Austin Vida

You are here: Home / Archives for Eugenia Vela

Eugenia Vela

Austin Vida + Blastro2 Video Interview: Ulises Lozano of Kinky

By

courtesy photo

I caught up with Ulises Lozano, keyboard player and accordionist of Mexican band Kinky at Stubb’s. The band is currently on a U.S. tour in support of their recent release, Sueño de la Máquina, produced by legendary Dust Brother, John King.

Growing up in Monterrey, Kinky’s hometown, it was easy to follow the band’s overwhelming success. In the past decade, Kinky’s Spanglish mix of rock, dance and techno has made its way into movie soundtracks, TV commercials, FIFA and multiple music festivals, like Coachella and South by Southwest. The band is currently nominated for two Latin Grammys, including Best Alternative Album for Sueño de la Máquina and Best Alternative Song for “Negro Día.”

Ulises talks about touring, upcoming plans and collaborations, Mexican style and what it’s like working with producer John King. Feel free to watch the interview below.

Cine Las Américas presents ‘Visa al Paraíso’ at St. Edward’s University

By

This week, Cine Las Américas finishes its series “Transitions in Spanish Cinema: Spain from the 1930’s to the Present” with the 2010 documentary Visa al Paraíso (Visa to Paradise). The film will be screened tonight at 7 p.m. at the Jones Auditorium in St. Edward’s University.

Visa al Paraíso focuses on the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939, when tens of thousands of families were forced to leave Spain. When Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas ordered his diplomatic corps to help the Spanish refugees, Gilberto Bosques—the Mexican ambassador to France—engaged in a personal mission to rescue hundreds of exiles, offering protection to start a new life in México. Visa Al Paraíso includes interviews with Gilberto Bosques when he was 100 years old and testimonies from Spanish survivors and family members of the exiled community in México.

The screening will be followed with a Q&A with director Lillian Lieberman. The film screening is free and open to the public, and the film will be in Spanish with English subtitles. The Jones Auditorium at St. Edward’s University is located at 3001 S. Congress Ave.

Watch the trailer for Visa al Paraíso below.

Q&A: Sam Coronado, Austin Visual Arts Lifetime Achievement Award Winner

By

Sam Coronado (courtesy photo)

The Austin Visual Arts Awards will host their third ceremony November 15 to recognize artists making an impact in the community. The Austin Visual Arts Association is one of the oldest visual arts organizations in the city, and chooses winners from different categories such as Early Career, Photography and New Media Arts. The Lifetime Achievement Award recipient is Sam Coronado, who has been in the art business since the late ‘60s. You might have heard Coronado’s name thrown around town over the years, because if there’s something he enjoys, it’s being involved.

Coronado co-founded Mexic-Arte, the state’s official Mexican and Mexican-American art museum. He also founded the Serie Project, a nonprofit organization in Austin that strives to create and promote serigraph prints made by Latino artists and others in a workshop environment. Along with the Coronado Studio, a print shop that produces screen-prints, the Serie Project produces fine art prints that are exhibited around the world. To top it all off, Coronado has taught and lectured at different schools and universities in the U.S. and currently teaches at Austin Community College. The Lifetime Achievement Award winner took time from his hectic schedule to talk to me about his work, what it’s like to receive such recognition from the AVAA and share a few pointers on what he’s learned over the years.

What does it mean to you to get the Lifetime Achievement Award?

Sam Coronado: It’s very gratifying and I’m very honored that people recognize what I do. But it’s not just me, it’s a lot of the artists that have come together to help me achieve this goal.

When was the first time you knew you wanted to be an artist?

Coronado: As a kid, I had a cousin named Freddie and we would draw together and exchange drawings and encourage each other, that’s when I really started developing my skills.

How did creativity filter into your childhood and youth?

Coronado: Probably through my grandmother, my mother and most of my aunts, who would sew and knit. My grandmother, especially, did a lot of embroidery and that sort of thing. I imagine that’s where it began, and how it evolved, through my family.

What was your first job in the art business?

Coronado: My first professional job was working with Texas Instruments as a technical illustrator, back in the late ‘60s, early ‘70s. That’s how I supported myself out of school, how I made a living, through technical illustration. But on the side, I always painted and tried to sell my work, get it out there. Not so much for selling it, but just to get my work and name out there.

What would you tell young artists and students who are concerned about making money off of their art?

