S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show here , about an exhibit at the Museum of Us that explores race , power , resistance and change. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. The San Diego region , much like the country , has a long and complex history when it comes to race. To tell those stories , though , it takes time , research and collaboration. Well , at the Museum of Us in Balboa Park , a group of artists , researchers , community members and museum staff set out to do just that. Their work began nearly a decade ago. The exhibition is called race , power , Resistance and Change , and it opened late last year , a couple of those artists joined me today Aigner and Max de La Tour. Their brothers born in Guadalajara , Mexico and raised in Southern California. They currently live and work in San Diego and Baja California , and their immigrant experience and bicultural identities have shaped a lot of their work. Einar and Max. Welcome. Hello.
S2: Hello. Hi. Hi.
S1: Hi. So glad to have you both here in studio with me. Um , first and foremost. Tell us about your work. Your signature style mixes , blown glass sculpture and installation art.
S2: Working with different mediums was what always attracted us to do. We started blowing glass in the late 1970s. So we we've been involved with the medium a long time , and now we're also including a lot of lenticular printing. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. I think we realized early that we didn't want to be pegged with just one medium , and we wanted the ability to be able to traverse different , different ones and things we've never worked with before. Could be part of our wheelhouse. Wow.
S3: Wow. Well.
S1: You know , Imax , indigenous ancestry , the migrant life and your Mexican background have heavily influenced your your work. Um , tell me a bit about that.
S2: Having lived and having grown up , grown up on both sides of the border provides us with a pretty large wealth of a resource to draw , draw upon as artist. And we freely do. Yeah.
S3: Yeah.
S1: Einar , is this creative approach really a big part of who you you. All.
S3: All.
S1: Were in , invited and collaborated.
S2: I think when you are from one country and you move to another country , a lot of the issues of identity come up and you start seeing yourself as an insider outsider on both cultures. And we realized that that was very important for our for our practices to be able to speak from the other side , so to speak. Mhm.
S3: Mhm.
S1: And how why why did you want to be involved.
S2: Well I think it's a very relevant subject for , for these days. And it's a , it's a cultural process that the country has gone through that we haven't resolved. And right now feels that we're taking steps back. So yes , we are. We're deeply honored to be part of the exhibition.
S1: Tell me more about that , about why this exhibit is so timely.
S2: It's so timely because it brings a very clear context of how it has affected our lives. I mean , it's it's really shocking to to understand that terrible , nefarious practices such as redlining happened in my lifetime. And now we're feeling that things are slipping out back is , uh , it's just outrageous.
S3: Yeah , I.
S1: Know anything to add to.
S3:
S2: Mhm.
S3: Mhm.
S1: Another key part of this exhibit is resistance.
S2: Because you you give yourself permission as an artist to do what you really deep down need to do. And that is inevitably , inevitably becomes an act of resistance. Or job as artist is to reflect who we are and or place in society.
S1: Yeah , there are so many ways to resist , and art certainly is one of those ways I honor.
S2: Yeah , I think historically , if you look at what artist position has always been a kind of mirror to society , not that it is the change , but it is definitely a big part of the change because it's it's part of the visual language of the times. And therefore it's again , the voices of resistance are going to be very , very much in the forefront of that. So it's kind of funny. Not the best soapbox in a way , but it is part of the dialogue.
S3: Yeah , well.
S1: Tell us about castaways , your piece that displayed at the entrance of the exhibit.
S2: Well , our piece is loosely based on on on the paintings of colonial Latin America called the casta paintings. The casta paintings that show the different racial mixes , which was a novelty at the time for Europe because they. I mean , those mixes had never happened before in this world , but the way they were classified is pretty , pretty terrible. And the way we took them is to say , um , the , the progeny of the mixed races , instead of saying it's this new race or this new breed , if you will. We took it more towards sort of a Palermo , as in resistance. And it's very much about resistance because it's a sort of a lucha or a Mexican wrestler made out of nopal , the prickly pear cactus. You can't be more defiant than being. Having. Being green and having spines coming out all over you. So our take was kind of like saying no matter what the mix is. The mixes are stronger because of that. And that includes all of the , you know , all of the generations of , of , of immigration that have made America great. Yeah.
S3: Yeah.
S1: Very interesting.
S4:
S2: But I will say it was a very difficult and challenge. And and because of that , it was exciting because it's not the easiest subject to talk about. The obvious is obvious , so you can't point out the obvious and the problematic of of talking about race and the constructs of it. But how do I open the dialogue ? Because that's I think that's what art does more than actually have conclusions is to actually just get people talking and get keep opinions , come out and foment foment discussions.
