An Open Letter to the National Arts Community
By Guillermo Gómez-Peña
(This letter carries the outrage of my saliva and the fears and aspirations
of my many artistic communities. Written 6 months ago, it is one of my humble
attempts to contribute to our clarity and valor, in the era of the Blue Dragon).
Dear colleagues:
I
Since the mid 90's, as part of the much-touted "backlash," the US
political right managed to successfully demonize and defund contemporary art,
labeling critical artists as "decadent," "elitist," and "un-American." As a
result, the budgets of federal and state arts agencies were progressively sliced
down, and soon the efforts of private foundations to pick up the slack became
insufficient.
Then came "9/11"*
The dramatic attacks on the US provided the Bush administration with
the much-needed moral authority to implement overnight, a regime of
intolerance, censorship, and paranoid nationalism. Their particular brand of religious
machismo was not that different from the extremist beliefs of those they
allegedly opposed. Their master discourse stated: You are either with "us"(the
"good guys") or with "them"(the "evil" ones); "God Bless America!" a hundred, a
thousand times, (and no one else). And artists and intellectuals suddenly found
ourselves caught between two forms of fundamentalisms - not really knowing if
we were perceived as part of the "us" or the "them." Remember?
In this cartography of fear, new and resurrected borders were drawn
overnight dividing families, communities and nations. Brand new enemies and
abysmal ethical contradictions were imposed on us, and the arts communities were
no exception.
First came state-sponsored censorship: movies and art shows
containing references to political violence were indefinitely postponed and a long
list of innocuous songs alluding to violence and airplanes were banned from the
radio. Remember our complete disbelief? Then, a high-tech form of McCarthyism
came into effect with Carnivore and other digital surveillance systems, and
thousands of "suspicious" Websites and virtual networks were dismantled. Finally
came the public burnings of books and audio-CDs sanctioned by the theological
rhetoric of our Holy Attorney General. He was embarked in a personal crusade
against Satan himself. Remember?
CARNIVORE XP-386759-493879-988321
Under this rarified climate, the corporate owned electronic and
printed media engaged in a "no questions asked" policy. Wrapped in the American flag
(made in China), most US journalists began to willingly perform the role of
stenographers for the Pentagon. The US became the only western "democracy" in
which generals and intelligence agents perform the role of news commentators.
And those "liberal" anchormen, correspondents and commentators who deviated
from the script were instantly fired. Remember?
In academia, conservative students began to report on their
outspoken professors and their "anti-American" behavior. In some universities,
conservative alumni threatened to withdraw their financial support if those outspoken
professors weren't silenced. Those students and teachers who dared to
organize against the supernintendo policies of the Bush administration were inundated
with hate mail and death threats. Remember?
CARNIVORE XP-386759-493879-988321
As more flags appeared, Chicano/Latino and grassroots organizations
throughout the country were cowardly tagged with jingoistic statements by
anonymous "patriots". In San Diego, the legendary murals of Chicano Park were
defaced by white supremacists while in San Francisco, the windows and digital
murals of the Galería de la Raza were tagged with anti-immigrant and anti-gay
phrases. One night, a passing car shot a bullet into the Galeria window. It felt
like the 1970's in Central America.
The word "terrorist" surreptitiously expanded to signify, at first
all radical Muslims, then all Arabs and Southeast Asians and finally all
Arab-looking people including Latino immigrants - documented or not - and brown
people with foreign accents. (Since 9/11, those US-based Latino artists, who
travel abroad regularly, including myself, have been systematically detained at
airport checkpoints, body searched and interrogated; and many of our art
materials, props and costumes have been confiscated without an explanation or an
apology. We have slowly learned to endure the post 9-11 humiliation rituals at
airport security checkpoints. We are all slowly learning to live with ethnic
profiling as official culture).
The drastic measurements of the Homeland Security Office, and the scary
Patriot Act which turned the country into the largest neighborhood watch program
ever, paired with the tightening of borders and the new immigration and travel
restrictions began to affect international cultural exchange. Visas were denied
or indefinitely postponed. And foreign artists from countries in Bush's
ever-expanding black list were no longer allowed in the land of freedom and
democracy. Remember? (Unfortunately many myopic cultural institutions from Europe,
Asia and Latin America have responded by "boycotting" US artists, as if this
would hurt the Bush administration at all).
CARNIVORE XP-386759-493879-988321
Then came the expected defunding of the arts. The budget
priorities of the new Republican Junta were clearly National Security, law enforcement
and the military. As the attention of the country focused on a myriad of
threats (some real, most mythical), a fictional "Axis of Evil" and the much-touted
"weapons of mass distraction", Bush and cronies managed to surreptitiously
dismantle the funding sources of all progressive communities, including the
alternative and experimental art worlds.
In this ambiance of manufactured hysteria, art was sent from the
back seat of the funding bus straight out the back door. The unspoken yet
pervasive narrative stated: " Who needs art when we are fighting international
terrorists." In California alone, the Arts Council lost 19 million dollars out of
its 20 million-dollar budget. Today, California, the 5th economy of the world,
holds a pitiful continental record worthy of Ripley's Believe it or Not: the
second smallest per capita budget allocated to the arts*after Bolivia: 3 cents
per person per year.
