Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund for the Arts at the Albuquerque Community Foundation and the New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund at the Albuquerque Community Foundation ...New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

...and Viewers Like You.

THIS TIME, ON COLORES!

WITH EACH PHOTO, CHICANA ARTIST DELILAH MONTOYA POSES QUESTIONS ABOUT BORDERS, JUSTICE, AND IDENTITY.

FROM TOURISM TO POLITICAL CRUSADES, THE PATHWAYS BETWEEN CUBA AND TAMPA TELL A STORY ABOUT THOSE WHO HAVE MADE THE JOURNEY AND SHAPED CUBA'S HISTORY.

TRADITIONAL JAPANESE DRUMMING GROUP TAIKO TSURUNOKAI BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER TO FEEL THE BEAT.

PAINTER JAKE FERNANDEZ REIMAGINES THE BEAUTY OF FLORIDA'S MYAKKA WILDERNESS.

IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES!

MAKING THE INVISIBLE, VISIBLE [Music] >>Delilah Montoya: The major concerns for me as a Chicana artist is the ideas of where we came from and how we got here.

The border crossed us we did not cross the border.

[Music] >>Faith Perez: Why did you decide to photograph the trails and what was left behind?

>>Delilah: There was this issue of families coming across the border and the hardships that they were facing and one of the things that I learned or I began to realize, it was that the border cut us off from each other right, and in many ways it was mi otro yo.

And I felt like it was really important to express those stories.

[Music] >>Delilah: The land itself has a memory and so what I wanted to do is I wanted to photograph that memory that the land was giving us and so as we were looking down the trails what we began to see is just things that were being left behind.

You could see the markings.

You could see you know, what the humanitarian efforts were.

You could see what La Migra was doing.

I mean so there was all those markings that were there and I felt that like just by showing these long panoramics of the trail, people would be able to digest what they see without necessarily doing you know that straight documentary approach and since I'm you know, in many ways, kind of pushing back on documentary photography, what I wanted to do is kind of give the sense of the presence of somebody and so what you'll see sometimes in these images that I have is a shadow and there's nobody there.

>>Faith: And then they get here and we have Detention Nation showing what happens when they reach the border.

Tell me about that project.

>>Delilah: Detention Nation was done in 2015 before people were really understanding the human rights crisis involved in detention centers.

One thing that I wanted to work with was the cyanotypes and what I was doing was asking people that had been detained or families who had family members that were detained to post me on the cyanotype body prints.

It makes the viewer, the audience fill in the blanks right, it's not giving everything right, and the other thing too is that migrant population is a shadow population right and so it's kind of like talking to that idea of having to live within the shadows.

>>Faith: What were the methods and motives behind the Contemporary Cost of Portraiture?

>>Delilah: There again, I'm thinking about the Colonial body right, who are the Colonial body?

And I'm also thinking about the way it was expressed in the 1700s with the Colonial Castile portraits that we see coming out of Mexico.

Those that were being depicted had no agency as to how they were being represented and with mines what I wanted to do was kind of like give that agency but also as a Chicana demonstrate that the Colonial body was a mixed race.

Something that I've always wanted to do was to have a better understanding of who I am and who my community is.

Where we could take pride in who we are and understand simple facts like we have been here and we're not really immigrants, we're not immigrants, we have been on this continent for thousands and thousands of years and so how can that be an immigrant.

Once we begin to know who we are, it gives us our own agency and a better understanding of where we go from here and how things happened and maybe we can change things a little bit so that it doesn't happen again.

A 500 YEAR JOURNEY ♪ ♪ ♪ The relationship between Tampa and Cuba stretches back hundreds of years.

Cuban fishermen used to come to the shores of Florida's west coast to fish, and then of course we have cigar workers that come to Tampa in the 1800s through the 1900s.

The Tampa Cuba connection is really interesting in that it goes really far back in its multifaceted, and that's a story that we wanted to tell in this exhibit.

Well, we knew that we needed to partner with people in order to achieve over a hundred objects in this exhibit.

Our own collection is great but we don't focus on Cuban history, so we had to reach out to other institutions and explore their collections.

And they really worked with us to tell that story.

The hardship of this exhibit is telling a 500-year story in 2000 square feet.

But for us, it was important that we told a very broad-based story.

So as our guests walk the gallery, they're gonna see stories about Spaniards in Cuba.

They're gonna see stories about Afro-Cubans.

They're gonna hear stories about Chinese-Cubans and it was difficult for us to find items to tell all of these stories.

So what we did to solve this problem was we reached out to some partner institutions, the Mel Fisher, the Daytona Museum of Arts and Sciences, even the Delta Flight Museum.

And they loaned us items that help us tell a fuller story and to tell a very diverse Cuban story.

They're not just one monolith.

And so we really wanted to explore the different cultures that make up the Cuban people.

And so we really wanna take people through an experience of a little bit what it would be like to grow up or live among one of those cultures.

