
in a world where "anything goes" - but, I implore you to consider
the beliefs and respect for others.
How would you feel if an artist depicted Hispanics as ignorant, dirty and gaudy? Please, it saddens me more than it angers me that you feel such a need for notierity that you would sacrifice Our Ladys image on the altar of money and publicity.
Subject: comentary on alma lopez' "virgin"
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 16:06:09 -0700
From: sergio zenteno <info@sergiozenteno.com>
To: XColumn@aol.com, almalopez@earthlink.net
As is often the case, women performance artists
who explore personal issues such as rape, abuse, sexism, etc., tend to present
their bodies in disrobed or nearly nude situations in performance. Raquel
is a case in point. I find this interesting.
The Virgen of Guadalupe, an essential icon in
much of the world, particularly in Latin communities, will invariably command
attention, specially if it is "treated" with the provocative signifiers
of modern-day sexiness, even when the face denotes a sufficient degree of
sufrida angst. I admire these women for producing such controversy-prone
work but by employing such obvious and loaded topics: sex and religion, Alma
and Raquel risk the central merit of the piece. Often, the controversy-as-noise
surrounding a work of art passes for true aesthetic and/or conceptual merit.
sergio zenteno
Subject: Re: Your wonderful cause--
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 21:33:23 EDT
From: Gwynneth5@aol.com
To: almalopez@earthlink.net
Dear Alma:
I want to add my wholehearted support for your
magnificent courage to the record of all those who also see and understand
the value and supreme importance of the stand you have taken. It is a very,
very old fight, and one we, as women and human beings must fight, and keep
on fighting, not only for ourselves but for the moral and spiritual survival
of the human being as a species. Women's rights also are the most fundamental
human rights. The men who oppose you now are too far from the truth to understand
that their own rights have been, and will be, imperiled, by the very same
tacitcs they are using against you.
I am an artist living in the New York area,
and have been a feminist for many years, so I understand only too well what
you are dealing with.
Bravissima! and hold on--help is coming--as
it must for your sound and good cause.
I wish you all the very best success--
Most sincerely,
Noel Wynn
Subject: Fwd: Re: [AztlanNet: ARTS|LETTERS]
NM CyberCircus
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2001 18:48:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: Pedro Romero <romesedeno@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
To: AztlanNet@yahoogroups.com
Roberto Rodriguez wrote: ... but again, I do
respect all things sacred...
Question: Is the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe
groping La Sirena's T & A sacred? Is the image respect-able?
AS per what is Mejicano, the dominant culture
of this country is much ignorant about what is Mexican, even New Mexican (
many think New Mexico is not part of the U.S. even). Even a most significant
cultural icon of what is Mejicano, i.e. la Guadalupana image, is ignorantly
dismissed as trivial, a commodity, and little understood. Commandeering this
image to give relevance to one's own political agenda, as Alma Lopez has done,
trivializes the esteem or value (syn.: respect) many Mejicanos and Nuevo Mejicanos
have for the traditional image and its role in their personal experience.
The dominant culture's cultural apparatus, such as the Museum of New Mexico,
validates and has propagandized this ignorant trivialization. Lopez's work
serves the dominant culture view. > Lopez says "Our Lady" is
not devotional. As it is written: "It is literally true: 'Human things
must be known in order to be loved; divine things must loved in order to be
known.'" -the Urantia Book