Michael Sedano
Magu. When Magu died his many friends grieved his absence because he was so vital and so young and so alive. You can't miss him, though, because sabes que? Magu lives. There's Magu photo-bombing Eloy Torrez, resisting the urge to make rabbit ears. Always liked a good laugh, Magu did.
The legendary artist, Gilbert Magu Lujan, is all over the walls in
Santa Paula's Art Museum where
In Search of Magulandia, this year's
21st De Colores Art Show, opened last Saturday, October 18 and will run through February 22, 2015.
The
Santa Paula Art Museum occupies a solidly built 1920's two-story building in the heart of a scenic valley where agriculture and oil helped form a town that is finding community through culture. The Limoneira Building was Union Oil Co's founding Hq.
Museum Executive Director Jennifer Heighton worked with Curators
Xavier Montes and Vanessa Acosta to mount the dual shows. A companion exhibit opened at the city's Agricultural Museum, a restored railroad warehouse where
Los Fabulocos performed and the Magu-painted Family Car was surrounded by superb exemplars of Magu's sculpture and paintings.
At the Art Museum, the 1950 Chevy coupe with the FAMCAR license, together with Mario Trillo’s delivery van, greeted visitors at the side entry, where shade added to the welcome on the open sky Spring-like afternoon. Danzantes opened the doors at two in the afternoon and the place soon rocked with gente taking in the tributes to el maestro.
Jennifer Heighton beamed as she passed among the throngs moving about the gallery, posing for fotos with artists and one another. Angel Guerrero and Sergio Hernandez showed portraiture while Paty Diaz (with daughter Leylany Rodriguez) and Manuel Unzueta created symbolic references to Magu's love for cars.
There are some precious gems among the work on display. All endeavor tributes to Magu’s iconography. Artists paint trokitas, pyramidal dogs, indigenous motifs, color, smiles. They attempt to capture Magu's attitude; he painted with disarming innocence that takes a big bite out of comfortable ideas and perspectives.
The show brings together dozens of Magu's friends and running mates, also in the show artists who knew Magu, artists who studied Chicano Art and knew of Magu. The work includes variety from pastiche to portrait to allusion to school-of tributes. The artists speak in acts of friendship and love for Magu, his art, and what Magu championed. It is an altogether invigorating and encouraging exhibition.
There's always something. I missed a knee-high wood sculpture set on the floor beside a support beam--a couple of times--and in the crowd couldn’t bend to study it when I noticed it.
Spirit-infused artists showed up to make the opening a distinguished gathering. This particular group knows how to have fun.
Oscar Castillo and
Mario Trillo captured images.
Pola Lopez and Victoria Plata relaxed with the Family Car.
David Botello shared fine points of the giclée Manuel Urrutia bought in the gift store. Urrutia did what visitors need to do more of when visiting museums, buy stuff. Mario Trillo photo bombs David and Manuel.
A museum visitor's friend captures a moment with
J. Michael Walker, whose piece is obscured by the phone. Walker's stunning work merits such widespread acclaim that one day this visitor's relatives will want copies of the foto he's snapping. Be sure to click on the links to individual artist webpages, like this one for
Michael's.
Pola Lopez tells a rich story of her first meeting Magu. They knew of one another by reputation and their work. Pola had constructed a work featuring the Family Car in a landscape populated by feminist symbology. Entitled Not a Hood Ornament. Magu was apprehensive she was calling him on the carpet.
Lopez'work is an appreciation. Magu learns this and Pola and he become lifelong friends. Pola's narrative of creating this tribute to her first Magu encounter will have visitors triply engaged with Pola's wonderful kiss, Magu's smile, and the artist's expressiveness. Peace Offering lettered down the left edge shares their history while also remembering her friend, qepd.
Pola Lopez and her work
Museum Executive Director Jennifer Heighton beams delightedly when spotted circulating through the lively crowd who pack the gallery. The turn-out for the show is historic. Gente galore wander in and about the red-brick walls, enjoying the ambience, the food and beverage, the plein aire style found in side galleries where gulp-prices on large paintings give one pause. It's discover day for many, their first visit to town.