S1: It really does. And , you know , oftentimes people talk about , you know , race. And I guess one of the big questions that comes up is , is how does one define race , the idea of race. And so I'm curious how does the exhibit define race.
S4: And of course , it's extremely complicated. And now that we have our genomes in this country , everybody surprised that nobody is pure anything. And that's kind of a wonderful thing. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. That's that was our take is to really challenge the concept of purity. It's ridiculous in when you consider where we all originally come from , and the way that the original humanity started to spread throughout the world. It's it's just a ridiculous construct. I don't think the exhibition is trying to define any of that. I think it is. What it's doing is opening up a dialogue that has more to do with the times we're living in , because a lot of the old tropes aren't working. And of course , a lot of them have been broken by now. So to have a new discussion on this , I think is a super timely indeed.
S1: And it's interesting that that it really does underscore and highlight how race is this made up construct. By the time you get through looking at it , you know , but it does. It shows and talks about how race has really shaped laws in daily life in San Diego. So why is San Diego in the border multinational region , you know , an important place to tell this story.
S2: Well , I think it's not insular as say , you know , being in the smack in the middle of the Midwest would be , um , with a more very clearly defined mixture. Uh , that has happened a while ago right here. We have a lot of dynamic , uh , changing of , uh , you know , how is the most cross-border , uh , point in the whole world is the Sonny Cicero San Diego , um , Tijuana border ? Uh , I think that there is a very unique , uh , exchange that happens , but it's also the corner of the United States. It's also a microcosm in that sense. And for us , it's hard to imagine San Diego without thinking about Tijuana as part of it in the greater cultural region. Amex.
S3: Amex.
S1: Yeah , you got it. All right , well , here's something that I really want to get to. I mean , our nation is facing a very unsettling and divided time around immigration and race is often intertwined in those conversations as as people who are from and live on both sides of the border.
S4: But I guess the message of hope is always that we have been we have gone through this before , and the the love and the truth will resonate in the long run. And we believe that. Mhm.
S3: Mhm. Ina.
S2: Yeah I would , I would just um I don't know , I think I would add that um , that what we , we have , we can't be scared of dialogue. So we should be talking about all of these things even with people that we disagree with. Because after all , we're trying to be part of a nation. This is no longer nation building. So we're a very different part of the history of the United States is still a young nation , no matter what , comparatively to other other parts of the world , and we need to be able to have discussions about things and throw out some of the taboos and and actually get rid of some , some tropes that just seem to refuse to die.
S1: And one of the things , though , in talking to you earlier that you mentioned was on the other side of this resistance , um , what what needs to happen ? Tell me more about that.
S2: What do you mean ? On the other.
S1:
S2: I remember , you know , when Obama got elected , people were even saying things like were post post-race. Um , which we all weirdly wanted to somehow believe. Um , obviously , after all the things that have happened in the last , uh , you know , decade , we've seen how we're very far from that and and we need to. Maybe the bright side of of of this sort of low point would be that we can maybe establish new systems on how to communicate about these things , about people and about culture and about , you know , origin and ethnicity and all of these many , many layered complications that maybe we just need a new structure to or scaffolding to talk about these things. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. You know , I mean , at the end of the day , the the title of this exhibit is really a Call to Action.
S4: We are all a little familiar , somewhat familiar with the national history , but not with the local history. The fact that , you know , like I mentioned before , that redlining was happening here in the 1960s. And to put a context to that is , uh , I think , uh , when you when you have a mirror to how you are actually feeling and you understand better , you maybe you understand better where the two sides come from. And that is also an important function of exhibitions like this.
S1: Why ? But okay.
S4: They didn't just come out of the blue. They're just , uh , systems giving preference that shouldn't be there. Right.
S1: Right.
S2: Very different times. Not that long ago , really. Um , but to to go back to the last question , I think one of the things that that is happening and my brothers , I think , talked about it a little bit , was that all of the family histories of , of , of origin are being challenged by people taking DNA tests , which is both fascinating. And it just goes to show how much racism affected that people would lie about their , their origins in order to come out on the other side of so , of and so all of that stuff is being shuffled around as we know it. And I think that this exhibition is a good context to start those conversations that in many families can be very difficult.
S1: Well , it's a very thought provoking exhibition and it will remain up for quite some time.
S2: I think it's semi-permanent.
S1: All right. Well , I've been speaking with Eisner and Max de la Torre. They are sibling artists with a piece at the Race Power , Resistance and Change exhibit at the Museum of Us , which will remain up throughout the year. Einar and Max , thank you so much for joining us.
S2: Thank you so much.
S4: Thank you.
S1: That's our show for today.
S5: I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
