Anishka Lee-Skorepa wants to break cultural barriers surrounding both the border and opera music.
The San Diego opera singer is part of Artistas Fronterizas, a group that works to present a clearer and more positive picture of border life through their performances in Mexico and the United States.
The group puts on concerts that demystify border life and make opera accessible to people outside the normal opera-going crowd. They introduce their arias and art songs in both Spanish and English and, in between songs, they talk about what it's really like to live in a border town. And the concerts happen in bars, restaurants and other venues that reach an atypical opera audience.
"We think of ourselves kind of like ambassadors of another narrative of border life," Lee-Skorepa said. "You know, it's not just drugs, it's not just immigration, it's not the violence that so often makes the media coverage. There's all these other subtle things happening, and we want to present that to a wider audience."
In a new episode of "Only Here," a KPBS podcast about unexplored subcultures, creativity and conflict at the U.S.-Mexico border, our series of short episodes focused on border art continues with a story about an opera singer who’s painting a picture of border culture through song.
