The Big Filter

[Click image to enlarge. Photo by Jesús Garza. Delilah Montoya and Ann Marie Leimer at a Santa Monica gallery.]

In the world of American art and photography, there is one center. New York. Here, careers are made or destroyed.

This metropolis touts their power. What happens in New York according to sycophants reverberates worldwide. Artists must submit to the Big Filter.

Chicanas and Chicanos are not a concern to the Big Filter. In fact, Raza does not exist in their myopic eyes. Other cultures and groups supersede Raza. The Big Filter doesn’t hate Raza; they are just ignorant and arrogant.

They are ignorant of a growing Chicano/Chicana arts community. Also arrogant to assume that only their pain, love and creations are manifest. Raza has to be content to sit on the sideline.

A New Yorker will pass through the Big Filter’s sieve easily. Apparently they have the appropriate ethnic or religious qualifications. What are Raza to do?

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40 Years of the Chicano Movement

[Photo of César E. Chávez in San José (1970) by Jesús Manuel Mena Garza. Click to enlarge. Copyright 2009 Jesús Manuel Mena Garza. All rights reserved.]

On Wednesday September 16, 6-8 pm in San José, California there will be the discussion, "Organizing en el Movimiento". The first of a series of discussions that seek to honor the contributions of (some of) those involved in San José's Chicano Movement.

Invited guests will be Sofia Mendoza (United People Arriba), Sal Alvarez (UFW), Adriana Cabrera-Garcia (MAIZ), and David Madrid (DeBug). Moderated by Maribel Martinez of the Cesar Chavez Community Action Center at SJSU.

Featuring music by Conjunto Libertad and the exhibiting of rare photos and art of the movimiento from Jorge Gonzalez.

Organizers

MAIZ (Movimiento de Accion Inspirando Servicio)
Cesar Chavez Community Action Center
Teatro Vision
Sponsoring Organizations

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About Documentary Photography

[From my website, jmmgarza.com. Photo copyright 2009 Jesús Manuel Mena Garza. All rights reserved. Click on image to enlarge.]

Some documentary photographers treat their subjects like quarry in the jungle. They stalk them, take their shot and then hang their desiccated representation on a distant sterile wall. The jungle is the Amazon or the barrio, it is all the same. As outsiders, their images lack any humanity and show a visceral disdain for their subjects.

At the art reception, the shooter can be seen prancing around, weaving fanciful tales of his adventures to the spellbound audience. The assembled, saturated by the stench of privilege, sip on wine while esoteric rhythms waft in the background. The photographs remain mute. Surrounded, the captured photographs witness the decadence.

Jesús Manuel Mena Garza
February 12, 2007

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