Heritage: Latino

Contemporary Culture

Whether they are building upon or rebelling against their traditions and histories, California's current crop of home-grown Latino filmmakers, writers, dancers, photographers, painters and musicians is changing the way the world looks, sounds, and feels. Its work is vividly bringing to life the human stories of Latino cultures—its personal memoirs, family sagas, and socio-political dramas, and enjoying unprecedented international success. Collectively, through their passionate words and powerful images, this new generation of artists is producing nothing short of a Latino Renaissance.

The unique façade of Self Help Graphics & Art is a community landmark in East Los Angeles. The programs and printmaking atelier of this center for visual arts have gained national acclaim and launched the careers of many Latino artists. The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival has in just five years, become a prestigious showcase for Latino films. Thirty-five thousand attendees are expected at this year's event (July 2002), which will be held in the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood…

Voz Alta, San Diego's only Chicano-Latino literary performance space and gallery is an artistic consortium initiated by the Taco Shop Poets, a group of accomplished Southern California performers who have converted a number of taco shops into temporary artistic venues. Calaca Press is a small publishing house dedicated to giving voice to emerging and established Chicano and Latino writers…

San Francisco theater company, Campo Santo, produces and performs new and recent work by socially relevant American playwrights. Using the sacred form of storytelling as a tool to bond the community, Campo Santo's plays both reflect and reinvent the existing social order. Brava! For Women in the Arts is a feminist-led theater company that has promoted women's presence in art since 1986. Its new home, the renovated, historic York Theatre on 24th Street is the venue for Brava!'s year-round schedule of controversial and innovative performances…

Sacramento's La Raza Galería Posada exhibits major international and Northern California artists throughout the year. Founded in 1972, La Raza is housed in the National Historic Heilbron Mansion that was built in 1851.

Highlights

Self-Help Graphics & Art (323.881.6444); Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (323.469.9066)
Sacramento:
San Diego:: Voz Alta (619.230.1VOZ); Calaca Press (619.231.9210)
San Francisco:: Campo Santos (415.267.3956); Brava! For Women in the Arts (415.641.7657)