Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund, New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV 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!

AN IMMIGRANT'S HISTORY... CECILIA NAVARETTE SHARES HER FAMILY'S STORY OF HOPE, RESOLVE, AND OPPORTUNITY WORKING AT ALBUQUERQUE'S LOCOMOTIVE REPAIR SHOPS.

THE CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM'S "BLACK FUTURES SERIES" REFLECTS ON THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF BLACK CREATIVITY.

THE VIBRANT AND COLORFUL PAINTS THAT FLUID ARTIST TIFFANY MOYER POURS ONTO A CANVAS HAVE A MIND OF THEIR OWN.

IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES!

A FAMILY'S LEGACY >>Faith Perez: How did you first become interested in the history of rail yard workers?

>>Cecilia Navarette: My grandfather, three of my uncles and many cousins, all worked at the rail yard or as part of the railroad.

It was part of my culture.

In--so, when I decided to look more into Rail Yards it really was more about the genealogy of my family.

I'm like "why did we come here to Albuquerque?"

"Why did so many of my relatives all come to work here in the rail yard?"

My grandparents came to this country in 1904 from Mexico and when I thought about this I thought "gosh, the Mexican Revolution hadn't started yet.

Why were they leaving?"

What I learned was that my grandfather, who was 29 years of age, and my grandmother Mauda was 23.

She was five months pregnant and they had three sons, from between ages seven to four.

And so they came because something happened and there's one of two things that could have been the reason.

One is that at that time the rurales, the police of Mexico, were conscripting the men.

They were making them become part of the Mexican military.

We are thinking, he didn't want to fight, or is it because my grandfather was a curandero?

And there's a story that he had to treat the captain of the military, and he had to treat them in a way that he knew he could not heal.

But, he was being forced to do it, and apparently that Captain died, and that's part of this other part of the narrative and stories of my grandparents.

Either way, my grandfather was punished for it and what we have- what we know, our evidence was my grandfather had scars across his body from being slashed especially on his back.

So, for some reason he was being physically punished that he made that decision, to take him and his family to travel 1200 miles to Albuquerque and why Albuquerque?

Word of mouth was going on that the railroad was being built across the United States and right now in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1904- that period, that time, they were looking for laborers.

So, that's why my grandfather came from La Barca, Jalisco, Mexico straight to Albuquerque.

He didn't deviate, he didn't go look for other work.

This was going to be his-- his destination.

This was to be ultimately, his destiny.

But interestingly, he didn't get the job.

He came to Albuquerque, they were homeless.

The story is that they lived under a tree.

While my grandfather looked for work, he was not hired and we don't know why.

For 15 years he kept going back to the railroad.

It really was hard, especially for my grandmother looking at the woman's perspective, right?

My grandmother, being five months pregnant, ends up delivering a child.

But, because of the poor living conditions that child only lived um-- six months and then he died.

But then my grandmother, she ends up having three more children, and then my grandfather finds other jobs, and my grandmother has four more kids, and all together she ends up having 13 children.

After getting his job at the railroad he only worked five years before he hurt his foot.

He was picking up a railroad tie, and you know those are very, very heavy, and it fell on his foot.

He lost two toes and then he was out of a job again, from the railroad.

Because they didn't offer workers compensation in those days.

So, he ends up working as a janitor because he had no option.

He had to work.

But then a year later he's back at the railroad and he's working as a flag man and he ends up working there for over 30 years.

When he retires at the age of 75.

And every day, well he went working my grandmother and her other cousins who eventually came from Mexico and they all lived in the same community.

At lunch, when the pito would blow, the women would get their tables, pull them out in their yard- the front yard, because the yard was right in front of the railroad.

They'd bring out their beans, and their chile, their carne or tamales.

Whatever they happen to be making that time of year.

And the single men, by word of mouth, learned they could go and get a meal.

It's interesting because they never set a price for how much to pay for food.

They let the men put whatever money they felt the food was worth, on the table.

And my grandmother and all the other ones would accept it, because it was money.

It was something that was coming in to help the family, because that was part of-- everybody had a role to play and the family culture was that my grandfather did not allow his sons to marry till their 20's or 30's.

Because they needed the money.

My grandfather felt without the family pulling together, they would never succeed in this country.

So, they pulled the money, he took all their money and he doled it out as he thought necessary, but saved enough that he ends up opening a grocery store.

He also finds jobs for his other sons by managing the grocery store, and then eventually he opens up a bar, a Cantina called "The Monte Carlo" My grandfather was very entrepreneurial, in working to again- try to create advantages for his children that he knew otherwise they would not find outside the community.

And I would say that, not only for my grandfather, but I think for most rail-yard workers, this was the heartbeat for them.

The railroad.

It was the one that gave opportunity to them and to their families and that's the reason for them staying and working as many decades, that many of them did.

And life was hard, it was a smoky, dirty, loud place.

My uncles who became Boilermakers, are a testament because they became deaf.

You know, think about the big machinery.

The pounding of working in boilers and the welding and all that was going on.

Also, they all got emphysema.