Coronado: To the fine artists, it’s true that it’s a hard life and it’s hard to make a living off of your art, but like anything else, if you’re persistent with it, you’ll succeed. There’s no real formula, it’s just persistance. Education is a big part of it now. If you go to school, study, learn about the background and learn about artists, that also helps. And it doesn’t hurt if you can lend your skills to graphic design or convert your skills into things that allow you to support yourself.

What do you see in the students taking your classes at ACC?

Coronado: Well, I see a lot of young minds, a lot of young artists that are trying their best to succeed. The advantage that most kids have in my department is that they’re in graphics, in graphic art. Graphic design and animation, those would suit someone with artistic skills that would allow them to support themselves. But I see a lot of art being created by the young folks all around the country, at different universities, at organizations that I’ve visited and museums, I see a lot of great new, young artists that are very inspired and very inspiring.

Sam Coronado mentors emerging artist Carlos Donjuan (courtesy photo)

You’re a huge part—a crucial part—of the local Latino art scene in Austin, through the Mexic-Arte museum and the Serie project. How has the Latino art world grown in Austin and where do you think it’s headed?

Coronado: The Latino art world here has grown quite a bit since I first got to Austin back in the early ‘70s. it was hard to get involved in the art world in those days, because we weren’t accepted the way we are now. Back then, the trick was to get into places, to find spaces that would allow us to exhibit, like in restaurants and community centers. Nowadays, right now we have an exhibition at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio and we just took down one at the Dallas Latino Cultural Center. So the work has been accepted a little bit more, plus, with the strides that we’ve made in Latino communities, we have taken the art world and made it more important within our culture. So the hardships that were there a long time ago, I think are becoming easier in terms of existence in exhibit venues.

What are some organizations in Austin that make it easy to collaborate in the Latino art world?

Coronado: I think the nice thing about Austin is that it’s very eclectic, so since recently, everybody kind of melts into the pot of the art world. Being Latino, I think, was very important when I first started out with the Serie Project because nobody else was doing it, making art with the intent of focusing in the Latino world. But now, you see a lot of folks doing what I was doing, or everybody’s involved in the arts in one way or the other, like the MACC, giving people an opportunity to exhibit and show the world their work.

Is there a particular project you’ve been especially proud of, or think represents you as a person and an artist better than any other?

Coronado: I’m involved with a group of printmakers called Consejo Gráfico, and I think this is big in the Latino printmaking world. It’s great that I can be a part of that, get together with other artists and talk about our state in terms of where we are as Latino artists and printmakers in general. The other thing would be the exhibits that the Serie Project has been able to participate in from Buenos Aires to all around the United States in different universities, different art centers, as well as now the latest one at the McNay Museum in San Antonio, which I think folks should go and see before the exhibit ends in January.

Do you see any particular different reaction to your artwork depending on what part of the world it’s being shown?

Coronado: I think outside of the U.S. and Mexico, Tejano work has been accepted quite a bit, like in Buenos Aires. Also, the Serie Project has traveled to Slovakia and it made some headway there, it’s been making its headway throughout the world. I think in other countries, they’re amazed at the iconography and the techniques that Latinos and Tejanos bring to the art world.

What’s been the biggest lesson you’ve learned in all of your projects?

Coronado: That you have to be patient, roll with the punches and not give up. And money is great, but it’s not anything that you should focus on, a lot of it has to do with the spirit, the soul and the culture that we have in the community, in our Latino community and we each play a big part in it.

The Austin Visual Arts Awards will take place November 15. There will be a cocktail reception at 6:30 at the courtyard at the AT&T Executive Conference Center followed by the awards presentation in the ampitheater at 7:30.

Mexican American Cultural Center celebrates five years, looks ahead

By

Dancers at the Mexican American Cultural Center / courtesy photo

I’m staring at a cerulean blue wall covered in masks when Linda Crockett barges in, walkie-talkie in hand. She leads me to the conference room, where the light creeps in through the window of this beautiful, white building nestled by Lady Bird Lake, known as the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center.

Crockett left someone downstairs waiting for a signature, and she needs some copies, but oh, the copy machine is being annoying today, and she’s getting things ready for Cine de Oro and she’s got the Dia de Muertos event and, oh man, she’s a busy woman. But Crockett sits me down because she’s ready to talk. The MACC, after all, just turned five years old, and Crockett has been there for all five of them.

If you live in Austin, you might not know about the MACC—although you should. But if you work for Austin Vida, there are some things you’re just expected to know about the city, and the MACC is definitely at the top of the list.

