• Home
    • Get the Podcasts
    • About
      • Contact Latinopia.com
      • Copyright Credits
      • Production Credits
      • Research Credits
      • Terms of Use
      • Teachers Guides
  • Art
    • LATINOPIA ART
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Film/TV
    • LATINOPIA CINEMA
    • LATINOPIA SHOWCASE
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Food
    • LATINOPIA FOOD
    • COOKING
    • RESTAURANTS
  • History
    • LATINOPIA EVENT
    • LATINOPIA HERO
    • TIMELINES
    • BIOGRAPHY
    • EVENT PROFILE
    • MOMENT IN TIME
    • DOCUMENTS
    • TEACHERS GUIDES
  • Lit
    • LATINOPIA WORD
    • LATINOPIA PLÁTICA
    • LATINOPIA BOOK REVIEW
    • PIONEER AMERICAN LATINA AUTHORS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Music
    • LATINOPIA MUSIC
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Theater
    • LATINOPIA TEATRO
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Blogs
    • Angela’s Photo of the Week
    • Arnie & Porfi
    • Bravo Road with Don Felípe
    • Burundanga Boricua
    • Chicano Music Chronicles
    • Fierce Politics by Dr. Alvaro Huerta
    • Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz
    • Political Salsa y Más
    • Mis Pensamientos
    • Latinopia Guest Blogs
    • Tales of Torres
    • Word Vision Harry Gamboa Jr.
    • Julio Medina Serendipity
    • ROMO DE TEJAS
    • Sara Ines Calderon
    • Ricky Luv Video
    • Zombie Mex Diaries
    • Tia Tenopia
  • Podcasts
    • Louie Perez’s Good Morning Aztlán
    • Mark Guerrero’s ELA Music Stories
    • Mark Guerrero’s Chicano Music Chronicles
      • Yoga Talk with Julie Carmen

latinopia.com

Latino arts, history and culture

  • Home
    • Get the Podcasts
    • About
      • Contact Latinopia.com
      • Copyright Credits
      • Production Credits
      • Research Credits
      • Terms of Use
      • Teachers Guides
  • Art
    • LATINOPIA ART
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Film/TV
    • LATINOPIA CINEMA
    • LATINOPIA SHOWCASE
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Food
    • LATINOPIA FOOD
    • COOKING
    • RESTAURANTS
  • History
    • LATINOPIA EVENT
    • LATINOPIA HERO
    • TIMELINES
    • BIOGRAPHY
    • EVENT PROFILE
    • MOMENT IN TIME
    • DOCUMENTS
    • TEACHERS GUIDES
  • Lit
    • LATINOPIA WORD
    • LATINOPIA PLÁTICA
    • LATINOPIA BOOK REVIEW
    • PIONEER AMERICAN LATINA AUTHORS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Music
    • LATINOPIA MUSIC
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Theater
    • LATINOPIA TEATRO
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Blogs
    • Angela’s Photo of the Week
    • Arnie & Porfi
    • Bravo Road with Don Felípe
    • Burundanga Boricua
    • Chicano Music Chronicles
    • Fierce Politics by Dr. Alvaro Huerta
    • Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz
    • Political Salsa y Más
    • Mis Pensamientos
    • Latinopia Guest Blogs
    • Tales of Torres
    • Word Vision Harry Gamboa Jr.
    • Julio Medina Serendipity
    • ROMO DE TEJAS
    • Sara Ines Calderon
    • Ricky Luv Video
    • Zombie Mex Diaries
    • Tia Tenopia
  • Podcasts
    • Louie Perez’s Good Morning Aztlán
    • Mark Guerrero’s ELA Music Stories
    • Mark Guerrero’s Chicano Music Chronicles
      • Yoga Talk with Julie Carmen
You are here: Home / Blogs / MIRÁNDOLO BIEN with EDUARDO DÍAZ 10.06.13 “EYES ON THE PRIZE”

MIRÁNDOLO BIEN with EDUARDO DÍAZ 10.06.13 “EYES ON THE PRIZE”

October 7, 2013 by

edo diazFrom Strengthening to Centering the Margin: Keeping Your Eyes on the Prize.

For most of my life’s work in the cultural development field, the lens has been one of representing and advocating for representation. Ensuring that the cultures of those at the margins were fought for and represented.

I had a recent experience with the Smithsonian’s ongoing Asian-Latino Program that rotated my consciousness on this issue of cultural representation — from one of strengthening to centering the margin.

I was raised by a father who fought in World War II and returned from the conflict fully expecting to be enfranchised in ways we could never have imagined growing up in East LA, and aE Company soldiers mother who got on a train from El Paso to Washington, D.C. three months before the outbreak of the same conflict to work as an inventory clerk in the Department of War, the precursor to the Defense Department, where she labored alongside those living under segregation. My father took advantage of the GI Bill, got a college degree, and became a public school teacher and administrator the rest of his working life. My mother also earned a college degree, taught kindergarten, and served on the local school board for many years. She later tutored at my youngest daughter’s elementary school until serious hearing loss set in. Both were very active San Bernardino, California’s Mexican American community, spending countless hours advocating for new libraries and bilingual education, registering voters, and supporting many other community development causes.

MechaNot surprisingly, both of my parents are community spirited, even at age 94. I was raised to give back to the Latino community. Inspired by their achievements and commitment to community, I went to college, during the height of the Chicano Movement, joined MEChA*, graduated from law school thinking that the legal-political system was where I needed to fight the good fight, only to discover the media and theater arts and understand that the realm of cultural representation and equity was where I wanted to be, and where I was needed.

