El Otro Lado: The Other Side
Albuquerque

Concept and Direction by Chrissie Orr

In partnership with 516 ARTS, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and Connecting Community Voices and La Plaza de Encuentro (The Gathering Place) a consortium of three immigrant groups — El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos, Southwest Creations Collaborative, and Enlace Comunitario.

Project supported in part by The New Mexico Humanities Council, the Albert I. Pierce Foundation, McCune Charitable Foundation, New Mexico Council on Photography, City of Albuquerque Public Art Program and Wells Fargo.

Workshops led by visual artist Chrissie Orr and writer Michelle Otero

El Otro Lado Team:
David Gordon, Visual Artist
Pablo Ancona, Audio
Senaida Garcia, Videographer
Alicia Lueras Maldonado, Videographer
Adriana Ontiveros, Youth Organizer
Niki Lewin, Videographer
Barbara Geary, Education Coordinator, 516 ARTS
 

Building on the discoveries and practices that evolved during the two-year project in Santa Fe, the Academy for the Love of Learning is delighted to be expanding the program in collaboration with its Albuquerque partners:

516 ARTS

La Plaza de Encuentro

Connecting Community Voices 

The workshops which began in February, are being held once a week at the Native American Community Academy, El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos, and Barelas Senior Center.

The project will culminate with a public art installation that will be shown at various Albuquerque sites and feature participant’s writing in a public storytelling event in the fall of 2010.

Still at the very beginning of the process, we are encouraged and honored by what we have already witnessed — the power of creative expression shared through the collages, poetry, and watercolors of the participants. And from that, the possibility of human connection that happens between all of us as a result of these deeply felt moments.

“I have always been fascinated by stories. There is such strength and beauty in our stories and exploring the places and people we come from. Atrisco, Carrizozo, Raventon, Chilili...some of my places in New Mexico. Lugares that shape who I am, and hold the bones of my ancestors. The El Otro Lado Project offers a unique opportunity to take the time to reflect on our stories and find creative and powerful ways to share them.”

~ Alicia Lueras Maldonado, El Otro Lado Team Member

Barelas Senior Center

El Otro Lado workshop participants come from Mora County, Alamogordo, Magdalena, Española, Colombia, México, and Carnuel, but they all have found a home at the Barelas Senior Center. Like the center itself, participant journals have become another kind of home. In them, participants have told the stories or their names, collaged symbols and images that speak to their identity, and written “I am from” poems.

Native American Community Academy (NACA)

We work with high school students in Cy Evans’s art class at the Native American Community Academy on Thursday mornings. The students come from Sandia Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, Vanderwagon, and Albuquerque.

They are athletes, dancers, science whizzes, artists, ranchers. Most take their journals home each week to complete the exercises we begin in class and return with elaborate collages that show the many facets of their lives or drawings of the rural homes they leave behind during the week in order to get an education in Albuquerque.

Dean of Students Mateo Sanchez regularly joins our sessions and incorporates some of our exercises into his work with other students. We deeply appreciate the support we receive from Mateo and Cy and look forward to the student work that will continue to flower as they grow more in touch with their individual stories and connect with one another.

 “The El Otro Lado project is providing people of all ages a creative way to reflect upon themselves, about who they are, where are they at, and where they may want to go. The project's use of journals as the main frame for collecting ideas and feelings is vital.

Art and writing go hand in hand into the journals. Using unique ideas and prompts give participants a simple direction to access what they see and feel. The use of reflection and discussions help the project and its participants grow.” 

~ Cy Evans, art teacher, Native American Community Academy.

El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos

The group at El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos is dynamic and committed. Between twelve and twenty young people come each week ready to pour into their journals, whether the medium is collage, writing or watercolor.

They are students at Highland, Albuquerque High, St. Pius, Amy Biehl, South Valley Academy, CNM, UNM. They bring family photographs to paste into their collages and music to share with the group as they paint or write. They are developing a sense of trust with one another, sharing aspirations and disappointments, reading powerful poetry of their stories of migration and adaptation.

“When I first walked into El Centro it was a very small group, about seven girls altogether. The session was intimate and inspiring. We touched subjects about identity and it seemed to open up many doorways for the girls.

I left that day feeling good and looking forward to returning. The next week, back at El Centro, I see many familiar faces and a few new faces. As the time got closer to starting the session, it felt like 30 more people walked in. Well there were 23 of us all together, but it was still such a drastic change from the week before,

I had to leave the room to prepare myself for being around so many people. I'm very shy... but I came out of my shell and the whole thing turned out to be so wonderful and so eye opening that I couldn't imagine the group being the same without them.”

~ Senaida Garcia, El Otro Lado Team Member

Samples of Journals »

"I am from..." Poems »

Journal Portraits »

Read about El Otro Lado in Santa Fe »