THIS WEEK ON LATINOPIA: MARTHA GONZALEZ OF QUETZAL ON CHICANA/O ARTIVISTAS, PARTICIPATORY MUSIC, RICARDO ROMO ON GASPAR ENRIQUEZ, AND GASPAR ENRIQUEZ ON PACHUCOS, CHOLOS AND SEGUNDO BARRIO.
Music and Art this week on Latinopia. We begin with a video interview with musician composer and lead singer of the Eastside music group Quetzal. Martha is also a scholar and she has just published a thoughty and pretty profound book titled Chicana/o Artivistas: Music, Community and Transborder Tactics in east Los Angeles. The book is part theoretical scholarly study and part a personal memoir of her experiences in music performance. The interview is broken up into three segments. The first part explains her concept of Chicana/o artivista, an activist artist. In the second video Martha explains her concept of “participatory music.” Next week we’ll conclude the role of the artivista. Tagged with these interviews is one of the many musical performance of Martha the singer as she performs the original song, “Tragafuegos” (Fire eaters).
Ricardo Romo returns with his Tejano Report. This week he looks at the work of El Paso artist, Gaspar Enriquez. Gaspar is renowned for his portraits of young people from EL Paso’s Segundo barrio where Gaspar taught for many years. The art is stunning as you will see from the accompanying videos of Gaspar at work.
Its wonderful to see such incredible talent in our community in the persons of Gaspar Enriquez and Martha Gonzalez.
Enjoy!
Tia Tenopia