Annotations for People: Gomez-pena-guillermo

Alien nation. Alien nation. Alien action. Alien native. Alguein-ated. Alien hatred. Aliens out there. Hay alguien out there. Aliens the movie. Aliens the album. Cowboys versus aliens. Bikers versus aliens. Hippies versus aliens. The wetback from Mars. The Mexican transformer and his radioactive torta. The Conquest of Tenochtitlan by Spielberg. The Reconquest of Aztlán by Monte Python. The brown wave versus the microwave.

I am, therefore, I cross. My rationale for crossing is simple, survival plus dignity equals migration minus memory.

[“Tequila” background music] Bienvenidos damas y caballeros, lovers, consumers of pura vicultura, a new transcontinental breeze, ricochets from Monterrey to Manhattan, from DF to LA, we perceive the pungent smells of chile con ketchup and low-cal mole. Never before have Gringolandia—[clears throat] digo--America succumbed to the sabor of the amigo country with such eagerness and gusto. Let Frida Kahlo's monkeys run wild in your dreams. Get lost in the labyrinth of solitude of a Mexican painting. Dance yourself to sleep with the picante sounds of Guapango rap. Don't forget to wear your conceptual sombrero, güerita. Enjoy the tender, tender, magenta nipples of a ranchero diva. Don't get left behind. Don't arrive late to the Grand Tri National Fiesta. Support NAFTArt, free trade art for the klepto Mexican connoisseur.

Como debe diciendo, man, join a new vibrant Castro erotic—digo—econo-cultural ma-ma-maquiladora y de paso contribute to. Sorry. What I meant to say is you will receive a glossy 200-page catalog, certified by Televisa and the Metropolitan. You can place your mail orders debolada by simply dialing your resident-alien number. Remember, no one can like Mexi-can. No mejor dicho en Spanglish, lo echo en Mexico esta bien [clears throat] digo—[beep]. Me-me-me-Comprehend this machine. Approach your funders de ya porque Free raid, digo, free trade artist, tax-deductible, hombre.

No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I'm having an identity crisis on the radio studio. I don't know what I'm saying. I mean, la neta es que…I need a job, man. I mean, I can cook, translate, guide tours en Nahuatl and Arawak, do gardening, security, community outreach, got my resident-alien card, barata. My social security number is ... [“Tequila” plays]

Will the predatory Statue of Liberty, devour the Virgin of Guadalupe, or are they merely going to dance a sweaty cumbia. Will Mexico become a toxic and cultural waste dump of the US and Canada? Who will monitor the behavior of the three governments? Given the exponential increase of American trash and media culture in Mexico, what will happen to our indigenous traditions, social and cultural rituals, language, and national psyche? Will the future generations become hyphenated Mexican-Americans, brown-skinned gringos and canochis or upside-down Chicanos? And what about our northern partners? Will they slowly become Chi-Canadians, Waspbacks and Anglomalans? Whatever the answers are, NAFTA will profoundly affect our lives in many ways. Whether we like it or not, a new era has begun and the new economic and cultural topography has been designed for us. We must find our new place and role within this new federation of US republics.

Through trilingual publications, radio, video, and performance collaborations, more complex notions of North American culture could be conceived.

Mexican and Caribbean cultures can offer the North their spiritual strength, political intelligence, and sense of humor in dealing with crisis, as well as experience in fostering personal and community relations. In exchange, North American artists and intellectuals can offer the South more fluid notions of identity and their understanding of experimentation and new technologies. US and Canadian artists of color, in particular, can offer Latin America sophisticated discourse on race and gender. Through trilingual publications, radio, video and performance collaborations, more complex notions of North American culture could be conceived. This project must take into consideration the processes of diaspora, hybridization, and borderization that our psyches, communities and countries are presently undergoing. Chicanos and other US Latinos insist that in the signing of this new trans-American contract, it is fundamental that relationships of power among participating artists, communities, and countries be addressed. The border cannot possibly mean the same to a tourist as it does to an undocumented worker. To cross the border from north to south has drastically different implications than to cross the same border from south to north. Trans-culture and hybridity have different connotations for a person of color than for an Anglo-European. People with social, racial or economic privileges are more able to physically cross borders, but they have a much harder time understanding the invisible borders of culture and race. Though painful, these differences must be articulated with valor and humor. In the conflictive history of the north-south dialogue and the multicultural debate, American and European sympathizers have often performed involuntary colonialist roles. In their desire to help, they unknowingly become ventriloquists, impresarios, flaneurs, messiahs, or cultural transvestites. These forms of benign colonialism must be discussed openly without accusing anyone. Their role in relation to us must finally be one of ongoing dialogue and a sincere sharing of power and resources. As Canadian artist Chris Creighton Kelly says, "Anglos must finally go beyond tolerance, sacrifice, and moral reward. Their commitment to cultural equity must become a way of being in the world. In exchange, we have to acknowledge their efforts, slowly bring the guard down, change the strident tone of our discourse, and begin another heroic project, that of forgiving, and therefore healing our colonial and post-colonial wounds.