The large crowd mills about the big room until they begin claiming chairs for the presentations. Magu's son, Otoño, will be playing later with el
Conjunto Los Pochos. All the Magu kids, and their mom, have come to celebrate Magulandia with his friends.
Vanessa Acosta sparkles with excitement and indefatigable energy reserves. She and museum staff and Xavier Montes have worked months inviting, receiving, hanging, making arrangements. Here now, then gone in sixty microseconds, Acosta may have discovered teleportation. The museum publishes a beautiful full-color glossy commemorative pamphlet. Santa Paula Museum of Art does things first class for Magu and his friends.
Vanessa Acosta
Big X, as Montes is called, gives free music lessons to local kids--Jarocho to Beatles but mostly musica--through
Strings of De Colores, a museum-sponsored non-profit.
Details at the link on donations and mailing address for non-card donors.
Montes conducts the music with fervor and the musicians perform with puro ganas. Calling out the chord, he sings as well as coaches them through an able and extended performance. These kids are wonderful music makers. Performances like these will eventually coax out the dollars to help the museum wire the place for sound.
As X collapses in joy and exhaustion with the concluding notes, one of the
Angels on Harps leaps from her instrument and claims victory of kids over loving music teacher. He challenged them to make all that practice pay off and it was Carnegie Hall day in their home town art museum. They all triumphed today.
Musicianship and heart
Museum Executive Director Jennifer Heighton, David Botello with Botello's Magulandia painting. Exquisite in detail and symbol, Botello's portrayal would be extra fabulous adorning one of those big walls downtown, or at the Smithsonian. Docents would spend hours pointing out the history and significance Botello places onto the canvas. It, along with Family Car, one day will be in the Smithsonian. Heighton can claim art world bragging rights on having launched the wall.
The Agricultural Museum waited after a pleasant stroll passing an old Moreton Bay fig, crossing the railroad tracks and a route step march along the tidy tracks to the pea gravel then the door.
Magu's own work hangs in a corner of the huge space. Collectors owing quintessential Magus shared freely with curators Montes and Acosta. Free-standing sculpture on display encourages 360 degree appreciation of Magu's clay and corrugated work. Seeing these seminal works together is seeing the beginnings of Chicana Chicano art.
Here
In Search of Magulandia allows gente to get up close to Family Car unimpeded by barrier tape and stanchions. People were respectful of the finish and kept proper distance. It is a show of generosity and respect for this audience.
Paul Dunlap enjoys sharing the 1950 Chevy Coupe Magu painted. They were friends. Dunlap, back to camera, treats the car like the gem it is. He trucks Family Car to wherever he shows it. He drives it low and slow from the Art Museum to its place of honor in the museum. Sadly, La Bloga did not photograph the car wheeling on the street.
Santa Paula Art Museum hosts the main show through February. Travelers heading to El Lay from Fresno and parts north can detour from the 5 via Highway 126. Travelers to and from Santa Barbara will delight in the detour up the 126 from Ventura to Santa Paula, then the canyon road to Ojai, back to Ventura.
Leaving the Agricultural Museum and Magulandia, sharp-eyed witnesses watched a velocipede cruise past the Moreton Bay Fig tree, followed at a proper distance by a lass who didn't dare display any ankle as she pedaled along the dusky road.
Getting to Santa Paula is its own adventure. Go. See the show. Add value to the journey by joining the museum. You can renew that membership every year; this trip through Magulandia happens only this once. Through February 2015.
c/s
Los Angeles
Veterans Job Hopes Gain 10,000 Possibilities
Magu was proud to be Veteran of the United States Air Force. Veterans everywhere welcome any effort with genuine possibilities for meaningful full time work.
QEPD Magu. Gilbert Lujan.