“We’re not striving to be nationally recognized,” says Crockett, quickly adding, “Although we are. We’re just trying to serve Austin’s Latino culture. To promote and expose not only Mexican Americans, but to be inclusive with all the cultures that fall under ‘Latino.’ Originally, the community wanted a center where they could express themselves, express their art, and we’ve been trying to do that ever since.”

________________

“The community wanted a center where they could express themselves, express their art, and we’ve been trying to do that ever since.”
Linda Crockett, Media Marketing & Events Coordinator at the MACC
________________

Crockett was hired in June 2007 when there wasn’t even a pencil or a desk chair, without any real instruction or guidance. She was originally hired as “education specialist” in charge of education programming, like the children’s camps the center offers, but soon transitioned into planning, marketing and media for events.

Today, the MACC collaborates with other organizations for events like Diez y Seis, to celebrate Mexican Independence Day, and an annual Tejano music event during South by Southwest, as well as the Trail of Tejano legends in June (with ALMA) and the Puerto Rican Folkloric Dance in May. The center is also used to show films during the annual film festival, Cine Las Américas, and has a new gallery opening about every 12 weeks as well as the community gallery on the first floor of the center, which features up-and-coming Austin artists. Currently the MACC has also been doing Flor de Nopal, a literary workshop every last Saturday of the month, and will have a reading Dec. 7 in collaboration with Irene Silva and Resistencia Books.

Crockett tells me her favorite is a monthly event called Cine de Oro. “I do it the last Tuesday of the month and show classic films,” she says. “We get the seniors to come in here. They’re not so well versed in the visual arts or the gallery, but it’s still very important that we serve them and find a way to say, ‘This is your place, too.’ I remember seeing movies from the ‘40s and ‘50s, and I remember Pedro Infante and Angelitos Negros, María Félix, it’s like revisiting my childhood. It’s one of my favorite events, and the seniors enjoy it so much, too.”

________________

“We try to constantly pull from the past and project it here in the present, and show the kids and the people that we’ve been writing and doing art and dancing and singing forever.”
________________

Crockett says a major part of the MACC is coming up with activities that bring different generations together. “We try to constantly pull from the past and project it here in the present, and show the kids and the people that we’ve been writing and doing art and dancing and singing forever,” she says. “We show them things that go beyond what they learn in class, what they learn in school.”

It’s obvious in the way Crockett talks that she loves her job and is passionate about the events and activities the MACC helps put together. She’s looking forward to a theater being built in the center, maybe a 400- to 500-seater, and hopefully getting more professionals, expanding the staff. It’s already been five years, but it’s a short time in the scheme of things, she says. “We want these programs to become a tradition, every year, and every year after me and the current staff are gone.”

The MACC has been in the spotlight recently due to controversy as to what will happen to the empty lot next to the center. Last month, city council decided to use the land for Austin’s parks and recreation, and as a part of the center’s future expansion. The MACC’s Dia de Los Muertos event Nov. 3 will also serve as a way for the community to reach out and say what they want in the lot.

Crockett says that’s essentially what the MACC is all about. “I always love to find out what the community really wants, and we’re still trying to define that,” she says. “But I think we’ve been very successful in reaching out, and we’ve brought awareness to a lot of people that weren’t aware of the richness in their heritage. Our main goal is to continue to do that, and take things further every year.”

Note: Upcoming MACC Advisory Board meetings will facilitate any community input on the lot. Meetings are held at the center, at 600 River Street. Click here for more information.

Dates:

  • Nov. 7: MACC Advisory Board Meeting, 5:30 p.m.
  • Nov. 13: Community Engagement Meeting, 6:30 p.m.
  • Nov. 19: Community Engagement Meeting, 6:30 p.m.

Feature: An east side staple, Joe’s Bakery going strong at 50

By

It isn’t long after walking into Joe’s Bakery that my stomach starts begging me, pleading me, to fill it with barbacoa. My stomach knows, after all, it recognizes these smells by now—these smells, how damn good they smell. I do my best to ignore my stomach’s blatant grumbling and ask for Joe’s granddaughter, Regina Estrada, who after a few seconds barges out of the kitchen, leads me to a corner table, and begins to talk.

“When my mother was growing up, they would bring her to work and she would sleep underneath the counter until it was time for her to go to school,” says Regina. Joe’s Bakery, which turned 50 this year, is home. It’s home for Regina, and it’s home for the rest of her team—her grandmother, Paula; her mother, Rose Ann and her aunt, Carolina.