Last year, the so-called Quincentenary, the commemoration of the 500 years since Columbus encountered this hemisphere, caused a great deal of controversy and also inspired many artists. The Columbus theme, and the stereotypical images in history and popular culture of the natives, the conqueror and the conquered, still continue to be a source of artistic inspiration. Recently, an interdisciplinary arts project curated by artists Coco Fusco and Latino USA commentator Guillermo Gomez-Pena opened at the Otis Art Gallery in Los Angeles. It's called The Year of the White Bear, and it features performance, visual arts, and radio art. Betto Arcos prepared this report.

As a visitor walks into the exhibition of The Year of the White Bear, images of the past and the present provoke a sense of humor and seriousness. With the title Mickey Meets His Match, a ceramic figure of a pre-Hispanic warrior sits next to a Mickey Mouse doll on a wall, a painting of Columbus holding a slice of pizza by Chicano artist Alfred Quiroz. Across from it, a custom of Queen Isabella designed by Puerto Rican artist Pepon Osorio and worn by one of the curators during a performance. The Year of the White Bear was conceived as a reflection on the 500 years of the so-called discovery of America, and according to one of the curators, performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Pena, the exhibition is also meant to dispute preconceived notions of what constitutes political art.

Political art is not supposed to be humorous. Political art is supposed to be solemn, didactic, somber, and I think that there is more sneaky ways to be politically effective. Now, the common goal is to begin a reflection about the Columbus question and what is after the Columbus question.

The title of the exhibition was taken from the name given to the Spaniards by the Paez Indians of Colombia. They called the Europeans, "Pale in color and covered with hair, White Bears" Gomez-Pena says that the main idea behind the installation of The Year of the White Bear is to create a multicentric, multifaceted portrait of the debates that were generated around the quincentenary and that still have not been resolved. Within this debate, a number of issues are touched on including the North American Free Trade Agreement and the current anti-immigration sentiment.

[Violin Music] Dear Spanish Inquisition, dear Border Patrol, dear American culture, for 500 years we've been invisible to you. Recordar, desandar, performar.

In a viewing room, built like an entrance to a pre-Hispanic pyramid with the Aztec calendar above in a sculpture of the Mayan god Chaac down below is an ongoing slideshow of images of past and recent history, pictures of ancient cities and peoples that dissolve into modern day events like the Gulf War and attention along the US Mexico border, with the soundtrack that provides a narrative as the audience watches and listens quietly.

San cristal [unintelligible] Un official chronicler de la pintados. And I just discovered you is therefore--

The hybrid nature of the installation is but one of the many ambiguities The Year of the White Bear instills in the senses of the visitor. From art piece to art piece one is faced with images of the past right next to current events. On a wall, a velvet painting of LA Mayor Richard Riordan holding a book like a Bible. It's title, "INS Mexico as seen through foreign eyes".

Here at the INS, we understand immigration since that's how our ancestors arrived to this land of opportunity. What we have are-

From the gallery ceiling, a voice that sounds like that of a Border Patrol agent.

Gone are the days of reasonably regulated entry that was beneficial to all. What we now have is a full scale invasion into America by the poor peoples of the world, a flood of homeless, uneducated, job-stealing criminals that is threatening our national sovereignty.

The artists and the curators of The Year of the White Bear would like visitors to come out of the exhibit with a broader sense of reflection about the relationship between the past and the present, and a consciousness about the many perspectives on the founding of the Americas. Artists Robert Sanchez, who along with Richard Lou, created In Search of Columbus and Other White Peoples says this piece is meant to call into question certain issues about history.

What is the past really about and what is the effect on current issues happening today with toda la gente. You know, how have we gotten to this point and survived and kept intact? Certain things that have to do with very strong cultural ties, but at the same time having to have battled those things that have to do with how history has been perceived by those that are in power, so to speak. The powers that be.

The exhibit continues at the Otis Gallery in Los Angeles until November 6th. For Latino USA, this is Beto Arcos. (Guitar Music)

I am the proud father of a four-year old boy. He has asked me several times, "Papa, how come you are Brown and I am pink?" He finally learned what that means.