The fear of losing one's funding or one's job created a more
insidious problem: self-censorship. Throughout academia and the art world, with a few
exceptions, we were all in silence, scared of not knowing the exact placement
of the new borders of tolerance: of not knowing the shape and direction of
the probable repercussions of our outrage. Our European and Latin American
colleagues kept asking us the same unpleasant question: How come the artists and
intellectuals in the US are not speaking up and putting up a good fight? When
are you guys going to break the silence? All we could do was raise our shoulders
in total disbelief. "What irony," I wrote to one of my publishers late last
year, "Mexico, my original homeland, is clumsily learning to live with the new
dangers of freedom and democracy; while we here in the US, my new homeland,
are learning to live without freedom."
CARNIVORE XP-386759-493879-988321
II
Eventually, the Bush administration contributed to the re-
politicization of art. Why? All the values and principles they chose to
target were at the core of art practice including, freedom of speech, civil
liberties, cultural diversity and tolerance, the right to dissent and criticize power.
Since most institutional spaces were closed to critical art, virtual
space became the de facto territory of contestation. A new anonymous political
arts movement began to emerge as unsigned posters, hilarious political
cartoons and outrageous PhotoShop images and QuickTime movies critical of Bush and
his few international collaborators circulated in virtual space. After a group
of poets rejected a Faustian invitation by the First Lady to read their poetry
in the White House, a huge anti-war poetry website came into fruition. For a
while, it was the most visited literary website ever. By early 2003, as we
approached the irrational invasion of Iraq, sectors in the intellectual community
and even the pop music and the Hollywood establishment began to finally break
the silence. It warmed our hearts to hear celebrities like Susan Sarandon,
Harry Belafonte, Martin Sheen, Danny Glover, and even the Dixie Chicks speak
their minds.
In mid February over 20 million people across the globe, demonstrated
energetically against the war. Many artists, students and intellectuals who
normally don't walk the political streets were there, along with myriad
unlikely colleagues including housewives, senior citizens, war veterans and even
apolitical citizens who had recently lost their jobs due to Bush's narrow-minded
politics. Most demonstrations were peaceful and quite imaginative, in terms of
their performance strategies, visual languages and poetic slogans. A window of
hope seemed to temporarily open up in the smoky horizon.
III
Artists, arts administrators, curators, and producers are now facing
many predicaments. Due to the drastic funding cuts, cultural institutions
have had to trim down considerably their programs and staff, and most grassroots
institutions and alternative art spaces face probable extinction within the
next two years. Every week, we hear of yet another arts organization, museum
department or community center that just lost its funding; of yet another arts
administrator, or artist colleague who was just fired. Commissions and tours are
being cancelled left and right. Our organization, La Pocha Nostra, alone has
lost 10 large commissions since 9/11 and as of November of 2003, 70% of our
budget is coming from our International touring.
The toll that the Bush era is taking on people's mental and physical
health is immense. Understandably, everyone is exhausted, poor, overworked and
scared shitless of the immediate future; our communities are all in disarray
and we don't even have a political project at hand to envision an alternative.
It is no coincidence that in the last two years personal illness, divorce,
and suicide against a backdrop of social, racial and military violence have all
increased exponentially. Understandably, our bodies and psyches are
internalizing the pain of the larger socio-political body and the confusion of the
collective psyche.
These dramatic conditions are forcing our frail arts communities to
engage in serious soul searching and tough questioning: All across the US, in
every art space, gallery, theater; bohemian café, recording and rehearsal
studio, we are all expressing our perplexity and asking similar questions:
What are our new roles as artists and intellectuals in this cartography
of terror? How do we restore the mirror of critical culture for society to
see, once again, its own ethical reflection? Are critical artists an endangered
species in the US? Do we wish to live in a country without museums, galleries,
theaters, cultural centers, literary journals, film festivals and an
alternative press? If America continues to follow this path and chooses to become a
closed society and a cultural wasteland, will we be able to tolerate living here
as complete outcasts or will we be forced to become expatriates in Europe,
Canada or Mexico? What concrete actions can we realistically undertake as a
sector (and not as disenfranchised individuals), to reclaim our stolen civic self
and our legitimate right to create, and articulate our artistic visions? How
to keep these questions alive, discuss survival strategies with our local and
national communities and present our case empathetically to the press and to
sympathetic members of the political class?
CARNIVORE XP-386759-493879-988321
IV
Since 9/11, I have had this reoccurring dream. I dream of a faraway
country in which artists are respected in the same way pop celebrities, military
men and sportsmen are respected in our country. Artists perceive a decent
salary, own their homes and cars, enjoy vacations, and have medical insurance.
The media and the political class value their opinions. They perform multiple
social roles as social critics and chroniclers, advisers, intercultural
diplomats, community brokers, and spiritual leaders. In this sui generis society, we
can actually purchase poetry books and art magazines in convenience stores.
Writers, philosophers, and performance artists appear daily on national
television and radio. Museums are free and every neighborhood has a cultural center.
In
this most unusual society, even corporations, city councils, school districts
and hospitals hire artists as advisers, and animators. In this imaginary
society, artists don't have to write texts like this one.
Guillermo Gómez-Peña