And then we actually have a pathway, bested in Cuban Pathways, where you can take on the kind of the persona of a Spaniard and Afro-Cuban or a Chinese-Cuban, and kinda see how your culture was affected and helped affect the growth and history of Cuba.

One of the pieces for the show that we were really excited to be able to get was a painting by a free person of color in Cuba, named Vicente Escobar.

And Vicente Escobar painted the treasure of Havana in 1800.

And his story is so interesting because he's a free Black painter that's so successful.

He's ultimately able to go to Madrid and become the painter of the Royal Chamber.

Other pieces we're proud of are items from the Asorin family.

This was a family that came from Spain, to Cuba, to the United States, and it tells a revolutionary story.

And that's a story that a lot of Cubans in Florida really understand because a lot of them experienced that or something similar to that themselves.

The Asorin family in the turn of the century manufactured clay products in Agost, Alicante.

Around 1917, when my father was only seven years old, the anarchist started moving into Spain and started stealing the small businesses in that part of Spain.

One of those businesses was the Asorin family business.

And so they headed on a ship with barely any means to Cuba, to start all over again.

As their business grew, it thrived, it was a very large industrial business by the 1960s.

And then all of a sudden there was a movement that had started on Christmas Eve of '58, and Fidel Castro declared himself a communist Marxist.

So on October the 13th of 1960, the communist agents came to the brick plant and told my father they had frozen our bank accounts, that none of the Asorin properties belonged to them anymore, they were now the property of the communist Cuban government.

I had just turned eight and I watched them coming up the staircase, there were two militiamen wearing their militia uniforms carrying rifles over their shoulders.

And they basically said, in Spanish, that this no longer belonged to us.

But that everything in the house had been inventoried.

And we were told that if we wanted to leave we could only bring one suitcase per person when we left.

So on November the 13th is the day we landed in Miami airport and it was stamped Miami, Florida.

Never to go back.

Well, I think one of the things that makes this such an effective show is that it is focusing on people.

We're telling stories about Cubans, who went through different experiences at different times.

And I think there are lots of lessons there for all of us as we follow, and we understand what those folks went through.

So I think it makes for an educational show, but a show that we can all relate to.

Curation is an art form.

We don't just throw things on the wall chronologically, and just think, "Well, people will engage them as they will."

The goal is to create spaces that what we like to say, have different textures.

So when you walk into the exhibit you're gonna see a map from 1511.

You're gonna see an elaborate oil painting from the 1800s.

You're gonna see a set of bongo drums.

And you're seeing all these things in particular places for a reason.

The idea is that we wanna have different textures that meet people at different places and tell different stories about Cuba.

One thing that caught my attention is the picture of the first Tainos.

From where we are, in Puerto Rico, Tainos are a very important part of our history from the center of the island, so it's good that part of the Tainos are making all the way into these exhibit.

So very, very excited to see that here.

We also didn't stop at 1950 or 1970.

We brought the story up to literally the presence.

And so there are still people who are trying to make the very dangerous 90-mile trip between Northern Cuba and the Florida Keys.

And we have an example of that with one of the tugboats that came ashore with 12 people aboard in September of 2021.

'Cause it's still very difficult to live in Cuba, and there are people who try to leave every single day.

There are things that will touch your heart, there are some things that will make you cry, but mostly we want people to learn the importance of the Cuban pathways and how it relates to Tampa.

It makes you realize that Tampa is truly a pathway for so many immigrants, including the Cuban immigrants.

THE HEARTBEAT OF A DRUM ♪ ♪ ♪ Reno Taiko Tsurunokai is a traditional Japanese drumming ensemble based in Reno, Nevada.

I just love drumming because it's just exciting for me.

It's not something that you hear just from the ears, but you feel it in the body.

When people actually feel your music, it's quite an amazing experience.

What's magical about it is to connect people together.

My name is Rieko Shimbo.

I live in Reno, but I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan.

I was interested in drumming since I was really little, but I never really played drum until when I was in college.

I played in a rock band.

(GUITAR RIFF) When I heard my friend learning traditional Taiko drumming, I thought, oh, that'd be really fun to learn.

I learned from a place called Araumaza, which is a professional Japanese traditional music and dancing group in Tokyo.

And I was part of that group and then learn and performing there before I moved to Reno.

I met Japanese American people who are really interested in a Japanese culture, and that's when I met Cindy.

I asked Rieko if she would be interested in teaching some of us and she graciously agreed.

We organized the first workshop together, and, the rest is history.

25 years later, we're still drumming in our community and every day it's fun.

♪ ♪ ♪ The Taiko drum has two different parts of it.

So not just the rhythm itself, but also the movement is a big part of it.

How we move the arms, how to hold the batchy, how to stand, how to use the whole body.

More like a martial arts in a way, because you have to have the whole body in a very balanced way and also use the strength in an efficient way without hurting the body.

