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HISPANIC CULTURAL CENTER   H

MIGUEL GANDERT
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Cuerno Verde y Don Carlos Fernández, Alcalde, N.M. 1999, Nuevo México Profundo exhibit.

of an Indo-Hispano Homeland, La Luz: Contemporary Latino Art in the United States and Barelas Over the Years.

Dark eyes peer out from exotic headpieces decorated with pieces of mirror and tile and images of Our Lady of Guadalupe. A small masked boy plays Torito; an ancient perijundia (cross-dresser) carries some secret in a mischievous grin. These are a few of the 130 black-and-white images of Nuevo México Profundo, Miguel Gandert's powerful photographic essay documenting Indo-Hispano religious and secular rituals and performances.

Well-known and obscure pilgrimages, dances and plays are traced through villages from northern New Mexico into northern Mexico. A culmination of 20 years of work, the images depict the rituals from the colonial period between 1598 and 1821 that are still enacted today—Los Moros y Cristianos, Los Matachines, Las Posadas, Los Pastores and Los Comanches, to name a few.

Four large photographs of Comanche faces are particularly striking. "Comanches are some of the people who were taken captive by the Hispanos, or in some cases the Comanches took Hispanos captive. There was this trade in people and some of these are descendants," says Helen R. Lucero, director of the Visual Arts Program. "Edward Curtis was busy documenting the 'authentic' Indian, but he didn't concern himself with any of the hybrids. This work of Miguel Gandert is about the half-breeds getting legitimized, getting documented." An illustrated catalog accompanies the exhibition, including essays by Enrique Lamadrid, Lucy Lippard, Chris Wilson and Ramón Gutiérrez addressing issues of identity and ethnicity.

Bold colors and shapes that seem newly invented invite you away from the long-time carrier of tradition. You are drawn into the experiences and imaginations of an adventure of artists with La Luz: Contemporary Latino Art in the United States.

Some of the works are perplexing. Some seem simple but might not be so. They might include light bulbs or train spikes. They may be serious or funny or both. Some exhibitors call themselves Hispanic; others prefer Chicano, Latino. Others still are Puertoriqueño or Cuban or Mexicano. But, whatever their method of expression or chosen name, this work is from la gente, the people. They are brought together not as in a melting pot but like the different bits of glass in a kaleidoscope—each a distinct carrier of individual and collective vision, each an angle of light worth reflecting on alone.

The works of 50 artists showcase a range of aesthetic expression in contemporary Latino art. Paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, prints, videos and performance art pieces represent artists "from Massachusetts to California, from Puerto Rico to Washington state," says Andrew Connors, senior curator of the NHCCNM and formerly of the Smithsonian. "It really covers the nation and territories, not in a comprehensive way but certainly in a broad way. Each of us as individuals have our own interests, wishes, desires and concerns, and that's very much the case in the arts community as well. They all deal with their own things. I hope that this focus will help people to come

32  NEW MEXICO/JANUARY 2001