If there’s something that Regina stresses while we talk about Joe’s, it’s the importance of communication. This is the restaurant business, after all, and it’s not easy. Add to that the complexity of dealing with family, and it could end in catastrophe. But through the years, the team has made it work, and Joe’s has become a staple of Austin’s east side. “I’ve always said we’re not in this to be rich,” Regina says. “We’re in this
because we love it, and the minute we stop enjoying ourselves, we’re done.”

Regina looks like a woman who runs around all day, getting things done. She looks happy. She looks content. And as we sit at Joe’s, surrounded by all the things and people she knows best, she speaks with passion—passion for family, passion for food (her favorites: chicken guisada tacos, huevos rancheros and migas) and passion for the customers that keep her so busy. “Our customers are a representation of who’s in the community, of who’s in the neighborhood,” she says. “And that’s what makes us so special, that for 50 years we have always been a meeting spot for the community. We’re not just a favorite for the old-timers; we’ve also become a favorite for the new arrivals.”

Joe’s Bakery has built a strong support system, not only in the east side, but with fellow businesses. For the restaurant’s 50th birthday party, which was celebrated at Fiesta Gardens on Sept. 24, Regina found herself overwhelmed with the realization that people were actually willing and happy to help.

“I am fortunate to have the friends that I have through the family and the business,” she says. She called up businesses she’s worked with for years, like Fiesta Tortillas and Sysco Central Texas, and other people she only knew of but was willing to ask for help, such as Andy Martinez from the Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. And she found people that actually wanted to help.

The event was important not only because it was the restaurant’s fiftieth anniversary, but because after two years since Joe’s passing, it was important for Regina to also give her grandmother some recognition. “My grandfather was the face,” she says. “But my grandmother was and still is the backbone.” The event turned out to be a huge success, and a perfect representation of Joe’s Bakery and its warm familiarity.

Regina looks around the restaurant, pointing out pictures of her grandfather on the wall. She talks about the time her grandmother cried because they had to get rid of their 40-year-old stove. She tells me about two regulars who used to show up before opening time and go in through the back door of the restaurant to have their morning coffee. Joe’s Bakery is home, and through her stories, Regina confirms Joe’s will be around for much longer.

*Photos by Mari Hernandez.

Feature: With Pelóns grand opening, Tex-Mex returns to Red River

By

Pelons restaurant on Red River Street / photo by Mari Hernandez

I cannot wait for Sunday—and not just because I need more fantasy points (insert sad face here). Mexican Independence Day (or El Grito) is this Sunday, Sept. 16, and Doug Guller has given me yet another reason to get pumped. Guller is well known for his businesses, such as the ownership of ‘breastaurant’ Bikinis, music venue The Parish and the town of Bankersmith, Texas (insert puzzled face here). But most recently, Guller opened Pelóns—a Tex-Mex restaurant in the Red River district. The grand opening is this Sunday and guess what: If you’re anything like me, you’ll be curing your hangover with $1 tacos, $2 beers and $3 margs. ¡Viva!

Guller has been in the restaurant industry since he was about 12 years old. Young Guller went through the classic stages of manhood, you know: from dishwasher to busboy to server to bartender. He started his first company, similar to the 1-800-FLOWERS concept—but with pizza, his favorite food—in the late ‘90s in Chicago. In 2005, he started toying with the idea of opening up a sports bar. He wanted to mix the concepts of good food, sports and entertainment and came up with Bikinis. Austin was one of the potential cities he visited to open the business, and he knew he found the perfect place, one that would not only be home to the restaurant, but to him as well.

It’s been years since the first Bikinis opened, and with the closing of the legendary Jaime’s Spanish Village on Red River, Guller felt the need to pay homage and open a new Tex-Mex restaurant for the community. “The sports bar does not appeal to every person in Austin,” says Guller. “Whereas I feel like Pelóns could and should. You could be at The Mohawk down the street in a mosh pit with your best friend and need a great place to go eat before or after a show. Or you could be across the street at Stubb’s or have your grandmother’s 80th birthday party at Pelóns.”

Guller says the district itself is a huge asset to the restaurant, and vice versa. “Red River is such a unique street, it has history with music and a pretty wide selection of music,” says Guller. “And we just wanted to give it a restaurant that has flair and is a little edgy, that fits into the Red River scene. You just want to hang out there for hours, have drinks with friends and just watch the Red River district go by.”

