La Peña Gallery in Austin, Texas:
A Site of Latina Art, Politics and Resistance
INTERVIEW: ANA LILIA SALINAS
How and when did you start making art?
It started in high school, actually I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. But you know when you get older in school you get to choose your electives? I always chose music and band. But when I was a senior in high school I had a choice of three electives, and I chose art because I thought, “well, let me see what it is like.” I had never formally taken a class before. So I took art as a senior and I loved it. I thought, “oh my gosh, I’ve been missing out in taking art!” So right after that I went to college and just continued taking art classes and pursued a degree in fine arts.
Where were you going to school K-12?
Alice High School, in south texas.
What is your family background?
They are Texan. They’ve all lived in texas for many generations. I’m probably like fifth generation Texan.
Where did you study art post-high school?
That was in Kingsville, Texas at Texas A&M. That was in 1986 and I graduated in '89.
Did you know when you were in college that you wanted to be a teacher?
Not right off hand. I was just experimenting with art classes and taking the basics. I wasn’t sure until maybe year two or three, and then I started to think about what if I don’t make it as an artist. So I got my teaching certificate. And I taught art for 10 years but then I quit to open up a business. I quit for 12 years and when I wanted to go back to teaching it was not available. There were no positions available here in Austin. So I went back to school, back to Texas A&M and I got a masters in bilingual education and then I came back to Austin and I got a job teaching bilingual ed. So now I teach math in spanish to kindergarteners.
Do most of your students already speak Spanish?
Actually so it’s a new program we are piloting right now, and it includes dual-language kids of all ethnicities.
……
When I was in school we weren’t even allowed to speak in Spanish. Bilingual education didn’t even exist. If you spoke anything in Spanish you would get punished, you would get a paddling. But now it is totally different. It is encouraged to know two languages.
Can you tell me more about the paintings you did for the series “La Joteria?”
Yes, so ALLGO is an organization in Austin - Austin Latino Lesbian Gay Organization, hired me. The idea was they were going to redo Loteria and make a new game. And I painted 25 images and then something happened, the executive director quit, and the project was not finished. But I did see that they printed calendars and candles, t-shirts, and mugs. All kinds of stuff that they sold with the images. Except that the game was never completed.
What is the queer significance of El Santo?
Oh yes, San Martin de Porres. Supposedly he is the patron saint for gay people. So that’s why I painted him
And La Poeta?
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, she was a Mexican nun who was also said to be Lesbian through her writings.
I came across an older publication called Tongues Magazine (a queer Latina publication) online. Did you work with them?
Oh yeah. They were a magazine from Los Angeles. They feature, well they don’t exist anymore, but back then they would feature an artist I think every month. It was a group of women that put this together and they picked me one of the months and I still have a few copies of that magazine.
What has your experience been exhibiting at La Peña in Austin?
Yeah so La Peña is an arts organization that gives all people, all artists, emerging and already developed artists an opportunity to exhibit there. That is the main reason I respect La Peña. They give everyone a chance. It’s not like other arts organizations that only give you a chance if you are well known already, or if you are from Mexico. They put you in categories, La Peña doesn’t do that.
So is there a priority given to artists from Mexico at other galleries? Is it a hierarchy?
Yes, so that is a problem here in Austin. So actually, I exhibit more in San Antonio and in California because they don’t have, well I guess there are enough galleries there that they don’t have that hierarchy. Because here in Austin it really exists.
Where have you seen it?
Mexic-Arte. I was on the board there and I suggested that chicano/chicana artists be given a chance to exhibit and I was basically told to be quiet. And then after that I just left. And Mexic-Arte supposedly exhibits young latino artwork. When I taught art in high-school they did an exhibit of my students’ artwork. But when it comes to me or other people like me, they only invite you to fundraisers. You don’t get anything out of it because you’re donating your artwork for their gallery. So you know, I felt kind of bad. Like they’re inviting me to this fundraiser in December and this fundraiser in February, but I’ve never been offered to be part of a group show or anything like that. So when they were thinking of ideas of what shows to have I suggested that because there’s a lot of chicano artists and I was basically told be quite, with gestures. So I left.
And another one is the MACC, Mexican-American Cultural Center. So they should be supporting Mexican-American artists. But Mexic-Arte just like the MACC will support, first, artists from Mexico before they support artists from here unless you are well known already.
So how did you get on the board? Was it just for their appearances to have a Chicana artist?
No it was because I had money, at the time. I was in partnership with a friend of mine, Nilda. We had a restaurant El Sol y La Luna. It was doing pretty good and Nilda was a board member and she talked me into being a board member as well. So you know you pay your membership fee and you go to the meetings. So it wasn’t for appearances it was just because I paid the $5000 membership fee or whatever it was.
So the people on the board are not the “starving artist” types?
Oh no, a lot of business people. People from Univision, Dell. People from big companies in Austin. And mostly white. The president is white. Jim Hogg, he’s a doctor so of course they’re going to accept him in there. I hope I don’t sound bitter or anything. I’m venting to you [laughs].
Are you showing your art these days?
Not too much, because teaching kindergarten is very consuming. Once in awhile I will exhibit. Before I went back to teaching I would exhibit quite a bit, like I said in San Antonio or L.A. but once I started teaching again, I had less time to work on new stuff. So just once in awhile. And here in Austin it’s at La Pena.
What do you like to paint?
I love to paint the human figure. My goal is to paint it as realistically as possible. But I like to paint fantasy settings, like fantasy backgrounds. My images a lot of times come from dreams. I’ll dream a whole painting or image and then in my dream I’ll say “wow that’s really good why didn’t I come up with that?” And then I wake up and then I realize [laughs]. Or sometimes I’ll see someone and something about them just catches my eye and I’ll take a photograph. And then I’ll paint them but I’ll totally change the background. I used to paint a lot of people in the cosmos. I was very interested in the universe and the stars and planets. And so I would paint people with those kinds of backgrounds. I think that in that Tongues [Magazine] those images are there.