2010's Festival de Flor y Canto: Yesterday • Today • Tomorrow, used a Magu prismacolor drawing as its signature graphic. A woman speaks flowery symbols to a futuristically attired man. She is a poet. The glyphs coming from her lips literally say "in cuicatl in xochitl" in American, "flor y canto" in Spanish, "poetry" in English. The piece exemplifies the eloquence of Magu's genius in superimposing cultural referents, creating an aesthetic vocabulary to make a point about chicanismo and expression, yesterday, today, tomorrow.
At a party one night, I asked Magu to sign it on the front. He refused. "You can tell by looking at it that it's a Magu." Ay, Magu, I laughed, how do you know for sure it's a genuine Magu if it is signed on the back, but that's concealed inside the frame?" It became a running joke between us.
Magu and I will never resume our running controversy about how signing in front ruins the design, not in this life. Magu died Sunday, July 24, 2011.
My daughter has already declared she is getting this Magu when I die. She's welcome to it. By then, Magu and I will have resumed our mental menudo on how do you know for sure it's a Magu? It's sure to be an endless platica.
Ave atque vale, Magu.
QEPD
Magu and Mario Trillo, August 2010
Pomona's DA Center Hosts Magulandia Fundraiser
An event designed to commemorate a life in art instead serves as a memorial to the life and art of Gilbert Lujan, Magu. The family opens Magu's archive to friends, associates, and collectors the world over, but especially those attending the event in eastern Los Angeles County. Per the
website, the event, "A Benefit for the Preservation of a Legacy," runs August 13 –30, 2011, with a gala benefit the evening before.
Per the site, "We cordially invite collectors to attend a special preview reception on Friday August 12, 2011 at 7:00-9:00 p.m. to get early access to some of Magu’s never before shown original artworks. Enjoy wine and hors d’oeuvres to the mellow music of Maria Elena Gaitan aka “Chola con Cello.” Reserve your tickets now,
www.magulandia.com.
Review: Madonnas of Echo Park
Brando Skyhorse. The Madonnas of Echo Park. NY: Free Press, 2010.
ISBN-10: 1439170843 & ISBN-13: 9781439170847
By: msedano,
on 9/15/2009
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Michael Sedano
Oscar Castillo is posing for a photographer’s lens. “Look right here into the lens,” the photog calls. Oscar can’t resist. He pulls up his own digital and fires off a frame. It’s the latest in a career of moments in chicano culture Castillo’s captured. And it’s a lesson in photography every photographer should practice: carry your camera everywhere and be liberally decisive with your shutter.
The lesson is highly explanatory for why a hundred heated bodies fill the sultry sotano gallery of the Latino Museum of History, Art & Culture housed at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. They’ve come to witness themselves and honor Oscar Castillo in a major retrospective exhibit, El Movimiento: Chicano Identity and Beyond Through the Lens of Oscar Castillo, curated by Gregorio Luke.
Castillo’s photographic work documents critical moments in United States history and Chicano culture. From Castillo's files, Luke assembles a wide selection. From the 1960s farmworker movimiento continuing into the 1970s as the urban movimiento hit the streets. From the earliest big-time gallery show of Chicano paintings to musician and folk portraits—many in color—illustrating the quiescent post-movimiento era.
Images of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta engender mute respect. These require no comment. “Hey, that’s my prima!” a visitor calls out, pointing to an anti-Vietnam war photo. “I’m right behind that guy with the sign,” exclaims another voice. “Hey, I’m holding the sign!” Well-executed photographs bring thrilling moments of recognition like these, or, moments of serious reflection looking into the eyes of a giant.
When the frame is properly exposed. And there’s another lesson about photography coming forth as a subtext for visitors: as well as exercise a keen eye and decisive finger, know your equipment and be in the right place at the right time. As evidenced by the walls of The Latino Museum, that is Oscar Castillo’s story.