The youngest cousin who worked at the rail yard, shares stories that when he would go look for his father to- take him lunch, or just to go see him he would say it would be so smoky in there and dusty, you could you could hardly see people.

So, can you can imagine working there every day?

What that does to your lungs?

The other courses are job advancements.

Those are always the hardest.

As I talk with other workers, especially black American families, and also within our Mexican Community, the darker you were the harder it was to advance.

>>Faith Perez: How does understanding the history of your family and other rail yard workers' families help us today?

>>Cecilia Navarette: Their lives teach us a lot, not only about just the rail yard workers, but I think immigrants.

Like my maternal grandparents, people who come with little education, what they bring to this country is that they help to fill the gaps in the job industry for the low-skilled labored work.

They also help to drive economic growth.

They buy homes, they buy cars, they buy groceries.

Everything that leads towards building the economy of this country as a whole.

We need immigrants, we need young blood, we need young people to help to continue to build this country or the fabric of the country.

And we help, again, to make it a beautiful tapestry of people of color and different backgrounds and that's what I think immigrants- and like my grandfather, my grandmother and my uncles, all bring in- all of us descendants bring to this country.

BREAKING DOWN WALLS (Music) The inspiration for the Black Futures Series was very much the artists who are featured in those exhibitions.

So the fourteen photographers who are the founding members of the Kamoinge Workshop, as well as the painter and curator and scholar, David Driskell.

Everyone involved was not only an artist in their own right, but also really important figures, in terms of mentoring other people who were coming up as artists, as well as having a really deep scholarly engagement with the history of Black art in the United States and abroad.

All of those aspects of the artists that we are featuring were essentially our jumping-off point for what we could do to bring those ideas to life in Cincinnati now, to think about what the past means to the present, and what the future might look like, if we're thinking about it through the lens of Black creativity.

>> One of the things that we imagined within the framework of the Black Futures Series was that we wanted for the museum to directly support the creation of new work by a Black artist that would embody the messages that we were thinking through, but also that would be an opportunity for someone to think through their own practice and grow.

And as we were talking about what that could look like, I knew that it should be dance.

(music) I have my own experiences working as a performer, as a choreographer, and so we wanted work that would be site-specific, that would be designed specifically to engage audiences in the art museum spaces.

To take the audience on a journey, not to perform or illustrate a journey, but to really connect with the audience and draw them through the performance.

When I saw this proposal, I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is a dream," because I already have a relationship with loving museums and loving artwork and I love dance, obviously.

That's what I do, and the fact that I can bring the two together was just like, extraordinary to me.

So, we're about to, I'm about to just play, like this is just gonna be fun.

"Five, six, seven, go.

Two."

With site-specific work, choreographically, you have to think differently about how the audience is seeing the dance, how the dancers are dancing in the space and how they interact with the space.

And how do you make the maximum value of the dancing and the space so that it feels like there's a symbiotic relationship, and not just that we're trying to create the stage outside.

(music) I thought about what this project was about, and it's about Black futures.

And when I thought about who I wanted to cast, I was like, well, the younger dancers, they are the future.

So I thought that artistically that they would bring a willingness and a freshness to this creative process that it really needed, and I'm so glad that I did, because I think that I could really see them grow throughout the process of working on this work.

So I'm glad that they dove in with me and we got to do this together.

(music) "Had it not been for those Black lives, beyond their flavors of soul food and style..." As I was thinking about this project, I knew I would probably want some spoken word in it, and I've been trying to work with Vanae for some years and the things that I admire about her is her complete investment in whatever she's doing, if she's singing, acting, dancing, you know, writing, creating, whatever the thing may be, like, she's completely invested artistically, and so her maturity and experience really kind of brought so much treasure to this project, in particular, because it just felt like she was talking to the audience, but also she was saying these things that felt like she was from the future.

And so, as we talked about creating this character for the show, she just like immediately could dive into what that was, and was able to bring all the things that she brings as an artist in general, to this project.

>> I sat down in one of the rehearsals the dancers had and that, I just was going, I was going.

I think it was a groove, an unconscious spirit and an unconscious bond there that I felt, you know, watching countess and them develop the eight counts that they had.

But that day had helped me put pen to paper.

It was like liquid, it was so fluid.

I feel like everybody can connect with the arts, and dance brings a lot to life, things that you never would think about, we just have to keep doing these types of, types of performances so people can see that this isn't unusual.

And, art is art.

There's no top on it and the walls are getting knocked down every day.

(music) >> I know it can be a little strange working with family, but it's been really lovely to embark on this journey with my brother, Wesley Winfrey.

He composed the music and it's like we've really gotten to put our artistic energies together in one sense.

And I think because we do have such a good connection outside of our art, it just transferred into our art in a very seamless way, and so, this museum project is actually the fourth project that we've done together.

>> When we started collaborating together for the first time, we automatically had this open sense of dialogue and this open line of communication, which is extremely helpful in the creative process, so I think we kinda had an advantage of growing up together.

The idea was to give each section its own musical character, and we really wanted to play with historic facts as well as some creativity.