Pelóns will be in good company, along with sister Bar 508 and the Zorro food trailer. Guller’s business savvy and passion for good food has pushed him through the years to bring out the best in Austin and give back to the city. Pelóns is just another adventure. “We’re also building a rooftop patio on top of Pelóns,” he says excitedly. “I think it’s something that doesn’t exist in today’s Austin scene, where you have everything in one property: a restaurant, a massive courtyard and a whole other bar, which we jokingly call ‘the compound’ and even a food trailer. It has a lot of moving pieces,” says Guller. “And me and my team, we think it brings together some of the best of what Austin has to offer.”

And if there’s something Austinites like, it’s chips, tacos and cheap margaritas. Now I don’t know if I said this yet, but the entrance on Sunday is free, guys. Get ready for some Mexican awesomeness.

All photos by Mari Hernandez.

Interview: David Ramirez on ‘Apologies’ and growing as a songwriter

By

David Ramirez
David Ramirez / courtesy photo

We’re sitting under the Texan sun and David Ramirez hides behind his black wayfarers. He says, between drags of Marlboros and swigs of lemonade, it’s been four years since he moved from Nashville to Austin. He originally moved here for a girl, but by the time the relationship was over, he’d found enough reasons to stay—mainly one: music. “I felt a lot of encouragement from the city,” he says. “Spaces I could share what I do, but mainly folks I ran into, other songwriters I could have a beer or two with, talk music and talk dreams.”

With the upcoming release of Apologies—out Aug. 28—Ramirez thinks back to how things have changed since he fell in love with performing. Ramirez didn’t grow up with music. He grew up in Houston, with a love for family and baseball. When he quit ball and joined choir, the music he knew was Top 40 and teen movie soundtracks like Clueless, Scream and Can’t Hardly Wait. That was his musical education. On his 20th birthday, his cousin gifted him a Ryan Adams record and Ramirez fell in love. “His honesty, his approach, how pure it was, doing what he loved to do and writing what was on his mind,” says Ramirez. “It wasn’t just what was gonna be a hit.” From Adams he moved to Dylan and Dave Rollins, and his own musical style grew through influences and personal experiences.

Ramirez says it’s easy to compare singer-songwriters, anyone “emotional with an acoustic guitar in hand” but he sticks to what he’s passionate about and what he feels is good work. So far he’s been successful, not only because his passion is also his job, but because by now people look for his shows, wait for his records and sing along with his songs. By now he’s achieved one of the most important things—if not, the most important—for an artist: He’s connected with his listeners.

'Apologies' album cover

Through touring and the release of American Soil and Strangetown, Ramirez has also learned the importance of discipline, which he says is a big difference between his previous work and Apologies. “I used to wait to be inspired before I sat down, but I’ve since grown past that and learned that if I’m going to call myself a writer I’m gonna write every day,” he says.

“This record deals a lot more with me, things I’ve been going through, struggles, regrets,” he continues. “I talk about my family a bit, and I think that’s going to come across as the most different. As for the approach, I’m just a little more grown up and have had a lot more experience in the studio and playing with the band.”

Ramirez sounds like a man who knows what he wants, which at the end of the day is making music, not money. “I don’t really have an ultimate goal,” he says. “I used to think about it a lot, used to think I wanna be signed by a label, make X amount of money each year, but I don’t really believe if you’re pursuing any medium of art that there’s an end to it.” He pauses, dark hair falling in his face. “If you’re creating and you want to create—then that’s the goal.”

Right now Ramirez is most excited about his upcoming tour with Noah Gundersen, which starts in October and of course, the Apologies release party Aug. 31 at The Parish. “Austin cultivates that attitude, you know, ‘Just play, wherever and whatever you want, but play’,” he says. “We have a community here that’s chasing something, and I’m really proud of this album. So I want to celebrate this moment, celebrate with my city.”

Watch: Gustavo Galindo interview, presented by Austin Vida & Blastro2

By

The Pachanga Latino Music Festival 2012 was swarming with talent, both new and familiar. This year I had the pleasure of talking to Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Gustavo Galindo before his set. Galindo’s shared the bill with the likes of Zoé, Kinky, Ximena Sariñana, Natalia Lafourcade and more. He’s also played South by Southwest before and expressed delight at being back in Austin for Pachanga Fest.

Galindo’s personal history lies in both Mexico City and L.A. He grew up on everything from José José to Cat Stevens, and believes the fusion of both cultures is what most influenced his sound. He’s been compared to John Mayer (if you’re looking for a reference) and the music from his album Entre La Ciudad Y El Mar appeals to both the believers and the brokenhearted. Feel free to watch the interview below.