I am the proud father of a four-year old boy, Guillermo Emiliano Gomez Hicks, who happens to be half Mexican, perfectly bilingual and blonde. He has asked me several times, "Papa, how come you are brown and I am pink?" He finally learned what that means.

My son, my ex-wife, and I were having lunch at Café Chez Odette in Hillcrest. I vaguely remember two blonde women looking intensely at us from another table. A few hours later, we were suddenly stopped by a Coronado policeman. He asked if I had been at a cafe on Fifth avenue at noon. He then spok into his radio and said, "I have the suspect." He said he was just cooperating with the San Diego Police and that all he knew was that it had something to do with a kidnapping. I understood right away that I was being accused of kidnapping my own child. For 45 minutes, my son and I were held by the Coronado policeman waiting for his San Diego colleagues to arrive. I was furious and completely devastated. I held Guillermito's hand tightly. "If the police try to take my son away from me," I thought to myself, "I will fight back with all my strength."

Guillermito kept asking me, "How come we can't go? What is happening, Papa?" And I kept on answering, "It's just a movie, don't worry." I was able to control my feelings and politely asked the police officer to let me identify myself. He agreed. Very carefully I pulled out my wallet and showed him my press card, an integral part of my Mexican survival kit in the US. The cop turned purple. "Are you a journalist?" He inquired. "Yes," I answered. I asked the policeman to explain to me why I was suspected of kidnapping my own son. He told me the following story:

At 12:10 PM the police received a 911 call from a woman who claimed that a Latino man with a mustache and a ponytail and a woman who also looked suspicious were sitting at a cafe with an Anglo boy who didn't look like he belonged to them. She said that the boy was clearly being held against his will. She emphasized the fact that I was speaking to my son in a Spanish, and despite the fact she didn't speak or understand the Spanish herself, concluded that I was trying to bribe the kid with presents and talking about taking him to Mexico. As we left the cafe, the woman and a friend of hers followed us and watched us take my son's suitcases out of his mother's car and get into the cab. They called the police again and told them that I had forced the kid into the taxi. I asked the police officer if there had been any reports of missing children that encouraged the police to believe the woman who phoned from the cafe. He said, "No." Then I asked, "How could there be a kidnapping without a report of a missing child?" He replied that, "Many foreigners kidnap kids and take them across the border. Once you cross that border, you never know."

When I finally came out of my shock, I realized that what had just happened to my son and me wasn't that strange or unusual. Everyday, thousands of "suspicious looking" Latinos in the US are victims of police harassment, civilian vigilantism, racial paranoia, and cultural misunderstanding. If I had been blonde and my kid dark, the assumption would have been quite different. "Look, how cute. He probably adopted the child." If I had been a Latina, perhaps the assumption would have been, "She's probably the nanny or the babysitter." But the deadly combination is a dark-skinned man with a blonde child. The representations of evil and innocence in the American mythos. My son Guillermito has learned a very sad lesson. His teacher told my ex-wife that since the incident, he has been omitting his father's last name when signing his drawings. He's also falling asleep wherever he goes. His tender mind is unable to understand what exactly happened and why. All he knows is that to go out with daddy can be a dangerous experience.

A North American Free Trade Agreement has been signed by Canada, the US, and Mexico. Once it becomes law, we will be in the process of becoming the largest artificial economic community of the planet.

In terms of geography and demographics, it will be much larger than the European community or than the fashionable Pacific Rim. From the myriad possibilities of free trade agreements that could be designed and implemented, the neoliberal version we have is not exactly an enlightened one. It is based on the fallacy that the market will take care of everything. Avoiding the most basic social labor, environmental, and cultural responsibilities, there are many burning questions that remain unanswered. Given the endemic lack of political and economic symmetry between the three countries, will Mexico become, as Mexican artist Yareli Arizmendi says, the largest Indian reservation of the US? Or will it be treated as an equal by its bigger partners?

Will the predatory Statue of Liberty depower the Virgin of Guadalupe, or are they merely going to dance a sweaty cumbia? Will Mexico become a toxic and cultural waste dump of the US and Canada? Who will monitor the behavior of the three governments? Given the exponential increase of American trash and media culture in Mexico, what will happen to our indigenous traditions, social and cultural rituals, language, and national psyche? Will the future generations become hyphenated Mexican-Americans, brown-skinned gringos and Canochis or upside-down Chicanos? And what about our northern partners? Will they slowly become Chicanadians, Waspacks and Anglomalans?

Whatever the answers are, NAFTA will profoundly affect our lives in many ways. Whether we like it or not, a new era has begun and the new economic and cultural topography has been designed for us. We must find our new place and role within this new federation of US Republics.