The ritual speeches begin with The Latino Museum officials taking the floor. When Jaime Rodriguez, aide to a California State Senator, takes the floor to make a Sentate Presentation recognizing Oscar's work, Oscar interrupts Jaime to bring his wife to the stage with him. It is a touching moment of well-deserved recognition. Being in the right place at the right time also means being away from home a lot, or locked away in the darkroom.
Castillo’s foto of Los Four--Gilbert Magu Lujan, Carlos Almaraz, Frank Romero, Beto de la Rocha-- documents the first Chicano artists to make the walls of the previously all-Westside all-New York Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Tonight, Magu and Beto happily pose in front of the image of their younger selves. Almaraz died long ago. Romero is probably painting in his Frogtown studio. We missed him.
Ni modo. A cross-section of Los Angeles has assembled, including a who’s who of artists.
Patssi Valdez.
Barbara Carrasco.
Mario Trillo.
Guillermo Bejarano.
Ron Arias.
Chuy Treviño. Joe Rodriguez from the old Mechicano Art Center.
Armando Baeza.
Sergio Hernandez and Diane. Several of these, along with numerous visitors, begin to join the artists for a yesterday-today portrait.
Beto’s son Zack comes in. Then Magu’s son Naiche joins the fun. Oscar makes his way over for one of those one-in-a-lifetime shots of photographer, subjects, and notable foto.
Even Beto's son comes in for foto fun. Zack, a popular musician, enjoys a moment with a happy visitor. I should have practiced my piano more diligently, I think.
I failed to get her name and email, so if anyone recognizes the woman above, please advise her to email me for a souvenir print.
Dozens of people carry cameras, from Chuy Treviño’s professional video camera to point-and-shoot digital devices. Time, place, eye and finger have as much to do with a great image as top notch technology, but there’s a lot to be said for top notch technology. Fortunately, Castillo used a twin-lens reflex 2.25” film camera before switching to the precision optics of a 35mm Nikon. Large, and high quality negatives allow the Latino Museum to create the generous prints hanging the gallery this evening. Extraordinary images require archival reproduction; do that and a print will survive 100 years with proper conservation. Which has me thinking I need to get a copy of Oscar’s shot of me. A century from now my great great grandkidlet will point to a 3-D holograph and say, “that’s a genuine Castillo and that’s my bis- bis-abuelo Michael. Have you ever seen a camera before?”
El Movimiento: Chicano Identity and Beyond Through the Lens of Oscar Castillo, is currently at
The Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture
514 S. Spring Street
Los Angeles, California 90013
News from the Latino Book Festival at Cal State Los Angeles (Press Release)
Click
here for a PDF of the Saturday and Sunday events schedule for this outstanding literary and family festival. Click the link to the organization's website at the bottom of the press release for a message from festival founder and Zoot Suit's El Pachuco Edward James Olmos.
History in the Making: The 12th Annual
Los Angeles Latino Book & Family Festival will feature 70 Latino Authors
Los Angeles, September 2009—The upcoming Los Angeles Latino Book & Family Festival, to be held at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) on the weekend of October 10-11, will feature an outstanding lineup of 70 Latino authors, including Victor Villaseñor, Pat Mora, Luis J. Rodríguez, Josefina López, Helena María Viramontes, Reyna Grande, María Amparo Escandón, Graciela Limón, Gustavo Arellano, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Rigoberto González, Daniel Olivas, Ana Nogales, Marisela Norte, Montserrat Fontes, Margo Candela, Patricia Santana, Ligiah Villalobos, Julio Martínez, Héctor Tobar, Rubén Martínez, Eliud Martínez, Eduardo Santiago, Lucha Corpi, Evelina Fernández and Mary Castillo, among many others.
