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Fiesta de las Artes to feature Latin American artists

Published: Friday, September 17, 2004 6:27 AM MST

TUCSON--The arts, crafts and cultural traditions of Hispanic artists take center stage at Arizona State Museum (ASM) on Oct. 2.

The museum is celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month with its first Fiesta de las Artes--an intimate "mercado" or open-air market where visitors can enjoy shopping from an array of works by Hispanic artists from around the Southwest and Latin America.

Among the 30 artists scheduled to participate are:

Freddy Acuna Acuna, from the village of Iglesia Aguas Zarcas de San Carlos in Costa Rica. He will bring his bas-relief sculptures of people, animals, legends and other themes of rural life and folklore of his homeland.

Trained as a cabinet maker in his youth, the vivacious and creative artist became bored with furniture design and began carving and painting small figures to decorate his fruit stand.

Acuna's talent and vivid imagination create a variety of fantastic, bizarre and whimsical sculpted figures and beasts from Costa Rican folklore. His works have been popular at exhibitions throughout the United States.

Born into a ceramic-making family, Luis Blanco, Zapotec Indian from the village of Atzompa, Oaxaca, Mexico, began his clay career 42 years ago at the age of 5.

His signature black clay comes from pits he digs himself--a process he describes as "spiritual." His art has been featured in many publications worldwide including National Geographic.

Renowned textile artist Antonio Mendoza from Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico, and Santa Ana, Calif., will be displaying his woolen pieces.

Preferring to weave in the same spirit as his ancestors, Antonio resists using synthetic, machine-made or store- bought yarns. He also prefers to weave on his great-grandfather's loom.

Almost single-handedly, 31-year-old Antonio has revived the 2000-year-old tradition of his Zapotec ancestors by digging into history books to find out about traditional vegetable dyes, techniques and motifs.

"I feel my mission is to do something for my people," he says. "We have to restore and relive what used to be. We were born into weaving."

Mendoza is driven by his desire to share his ancestry with the world.

And while the weavers themselves will not be here for the show, the works of the Maya Weavers will be presented by the organization's U.S. representatives.

The Maya Weavers, a group whose members are deeply impoverished indigenous women from the western highlands of Guatemala, struggles to establish economic security for its members.

Income from their weaving provides much needed cash to supplement their subsistence farming and ensures continued education for their children.

This is an unprecedented chance for the community to benefit from a rare visit by these and other artists. Join ASM in welcoming them to Tucson.

The public is heartily invited to come to Arizona State Museum on Oct. 2, meet the artists, hear their stories, and buy directly from them.

Gate admission is $3 for ASM members, $4 for non-members, $1 for ages 13-16, and children under 12 free.

kwalenga@gvnews.com | 625-5511 x 29


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