Posted on 09/13/2003 6:21:54 AM PDT by witnesstothefall
PHILADELPHIA, Sep 12, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The whole idea of "Mexico Illuminated" was to bring together artists of Mexican descent to tout the Hispanic heritage of the city of Reading, Pennsylvania, and show how the United States is perceived by its neighbor to the south.
Artist Marcos Ramirez says people should have known better than to expect simple paintings of deserts and smiling field hands sporting sombreros.
Ramirez caused a stir when he chose to express his views on America with a billboard-sized piece depicting a green road sign with the distances from Reading to foreign cities the United States military has bombed, including Hiroshima, Japan; Baghdad, Iraq; and Kabul, Afghanistan.
"I wanted somehow to confront the people with history," said Ramirez, one of more than 60 artists taking part in the show. "It's an expression of what could be a very widespread opinion outside of this country."
The show in Reading, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Philadelphia, opens Saturday, but organizers have already been bombarded by angry community members and organizations funding the show. Many were upset that Ramirez's piece was in an exhibit taking place so close to the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Even though the original work only reached the stage of a digital image, it was enough to cause residents to write scathing letters to Ramirez, the show's organizers, local media outlets and others.
"As soon as I saw it, I said I thought this was completely out of line," said Thomas L. Moses, a board member of the Reading Redevelopment Authority, which had pledged $25,000 toward the project. The group unsuccessfully tried to take back part of the money after hearing of Ramirez's piece, which was to be displayed on a billboard in Reading.
As part of a compromise involving the redevelopment authority, show organizers and others, a version of the work will now be shown inside an annex of the Freedman Gallery at Albright College. It will be a picture of what the piece would have looked like superimposed on a picture of the billboard.
Christopher Youngs, organizer of the $500,000 show and head of the Freedman Gallery, said he felt that was the best way to balance the community's concerns without compromising the integrity of the artists. After all, he said, the purpose was to show how the United States is perceived by Mexican artists and show off their artwork in Reading, a former industrial city where the number of Hispanics has grown rapidly in recent decades and now makes up more than 30 percent of the population.
Ramirez, who lives half the time in San Diego, California, and the other half in Tijuana, Mexico, said he's glad people will get to see his work. "Everybody has rights and I tried to exercise mine," he said.
Youngs and Dan Talley, director of the Sharadin Gallery at Kutztown University, made numerous trips to Mexico over the past four years, looking for artists who work in a variety of mediums.
"Mexico Illuminated" is the product of those journeys and will feature works at locations including the Freedman and Sharadin galleries, the Freyberger Gallery at Penn State's Berks County campus and public locations around Reading.
Other works in the show, which will not travel beyond the Reading area, include clay and stone artifacts sculpted by Perla Krauze. Luis Miguel Suro has a variety of objects made of cast clay, including oversized Pop Bic pens and a series of buttons displaying symbols of desire and memory. The show also features four large politically oriented paintings by Raymundo Sesma. His subjects include Sept. 11 and a reappraisal of Rodin's "The Burghers of Calais."
Wake up America.
I notice Mexico City is absent...I am quite certain that the U.S. has attacked Mexico and Mexico City (Halls of Montezuma and all that).
Ramirez, who lives half the time in San Diego, California, and the other half in Tijuana, Mexico,
They're different places? You could have fooled me!
And artists wonder why they're starving. Is Ramirez legal? Yet another who makes $$$ over here and then sends it back across the border. An article here a couple weeks ago discussed American $$$ sent across the border by Mexicans makes up the #2 Mexican "industry".
We are exporting our jobs, manufacturing, agriculture and technology as fast as we can and we are allowing illegal aliens of all stripes (principally Mexicans) to cross our southern border and make a mockery and a sham of what is left.
There are sappers within the perimeter...and they are being abetted by many, many politicians in our states and in Washington...mostly in the DNC, but far too many in the GOP as well. Like I said, we (all Americans) better wake up.
The ulitmnate consequences could be very dire if we do not find the strength, the will and the commitment to do so.
Bwahaha! And the show only cost $500,000. I guess the joke's on us taxpayers.
During the Iraq war, I was listening to Jay Leno's monologue. That day, a briefing had stated that the allies occupied 40% of Iraq. Jay:
"Americans now occupy 40% of Iraq? That's amazing. Americans don't occupy 40% of L.A.!"
Shoulda organized a FREEP!
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