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HISPANIC CULTURAL CENTER RUEBEN TREJO [[image]][[/image]] Artist Ruben Trejo of Spokane, Wash., showed his Joaquin/Walking/Codex II, 1999, an approximate 135-inch by 84-inch creation of welded railroad spikes, at the grand opening of the Hispanic Cultural Center. continued from page 28 "But many, many things got through that we never thought could be a reality in our lifetimes." Collaborative support grew to include more public and private funds. Individuals secured places for themselves or their families by participating in the Buy a Brick campaign, in which one could have a name permanently etched on one of 50,000 bricks of the Plaza Mayor. Finally, Phase I opened on Oct. 21. It includes a 10,000-square-foot Visual Arts Program complex with several art galleries, exhibit spaces and administrative offices. Also open is the Research and Literary Arts Program—housed in a completely restored WPA building—that includes a genealogical research center, library and archive along with a 150-seat ballroom. Dr. Reeve Love, director of the Performing Arts Program, arranged festivities for all. The site exploded with flamenco, Aztecan, folkloric, Afro-Cuban and contemporary dance. Music included traditional and Chicano New Mexican, salsa, Latin American and fusion. Al Gore was on hand to introduce the band Los Lobos. Crafts, juggling, acrobatics and storytelling engrossed the children as well as participatory percussion performances by Drumfest. And no one will forget the antics of the Circo Hermanos Ortiz with Tamborín, the clown. Carpas, or tent shows, combined elements of American vaudeville and European circus and were popular in Mexico and the Southwest from the late 1800s up to the middle of this century. Steve Ortiz, producer (and son and grandson of its previous producers) is re-creating his father's famous character. The original circo stopped touring during World War II because it couldn't obtain gas. That tent became the first for the original owner of García's Tents in Albuquerque. The opening is a hint of things to come. When the center is completed, it will include a performing arts complex that will house a 2,200-seat outdoor amphitheater, a 700-seat proscenium theater, a culinary arts program, a 300-seat film theater and a 150-seat black box theater for experimental and developing plays, dance and music. The complex will also include educational areas, rehearsal and workshop space, and a developed bosque trail. The architectural and landscape of the NHCCNM invoke traditions of Mesoamerica, Greek, Roman and Moorish forms. The stepped silhouette of the Visual Arts complex suggest planted terraces of Peru and other South American countries. Standing stark against the skyline, the silhouette also hints of the time-telling stone calendars of Chaco and other sites. A torreon is reminiscent of territorial watchtowers, while the restored WPA building remains replete with the corbels, high ceilings and vigas that can only give a sense of home. Entering the Visual Arts complex, you are drawn into momentary blindness between one life-giving light and another more-defined light. As your vision adjusts, you realize you are flanked on either side by the comfort of massive, fine-hewn doors that draw you not only backward and forward in time but also through an aperture peopled with real and mythic inhabitants. The first three exhibits of the new cultural center are Nuevo México Profundo: Rituals NEW MEXICO/JANUARY 2001 31