Special events taking place at this year’s festival include 24 sessions, such as Chicas, Chicanas & Latinas, a panel featuring some of the most promising Latina authors in the country, Latino LA: The City of Angels through Fiction, Poetry and Journalism; Barrio Stories; Chicano/Latino Thought & Art; Border Stories, Writing Books For Children, two Mariachi sessions, an editors/agents panel, and a screenwriters panel featuring up-and-coming Latina screenwriters such as Ligiah Villalobos (Under the Same Moon) and Josefina López (Real Women Have Curves). In addition, Helena María Viramontes will do a one hour creative writing workshop on the novel; Victor Villaseñor, Pat Mora, and filmmaker Robert Young will each do individual presentations. There will also be 12 Spanish workshops held throughout the day.
This year the festival will have a children’s area and stage dedicated to renowned Latina author Pat Mora’s literacy initiative “Día de Los Niños/Día de los Libros,” which she founded in 1996 to promote literacy and celebrate books among Spanish-speaking communities. The children’s stage will feature several children’s book authors and celebrities for story-time, including a 20 minute reading by Ms. Mora. In addition, The Los Angeles Theater Academy (LATA), founded by Alejandra Flores, is proud to present a play called "A Turtle Story" created by the Solano Elementary School students based on a legend from the Tongva (Gabrielino) Tribe. LATA students who participated in their after school and weekend program will also perform two songs from Crí-Crí (Francisco Gabilondo Soler). The Main Stage will feature Folklórico dance performances, singers, plays, poetry jams, and much more.
Edward James Olmos, actor and community activist, is the Co-Producer of the Latino Book & Family Festival, a weekend event that promotes literacy, culture and education in a fun environment for the whole family. Launched in 1997 in Los Angeles and organized by the non-profit organization Latino Literacy Now, the LBFF has provided people of all ages and backgrounds the opportunity to celebrate the beauty and diversity of the multicultural communities of the United States. “We are proud to be presenting so many wonderful authors at this year’s Los Angeles Latino Book & Family Festival,” said Olmos. “In our twelve year history of putting on some 45 Festivals around the country, this is the largest gathering of authors we’ve ever had. Truly, something for everyone.”
New in this year’s festival include:
- More Chicana/Latino authors – five times as many!
- A stronger partnership with California State University, Los Angeles – more support, more volunteers, more attendees!
- Support from other organizations such as Raise Literacy Campaign, Latina Leadership Network, RCOE Early Reading First
- More quality vendors/exhibitors
This year the Festival will be promoted by a strong list of media partners headed up by Telemundo and La Opinión. CVS Pharmacy will once again provide health screenings for all attendees. New sponsor Amway Global will have beauty and nutritional experts on hand for consultations (and to hand out samples).
To exhibit at this year’s festival, sponsor, volunteer or donate raffle prizes or children’s books, visit the festival’s website at www.LBFF.us For more information call 760-434-4484.
That's the middle Tuesday of the year's ninth month, a September Tuesday like any other September Tuesday, except You Are Here. Thank you for visiting La Bloga.
mvs
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Michael Sedano
For the past 13 years, Alfredo Lascano has hosted his annual pelada. Frito has perfected the art of throwing a chile peeling pachanga. "El chile es cultura," this year's theme, takes on added significance with the participation of television producer-director-writer Jesus Treviño, who 
documented the event. (Click the links for added details about Treviño's accomplished work.)
Treviño, shown here with his "Hispanic causing panic" cap (note he wears it decently with the bill facing forward, he's old-school, que no?) began the videotaping last spring, when he and Frito drove to
New Mexico to tape the sembrando of the chile seed in and around Hatch, NM.
Frito and Chuy made repeated journeys to the fields to capture the nascent blossoms, the green pods forming, the harvest of the thick-walled chiles, and rain that turned the red-dirt fields into stick morass.
La Pelada 2008 will have a second iteration later this fall when Treviño has completed editing the interviews and documentary is ready to debut.
Treviño and his wife Bobbie--a writer who promises one day to fill a La Bloga guest spot--will host a release party where guests will arrive bearing their favorite dishes prepared with this year's chiles.