In her recent book, Culture Works*, NYU Professor, Arlene Dávila, posits thatCulture works

Race and ethnic specific initiatives stem from racial minorities’ exclusion from the U.S. canon and from its history and institutions. Accordingly, ethnic-specific initiatives are central to guaranteeing a more unified society, and banishing their existence can only lead to a society that is less representative and less informed about its history.

Historically, Latino cultural workers and activists have advocated and fought for equity in public funding, access to spaces to do their work, and an expanded notion of recognized and valued aesthetics, among other battles. While there have been many noteworthy advances, the strengthened vantage point is, still, one from the margin, of cultures seemingly stuck in the realm of “the other.”

This past August the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American and Latino Centers convened a group of Asian, Latino and Asian-Latino scholars, artists and writers to help us think through and shape where our Asian-Latino initiative goes next. To this point, we have done programs focusing on shared urban cultures, similar struggles Pop Up Museumwith mass media stereotypes, food fusions, and co-curated a Pop-Up Museum. Pop-Up Museums are a “Museum Without Walls” concept, which, in our case, featured projected artwork, roving curators, music and a photo booth. It was a real community happening in Silver Spring, MD’s Civic Center.

During this recent convening it became clear to me that, going forward, our attitude and focus must transition to centering the margin within the core of this country’s culture. The strategy should be one of embedding our best scholars in the academy, our best curators in the museums, and our distinct and hybrid community aesthetics and values in the American canon. Importantly, this continuing Asian-Latino dialog and exploration must laser inward, and not drift into tiresome comparisons with standards and assumptions traditionally prescribed by our “leading” cultural institutions and experts. This is an exploration of how our peoples and our cultures relate, engage with latino Street sceneeach other, and how we map-out the future.

Asians and Latinos are the fastest growing populations and cultures in the United States. As the “Nation’s Museum” with an .edu in our web address, the Smithsonian has a special opportunity and responsibility to lead the way in this margin-centering process.

* MEChA stands for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, a popular Chicano student organization. There are some MEChA chapters active today.

** NYU Press, April 2012, Chapter 4, The Trials of Building a National Museum of the American Latino

_____________________________________________

Copyright 2013 Eduardo Díaz.

Filed Under: Blogs, Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz

RICARDO ROMO’S TEJANO REPORT 07.10.25 LUIS LOPEZ BORDERLANDS ARTIST

July 10, 2025 By wpengine

Luis Lopez: Borderlands Artist Looks Forward to His Exhibit in Mexico Borderland artist Luis Lopez moved from Laredo, Texas to San Antonio nearly 50 years ago to pursue his passion for creating art. Over the past five decades, Lopez has received recognition on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border for his diverse and transformative body […]

BURUNDANGA BORICUA (ENGLISH) 07.10.25 WE WILL CONTINUE TO CONSPIRE

July 10, 2025 By wpengine

We’ve been able to…or not. The signature is on paper and the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) that dictates the domestic policy for President Trump’s second administration is the current mandate for the United States. The Institute of Taxes and Economic Policy anticipates three options to meet the law: cut investment in health and food assistance, […]

BURUNDANGA BORICUA DEL ZOCOTROCO 7.10.25 SEGUIREMOS CONSPIRANDO

July 10, 2025 By wpengine

Burundanga de Zocotroco José M. Umpierre Nos hemos podido…o no. La firma está sobre el papel y la Gran Bella Ley (Big Beautiful Bill – BBB) que dicta la política interior para la segunda administración del presidente Trump es el mandato vigente para el ordenamiento de los Estados Unidos. El Instituto de Impuestos y Política […]

RICARDO ROMO’S TEJANO REPORT 07.03.25 BRILLIANCE OF ÁNGEL RODRÍGUEZ-DÍAZ

July 3, 2025 By wpengine

The Brilliance of Latino Artist Ángel Rodríguez-Díaz Among the major acquisitions by the prestigious Smithsonian American Art Museum in the 1990s was an Ángel Rodríguez-Diaz painting of famed Latina novelist Sandra Cisneros. Rodríguez-Díaz painted Cisneros in a black Mexican dress decorated with sequins and embroidery, and she “holds a patterned rebozo that snakes around her […]

More Posts from this Category

New On Latinopia

LATINOPIA ART SONIA ROMERO 2

By Tia Tenopia on October 20, 2013

Sonia Romero is a graphic artist,muralist and print maker. In this second profile on Sonia and her work, Latinopia explores Sonia’s public murals, in particular the “Urban Oasis” mural at the MacArthur Park Metro Station in Los Angeles, California.

Category: Art, LATINOPIA ART

LATINOPIA WORD JOSÉ MONTOYA “PACHUCO PORTFOLIO”

By Tia Tenopia on June 12, 2011

José Montoya is a renowned poet, artist and activist who has been in the forefront of the Chicano art movement. One of his most celebrated poems is titled “Pachuco Portfolio” which pays homage to the iconic and enduring character of El Pachuco, the 1940s  Mexican American youth who dressed in the stylish Zoot Suit.

Category: LATINOPIA WORD, Literature

LATINOPIA WORD XOCHITL JULISA BERMEJO “OUR LADY OF THE WATER GALLONS”

By Tia Tenopia on May 26, 2013

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo is a poet and teacher from Asuza, California. She volunteered with No More Deaths, a humanitarian organization providing water bottles in the Arizona desert where immigrants crossing from Mexico often die of exposure. She read her poem, “Our Lady of the Water Gallons” at a Mental Cocido (Mental Stew) gathering of Latino authors […]

Category: LATINOPIA WORD, Literature

© 2025 latinopia.com · Pin It - Genesis - WordPress · Admin