What is the Arte Es Vida Program Today?

The Arte Es Vida program empowers local communities and assists them in recovering their history, art, culture, language, stories, and traditions. These histories and traditions are in danger of disappearing altogether as time passes and as our elders pass away.

Esperanza’s Arte Es Vida Program responds to the psychological devastation inflicted by practices of cultural domination. Through the Arte Es Vida program, community members explore the role of culture, art, history, and tradition in the survival of our communities. The community engages in cultural dialogues; documents their histories and stories; and explores the social, historical, political, and economic contexts that affect their lives. The program connects academics and theoreticians to the communities who inform their work; and creates accessible archives for both community members and academic researchers to further their understanding of the rich cultural history San Antonio, Texas.

Arte Es Vida participants include youth in the Esperanza’s ArtEscuela program and women in its hand-built ceramics cooperative, MujerArtes. Participants develop skills of writing and video-taping (including digital editing), photo documentation and other material collection methods, so they can preserve these histories. Eventually, the small archive now located at the Esperanza's San Pedro address will be moved to Esperanza's new west side home, "the Casa de Cuentos" located at 816 South Colorado Street. The west side of San Antonio is the historical center of the city’s Mexican-American community. The Arte Es Vida collection will be available for use by all community members.

PHOTOS

Past Arte Es Vida Events

On a regular basis, we produce larger community cultural and educational events that bring together hundreds for celebration, remembrance, and learning. Some of these events include a concert with Gabimino Palomares, our annual participation in May Day, our resistance against the destruction of La Gloria dance hall, and our mutual exchange with Appalshop. Our two most successful productions have been:

An Altar for Emma, a performance piece about the historic and (s)heroic struggle of San Antonio’s pecan shellers led by Emma Tenayuca, from 1933-1938. During the three-week run of this performance, over 2,500 people attended. Included was an exhibit of enlarged historical photographs from our archives and other local resources. (See attached flier and news article.)

Lydia Mendoza Community Tribute, a celebration of the legendary Tejana musician on her 85th birthday, in which she honored us with her presence. This event including a book reading and signing by Dr. Yolanda Broyles-González of the biography La Historia de Lydia Mendoza: Lydia Mendoza’s Life in Music. Also featured was traditional music played by Juan Tejeda and Eva Ybarra y su Conjunto. This one-evening event held in a public park attracted over 500 audience members, and provided an excellent oral history gathering opportunity.

We are dedicated to producing these cultural and educational events in various community venues besides our Esperanza Center building. Past events, dialogues, seminars, and exhibits have taken place at local colleges, community centers, and public parks throughout the city. As our programming and resources expand, we plan to make use of even more venues: libraries, schools, as part of PTA programs, through visits with ESL/GED and leadership classes and local community centers.

Future Plans

The Esperanza plans on having six to ten community meetings per year in which community members dialogue on topics of history and culture and help decide the future of the Arte Es Vida Program.

At a recent Arte Es Vida community meeting, participants expressed interest in researching, documenting, and relearning traditions in the areas of cooking (traditional foods, dishes, and recipes that have not been passed down to the younger generations) and of children’s games and rhymes (that also have not been passed down). This meeting, as with all others, was documented on video and with extensive notes.

Funding for our Arte Es Vida comes from the Animating Democracy Initiative.

Esperanza Peace & Justice Center
922 San Pedro
San Antonio Texas 78212
210-228-0201, Fax 210-228-0000
esperanza@esperanzacenter.org
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