Click here for my own recipes for gluten-free chiles rellenos and crema de chile soup. Labor-intensive recipes like the chiles rellenos are always a winning contribution to a feast. I may, however, make my boatyard chile verde recipe (first prepared on a one-burner stove in a Santa Barbara boat yard), or enchiladas con rajas. Or maybe queso and rajas de chile tamales. Frito makes a superb stew using pumpkin, green chile, and hominy. In a few weeks, I'll have results and recipes of the video event.
Norma Navarro serves a delectable puerco con several chiles dish. Maybe Norma will bring this flavorsome favorite, or one of her other spectacular recipes.
Yolanda Chavez arrives dressed in chile textile.
The guest list is a who's who of notable cooks, artists, and various tipos. Here Frito greets Serge Hernandez and his wife Diane.
Magu is busy peeling while being interviewed. Later Magu's son Naiche takes his turn in front of the camera. Guests pick up a 15 pound gunny sack of chiles. Most people get their sacks of chiles r
oasted, and spend a few hours 
peeling and ziplock bagging their supply of mild, hot, or extra-hot pods--hence the name "la pelada". Others pick up the unroasted sacks and plan their own roasting event the next day. Using different woods to roast chiles imparts distinctive flavors to the result, while freeing them for all-out a todo dar fun the day of the Lascano pelada. (That's a grand idea, double the fun!)
Comida is only one form of nourishment. There's also an art show featuring noted artists, in addition to Serge and Magu, Mario Trillo, Smiley,
and Rich Raya, shown here with reproductions of his motorcycle and
storefront paintings.
Music, too, is a staple of any event. Frito, a devoted collector of vinyl classics, devotes most weekends to estate and garage sales, culling the best of the treasures available to knowledeable collectors, and designing an audio environment to enhance the pelada experience.
This year, guests enjoyed a special treat when Conjunto Los Pochos arrived to serenade the enchanted guests. Bajo sexto player Elliot Baribeault was the first to arrive and he immediately began 
to tell folks about his hand-made Texas instrument as well as play several melodies.
In a short while, button accordionist Otoño Lujan arrived and he sat with Elliot to sing and play for the delighted guests.
After thirteen years, Alfredo Lascano has become, if not the world's, at least California's leading expert in chile peeling parties, peladas. I'm trying to convince him to take his show on the road, hiring out his services to cater peladas across the United States. Once people get to view Jesus Treviño's documentary, perhaps a new industry will sweep the nation, the moveable feast pelada art show concert and genuine good time.
A ver.
La Bloga / Hachette Book Give-Away Contest Delay
Muchos apologies to gente who checked in Saturday for the week's quiz questions to win the wondrous set of eight chicanesque books, only to find the questions absent.
I would have been overjoyed to keep my commitment to run the questions last Saturday. Sadly, however, my friend Jane's memorial service was Sunday, and I was traveling north to attend and be with her family.
Dang, gente, no one is immune to sudden death, but her passings comes only a year after she lost her son and his best friend in an auto accident. What a terrible bit of news this is. Goodbye, Jane.
This week's last week's questions. So I'm keeping it simple. First, here's the list of titles you can win with just a few keystrokes:
Dream in Color by Linda Sánchez, Loretta Sánchez
Gunmetal Black by Daniel Serrano
The Gifted Gabaldón Sisters by Lorraine López
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Brownsville by Oscar Casares
The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Urrea
The General and the Jaguar by Eileen Welsome
Tomorrow They Will Kiss by Eduardo Santiago
Send your answer to the following question--along with a mailing address--by clicking here.
"Hard Boned White Boys" is excerpted from this unpublished novel (cite title and author).
So, here we are, the first Tuesday of October 2008. The autumn leaves have sung September's song. Call me maudlin, pero sabes que? There's no time like the present to tell all your friends by word or deed you love them and wish them good health, happiness, and long life.
mvs
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La Bloga encourages and invites guest columnists with a fully develop review, response, or other arts or cultural information. To inquire about your invitation, click here.
I love this! It is so fabulous to have a good piece here, and thank you for the photos as well. I wish I could have attended.