• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Southwest Folklife Alliance

Preserving and presenting the unique cultural and traditional arts, music, food and dance of our region

  • Home
  • About
    • Mission
    • Who We Are
    • History
    • Funders
    • Media
  • Our Work
    • Tucson Meet Yourself
    • Master-Apprentice Artist Award Program
    • BorderLore
    • End of Life Programs
    • Documentation & Cultural Criticism
    • Learning Folklife
    • VozFrontera
    • Videos
  • Building Capacity
    • Cultural Planning & Development
    • Equitable Evaluation & Ethnography
    • Supporting Folklife
  • Give
  • News
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
    • Mission
    • Who We Are
    • History
    • Funders
    • Media
  • Our Work
    • Tucson Meet Yourself
    • Master-Apprentice Artist Award Program
    • BorderLore
    • End of Life Programs
    • Documentation & Cultural Criticism
    • Learning Folklife
    • VozFrontera
    • Videos
  • Building Capacity
    • Cultural Planning & Development
    • Equitable Evaluation & Ethnography
    • Supporting Folklife
  • Give
  • News
  • Contact
You are here: Home / News & Events / Cuban artist Nereida García-Ferraz visits border communities and artists

Cuban artist Nereida García-Ferraz visits border communities and artists

May 8, 2019 By //  by SFA Staff Leave a Comment

Our program to boost cultural activities and bring opportunities to youth and artist in border communities, VozFrontera, got a splash of cultura cubana this spring with a visit from Nereida García-Ferraz, a mixed-media artist who splits her time between Miami and Havana, Cuba.

Miami-Cuban artist Nereida Garcia-Farraz against the border fence in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. Photo by Jenea Sanchez

Born in Havana in 1954, Nereida migrated to the United States in 1970. She grew up in Chicago and received her BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1981. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the Richard Diebenkorn Fellowship from the San Francisco Art Institute. Garcia-Ferraz founded the photography program at MCLA, the San Jose Center for Latino Arts. She is the co-producer of the seminal documentary Fuego De Tierra, which won Best Video Documentary in the 1988 National Latino Film Festival and has been shown at the Whitney Museum, Hirshorn Museum, and the Miami Art Museum.

Her March visit was a pilot residency program for VozFrontera. Co-sponsored by SFA and the Tucson Museum of Art, it included engagements at the University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography and the Tucson Museum of Art, as well as a visit with artists in Douglas/Agua Prieta and Ambos Nogales.

With host Cesar Lopez, Nereida toured Ambos Nogales with Cesar Lopes, community organizer and cultural worker who serves as a program coordinator for VozFrontera. Cesar provided context about arts and culture, border politics, ecology, local food, and major border industries (maquilas, produce, militarization, and narcotraffic), and introduced Nereida to local murals and to people and spaces key to the artistic and social cultural development in both Nogales, Sonora and Nogales, Arizona. In a space of collaborative conversation, Nereida and other colleagues gave ideas of creative projects that could benefit the community and the implementation of art.

Nereida with photographer/videographer Javier Brambilla, artist/entrepreneur Ashley Avila, and organizer/cultural worker Cesar Lopez.

“I was impressed by Nereida’s ability to capture in photographs, painting, and even in her oral testimony, the cultural dynamics and life stories she managed to meet during her stay in both Nogales,” Cesar said. “The way she expressed what she saw inspired me to continue promoting spaces of artistic expression where the community can continue telling the story of where they live, who they are, including what has happened and do not want to forget, as in the case of José Antonio Elena Rodríguez (a youth who was shot and killed by a US Border Patrol agent in October of 2012).”

Nereida photographs border murals in Nogales, Sonora. Photo by Cesar Lopez.

In Douglas and Agua Prieta, Nereida was hosted by Jenea Sanchez, an artist and cultural worker. Nereida met with local artists in Douglas sharing conversations about practice and purpose. In Agua Prieta, Jenea introduced Nereida to the director of the municipal cultural center, Jesus Caneda, also from Cuba. Nereida toured the migrant center in Agua Prieta and learned about the current issues relating to migrant caravans that were approaching the border at the time. After viewing the border murals, Nereida visited the Douglas Border Patrol Station, with a 2.5-hour Q&A with Agent Harper, Border Patrol Community Liaison for a thoughtful conversation about the local landscape and international affairs. On day three, Jenea took Nereida to Bisbee to visit the Lincoln School, an artist living space, studio, and gallery.

Nereida meets with local leaders and artists in Douglas, AZ. From left to right: Robert Uribe, Dave Tarullo and Martina Rendon. Photo by Jenea Sanchez

As Jenea spent time with Nereida and several local women artists, she said she was inspired to think about organizing a woman-artist collective.

“Through breaking bread and walking the border, we realized how much more powerful we could be as a collective. Nereida encouraged us to think about organizing as a collective of women artists who make art with a binational sensibility. This is something we are starting to discuss in a serious way. Nereida and I also discussed ideas to organize a Border Biennale in Douglas and Agua Prieta,” Jenea said.

Artists in Douglas, AZ shared their work with Nereida and learned about the power of women’s artist collectives. From left to right: Jenea Sanchez, Ozni Preciado, Nereida Garcia-Ferraz, and Dara Preciado.

 

Below is a selection of Nereida’s images of her time in the borderlands:

 

Filed Under: News & Events

Previous Post: « Seeking nominations for traditional artists
Next Post: Youth Stories in Nogales June 6 »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Who We Are

The Southwest Folklife Alliance is an affiliate non-profit organization of the University of Arizona, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. We are the designated Folk Arts Partner of the Arizona Commission on the Arts with the support of the National Endowment of the Arts.

Our Mission: We build more equitable and vibrant communities by celebrating the everyday expressions of culture, heritage and diversity in the Greater Southwest.

Folklife: Everyday things people make, say, or do with shared meaning in small groups.

© 2020 Southwest Folklife Alliance · Site design by Kimi Eisele and Julie Ray Creative