In an era when Mexican Americans are embarrassingly
underrepresented in the field of arts and culture, Los Cenzontles has thrived
for twenty five years – doing quality, groundbreaking pedagogical work, roots
reviving, cross cultural collaborations, media creation etc - all planned and
executed by our homegrown young artists, educators, producers and
administrators.
The young people who do the work at Los Cenzontles are from a
neighborhood like many others in California and around the country – working
class communities that are subjected to substandard education and plagued by
low expectations. But in spite of the disadvantages, our young leaders are
doing nationally recognized work because of the rigorous training and support
they receive at Los Cenzontles made possible by a different kind of vision - a
vision of shared ownership and responsibility - with the support of enlightened
supporters who help us survive a piecemeal, fickle funding environment.
When I was a kid in the 1960’s and 70’s there
was barely any Mexican American representation on television or in films. When
society became a bit more aware of the need for more cultural representation,
many schools, businesses, government offices and organizations responded by
instituting cultural awareness days that consisted of the cafeteria featuring
ethnic food. Taco day. The later rise of multi-culturalism allowed us to make
some headway toward visibility but almost always we were relegated to narrow
and prescribed roles – stereotypical bit parts in someone else’s narrative.
Meaningful
representation requires that we include people who actually represent American
demographics in all levels of decision making and execution. But what we see in
the arts, culture and entertainment (including news) sectors is a thin veneer.
Too
little meaningful investment is made into working class communities - the same
communities who have contributed so much to American cultural heritage in the
first place. And often, when working class culture is integrated into educational
curriculum the pedagogy is radically changed to accommodate ‘mainstream’ (read middle
class) audiences. This usually changes the aesthetic and meaning of the art
forms, rendering them unrecognizable to the communities that created them.
Every
day at our cultural arts academy, the members of our team professionally engage in intensive cultural work:
cultivating a vibrant learning environment; teaching community children;
training teens; rehearsing;
composing and choreographing; researching and adapting traditional
pedagogy and
practice; producing, shooting and editing CDs and videos; performing;
touring;
organizing events and much, much more. It is at
this sustained level of detail that cultural arts work bears fruit.
Cultural arts engagement
develops skills of critical thinking, expression, resilience, problem
solving,
teamwork and leadership in our children that prepare them to engage
with and contribute to a vibrant democratic society.
But somehow our society has
decided that these skills are to be cultivated mainly in privileged
communities. Arts education in working class communities is, at best,
inconsistent, remedial and considered an unnecessary luxury. This in spite of
the fact that America's cultural heritage has come largely from working class
and immigrant communities - contributions that are sometimes acknowledged in words
but barely reciprocated through proportionate resource investment.
So, why is the Los Cenzontles example more than a inspiring but
aberrant success story in a beleaguered community? Because these young people
belong to one of the fastest growing demographics in the nation that already comprises
the majorities in many American cities. These first and second generation
working class Americans are our future consumers, tax payers and voters. Los
Cenzontles has proven, time and time again, that these young people are capable
of, and hungry for, creative excellence and rise to the challenge of sharing their values and
vision with our larger society. This is what a democracy is, after all. We
neglect to properly education such a huge segment of our population at
society's peril.
So, what will it take to activate the untapped talent of our
working class communities? It will take real representation, not tokenism; real
conversations, not slogans; and real partners who actively address the
opportunities and challenges from a position of mutual benefit. It requires that we as a society recognize that
all American young people require a complete education, including arts and
culture, to fully inform and renew America's ever-evolving identity and
innovative spirit.
Taco day at the museum will not suffice.