We really wanted to show the gamut of the African American experience, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

So we show that we were kings and queens pre- slavery and that the ultimate goal is to get ourselves and to get the rest of the world to understand that we are still kings and queens, even through our present time and our past and our current struggles.

So that was just like a little musical nod to this full circle.

(music) I really hope the audience was able to listen to the music and have their emotions solidified by the music.

So you're seeing this powerful choreography and hopefully it's just supporting what you're seeing in front of you.

(music) >> There is nothing like being able to work with people who are down for your vision.

That is a dream.

And having everybody just on board with trying to make it happen, even the Cincinnati Art Museum, everything I wanted to see happen, the museum was able to make it happen.

And they were very artistically accommodating.

And so, for everybody to be on board for something that feels like a very vulnerable thing to do, which is to put your voice out there is like, I couldn't ask for anything different.

It was a really great experience to be able to be in the museum.

(applause) LETTING GO When I sit down to paint, I try to shut off my head.

I try to shut off all the thoughts that are in my head and I really try to allow my intuition to guide me throughout the process.

So I sit with my music and I let myself connect to the music in a way that allows me to start picking paints, like the colors that I want to use.

Sometimes there's just a color, like purple.

Purple is the color of the day and then I start matching colors to that, that I think would complement it and kind of express, I think, what I'm feeling or how the music's helping me feel.

And once I have colors selected, I put them all into cups and I mix up like a water medium that I pour into the cups to kind of slowly, slowly add to get to the consistency that I want and it's like a constant check...check.

Is it the consistency?

And it took a lot of trial and error.

What is it that I'm trying to achieve?

What's going to make all the paint run off the canvas?

What's going to hold that tighter?

What's going to blend the paint?

So it's a process of what color do I want to stand out the most in this painting?

It's during that time that the energy of the music is going into the paint.

The energy of me is going into the paint through that process.

If I really take my time and focus on what I'm doing, that's when I get the best results, I think.

It's almost like a meditation, in a way.

While I was like really connecting to the music, I would see patterns of colors.

I'd see sequences and I really fell in love with mixing colors and kind of letting these like images that I had already seen in my brain, come out onto the canvas without thinking about them.

And for the first time in my life, I found something I really enjoy, I'm really, really passionate about it, and right after I started painting, I got really, really sick.

And it started in my neck, it's a like pain in my neck, the pain started to go into my back, I had spasms.

This lasted for about a year.

I was in bed and debilitating pain some days, just, I could not move.

But I made a goal, every single day for that year, to paint something, no matter how big, no matter how small.

My illness just magically got better one day and I think it was pushing through the pain on the days when I was like, "I don't know if I can do this."

And I got out of bed every single day and painted.

I was determined to learn through one of the most painful parts of my life because I really, I was like, "oh, this makes me so happy!"

In a way, I almost feel like this medium especially, saved my life.

After I mix the paints, sometimes I'll go walk around or I'll punch my punching bag to kind of like take some time to let the paint really interact with each other before I pour it.

I have a friend who was trying to teach me to box.

He started to explain that boxing is sort of like meditation, in a way, and when you really get lost in the process of like the rhythm of punching, your mind goes blank, similar to art.

At the beginning of COVID, I bought a punching bag, I had no idea what I was doing.

But I started to really enjoy it.

Sometimes as well, if I feel like I'm lacking energy, to move energy around inside of me, I'll start punching the bag.

Just kind of like, get loosened up, like break up the energy, let's get the creative juices flowing a little bit more.

I had nowhere else to put my punching bag except for in my studio, so it kind of came together in that way.

I was like, "This is really adding another element to the creative process."

There's a lot of different styles of pouring the paint onto the canvas.

Some people will take individual cups and try to do a design that way.

I think I fell in love with the dirty pour because essentially, it's just like taking four or five colors, or however many colors, into a cup and you take that cup and you pour onto the canvas.

I do one cup and then start to move the canvas.

See how the paint's interacting with each other.

Pour another cup, see how that's interacting and then it comes to life as I start pouring.

There's nothing ever inside of my mind before I start pouring, it comes to life as I start pouring, which I really enjoy now.

Before, I was like, "I really want it to look this way", and it doesn't do it that way.

This paint has a mind of its own and it's really taught me to accept that I can't control.

There's some things I can't control.

So it's really almost a reflection of the lessons that I'm learning in my own life, is how it comes out on the canvas as well.

I really try to take time out in between every pour to kind of see like, what do I want to add?

What is it that I want to add to this?

So, once I feel that the piece is balanced, I stop pouring.

Fluid art is always going to be my passion.

I think what I love the most about this medium is that you can have two artists that use the same colors, and it comes out completely different, because every artist, I think, has their own style.

And I finally found that style and it feels really good.

I don't think society sets people up to believe that they can make a career out of the arts, and I think I want to prove to people that yes, you can.

You can follow the arts, you can live your life's dream.

You can live your purpose through the arts and it's okay.

It's going to be difficult at times, but it's going to be okay.

You can do it.

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"UNTIL NEXT WEEK, THANK YOU FOR WATCHING."

Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund, New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV 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.