Part of our choreography includes leg and arm movements.

Some of the songs we actually move around.

Rotating and playing around.

The visually makes it more interesting and exciting.

It's actually quite artistic.

So it's really a full body drumming experience.

♪ ♪ ♪ We have different types of drums.

The biggest one is called Odaiko and we have tsuke daiko or shime daiko which is the smaller ones.

The smaller drums are usually doing like a bass beat.

The larger drum are doing the actual song, and sometimes the large drum, we play both sides of it differently.

Also we have other instrument, accompany drums, chappa or Kane, which made out of metal and make a little more piercing sound or more cheerful accessory for this ensemble.

And then also we have the bamboo flute that we play.

And then the voice is also a big part of the ensemble.

Sometimes people ask, what does that mean?

And then like it's not really mean something.

Some of the things are just like cheering sound.

♪ ♪ ♪ A lot of songs that we play it's coming from different parts of Japan in the villages like farmers' villages or a fisherman's village.

Buchiawase is what we call a fishermen song.

That's also quite athletic, which is in line with the strength you sometimes need as a fishermen when you're throwing out nets or fishing large fish.

So it's wonderful to know the meaning behind the songs, because then when you're drumming it, you have eight different perspective of how you should be drumming and performing.

I try to be really focused on, on the sound, immerse myself in the moment because that's maybe the best thing that I can do to really do my best, to connect with people and create something amazing.

Taiko drum is not only for Japan because now its spreading all over the world.

The reason why its go spreading all over the world, it because it has such a strong effect for people to feel it and then being together and then being connected.

Music can connect so much.

And that really changed my, like when I come, came over here, I had a confidence and feeling that I can really connect with people with the drumming.

♪ ♪ ♪ PAINTING POSSIBILITIES >>Jake Fernandez: The purpose of my art, it's hard to pin down, but I think that I like the idea of putting something that gives you a window into a different form of reality or experience.

My name is Jake Fernandez and I am an artist.

The Myakka Fork project is one that could be classified as durational.

I had moved back to Florida from New York City and was incredibly taken by the, the nature, the sheer intensity of the color, the greens, or I almost hurt my eyes.

>>Linda Chapman: My name is Linda Chapman, and I'm an artist.

I thought Jake Fernandez was the best artist I'd ever seen.

His work was very unusual and we were undergraduates, but he never followed the rules.

The Myakka Fork project has been going on for so many years, I don't remember when it started.

He has thousands of photographs.

He visits a specific site very often and has reported the changes in the environment since his first photographs there in the 1980s.

>>Jake: So I did a lot of hiking and going around not looking for anything in particular and in one of my walks, this particular place caught my attention and I decided to focus on that work, and in my head, I plan to do three large paintings based on that place.

It differs from project to project, but the more complex projects start with an idea, and that idea comes from maybe just walking around and my attention is grabbed by something I come across and I start to investigate like a detective.

>>Linda: The most interesting thing to me about Jake's artwork is it has so many different levels of visual information.

It's abstract.

It's real.

There are things that are imaginary.

It looks like a map.

It looks like a forest.

It's endlessly entertaining.

>>Jake: The complexity of painting is something that I'm drawn to, something that I've worked for a long, long time to try to take small steps into perfecting and there is no end to it.

It's the kind of medium that offers immense possibilities and opportunities.

You're involving the senses, you're involving a narrative, even in abstract paintings.

I'm not into, even though it's tempting, to do, you know, depressing subject matter.

Many think that depressing and angst ridden subject matter would, makes your work heavy and important.

I disagree.

There's enough ugliness out there.

I don't need to be producing any more.

I remember I took my son to a location one time to just sort of hold rulers and stuff that I had because I was doing some calculations.

And he was six years old.

He's now 32.

So to show you and I'm two paintings down and I'm still working on the, on the third Myakka painting.

>>Dixie Resnick: My name is Dixie Resnick, and I am the CEO of Crowley Museum and Nature Center.

I met Mr. Fernandez one day when I was working in the welcome center, and he and a friend came in just to hike and look around, and he introduced himself to me.

He was a very nice man.

My first thought on Jake Fernandez Myakka Fork pieces were how interesting it was to see him represent true Old World Florida the way that it, that he did with its wildness, its imperfections.

All of that was encompassed in this artwork, and so many people are unfamiliar with Myakka that I just thought it was great that he saw it and he decided to represent it, even though it might not be the typical popular views of what Florida is.

>>Jake: I don't set out to change the world or deal in politics or commerce, but I do believe that if somebody can walk away seeing things in a slightly different way because of what they experienced, then that's, that's more than I need.

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"UNTIL NEXT WEEK, THANK YOU FOR WATCHING."

Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund for the Arts at the Albuquerque Community Foundation and the New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund at the Albuquerque Community Foundation ...New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

...and Viewers Like You [CLOSED CAPTIONS BY KNME-TV]