Interviewer: Monica Munoz Martinez

Interviewee: Jose Enrique Pinera

Interview date: November 12,2004

MM: So if you could tell me your name, where you're from.

00:12

JP: My name, this is probably going to be the most difficult part. I can talk about the gallery all I want, ah, and I'm able to do that, but uh, now when it becomes much more central on myself then that, that takes a little twist. Ah, Cuban, and came to the states back in 65. So my name is Jose Pinera, Jose Enrique Pinera, ah, and I was born in Santiago, Cuba. Ah, moved to New York City and in my teens then moved to Miami. Ah, moved up here to Rhode Island approximately about 3 years ago to work with the YMCA, which has been my work for quite some time. I've been working non-profit for about 16 years, ah predominately with the Y. A few months ago I ended my time with the Y, and had been involved with Sol Gallery for about 2 V. years. And the opportunity came up we had been looking as to, what are we going to do with Sol in regards to staffing. Because it has been a volunteer lead ah, agency. There is only so much that we can do, that the volunteers can do, and at the level of work that they are able to then bring to the, ah agency. Ah, because all ofthem are working individuals. So the day-today aspect of the gallery, as the gallery continues to grow

2:00

JP: and expand becomes much more difficult. When you have your own job and you're a volunteer with the agency something like this that you're doing right now, one of the board members this would become very difficult for them because, they would have to get out of work and deal with the gallery. If we open a gallery part of the, the job of the gallery is to showcase the artists that are here, but if we, if they are working there is no way that we can have it open. So then my job becomes to do, ah, the day-to-day aspect. At that point in time we had decided that we were going to hire somebody for the position. We had been looking as to how are we going to do this position, and what do we want? Do we want someone just to be there, do we want a secretary, do we want somebody just to input information to create newsletters for us to communicate with the community. Ah, or do we want something deeper, ah then that. We decided to create the position of an executive director with the goal that this individual would not only manage the day-to-day operations but also then begin to create programs and begin to create and write grants for our survival long term. Ifwe don't do those things we won't be able to the to last, because there is no revenue coming in to, to the gallery. So we have to do programs that would produce revenues so that we can maintain ourselves as a gallery and that's were we are at so

3:48

MM: So that's the position you have here?

3:49

JP: That's the position that I then applied for and was accepted for it. Connected with

4:00

you know with the, ah, with the board members, well I'm connected with the board members to the board members. Connected with the artist community ah here because I've been involved with Sol Gallery in my time and also through the Y I had already, I had been doing different art projects within the Y as part of my job with them. And predominately with, ah writers, ah in the community and doing open mic programs out of AS220 which we will continue to do thorough the umbrella of Sol Gallery.

4:43

MM: So I want to know more about you. Urn, can you tell me about growing up in Cuba? And then coming over in 65, a little bit more about you.

4:51

JP: Um lets see growing up in Cuba, I do remember a lot of me being in Cuba I remember my family I remember my house ah and those those type of memories are not don't leave I think that because of the impact of how we came over from Cuba we left the country because we were exiles ah because of the communist regime in Cuba something that my family did not ah did not believe in saw my father for 3 years in jail because he fought against the government and also saw him suffer the rest of his life ah for it ah my dad past away a few years ago of cancer and through up to the last his last day he was still reliving those moments of his childhood because the fighting against Batista the prior government of Cuba, and ah Castro,

6:00

JP: Ah both were during his youth, so and he was never able to recoup that so my whole life I kept on hearing him ah talk about that and if there is a regret and I was talking about these things with a friend of mine this past week was that I don't have his story on tape I don't have his stories written down, these stories are gone because as a kid as an adolescent and even as a young adult I didn't care you know my dad would talk abut his struggles and his things that he went through and you try to block it out because you hear about it so many times that you say I I'm not interested in it and then once their gone there is no way of recouping that so I wish that I would have um that I would have had him write his things down so that I could have then some how put them together in a sequence.

JP: We came over again in 65, had family here in the states so we moved to New York City. Funny Story, ah of our arrival to ah to the states. We came over in a boat from Havana to Key West and it was a red cross boat... Kids, I was six years old, ah they gave everybody that got on the boat a box with cupcakes, pastries, and chewing gum. So I had all the chewing gum in the world that I was going to eat, and I did at that point in time. That night there were

8:00

JP: cots that we slept in the boat that evening the next morning when I woke up I had chewing gum all over my hair so they had to kind of begin to pull the chewing gum out of my hair and the ones that wouldn't come out they had to take the scissors and cut my hair ah that morning on, on the, ah on the boat.

8:19

MM: How old were you?

8:20

JP: I was six. Ah, most of, mostly all of my family came over from Cuba. About 20 of us came over at that point in time, A lot of the family on my fathers side came over from Cuba, none from my mothers side, so my moms side of the family remained in Cuba and it was not until approx 30 years after that we came over that my mom was able to see her mother again, ah her mother had been told that my mother had passed away, ah. So these are again, these are stories that people say well you leave the country what happens you know you don't it doesn't matter so we move ftom one place to another here in the states and at times we even disconnect with our families we disconnect with our mends. Ah, This was not a disconnect that people wanted at least my mom didn't want to disconnect from, from her family she felt that she needed to leave so that we could have a better life ah, me and my brother and my sister and in order to do that she had to leave her family behind so that her kids would have something better for the future. I live far away from my family right now and it is like its its terrible I can't even fathom how for 30 Christmas's, you know my mom lived without, you know without having her family near by

10:00

JP: because Christmas comes along and I am just like, "I am far away I have to go back home to be with them. So those are again those are stories of us being in Cuba. Ah, I moved to New York City arrived in the beginning of winter we arrived in November into New York, and lived in behind bars on our windows and locks and chains and ah, peep holes to look through which is something that we were accustomed in Cuba I mean all of our windows were open all night long, the doors I don't remember that we had a key on our door. You know, we lived in the city we probably did I just don't remember whether we had a key or not. To me we never had a key our doors were always open. And we arrived here and as soon as we arrived you saw the difference from where we had come to where we were going to live. Um, there were 20 bolts behind our doors all of our windows had some type of bars on them that, you could in order for you to open the window you had to open a bar so that you can look out. Ah, skyscrapers all over the place where no backyard nothing like that. We lived in the city in the Bronx south Bronx, until 73 when we moved down to Miami. Again the whole family, um packed up and went down. Went to school in Miami, ah, St. Thomas University Piscan College at that point in time with a degree in psychology. The psychology degree probably stems from my search and my

12:00

JP: wanting to know the whys. Why this why that, why do people behave why do people act, and how can I help to ah try to make some type of change in humanity.

12:19

MM: I'm actually going to need to plug in the battery...Okay so you studied psychology and then did you find the answers how did you then get to, how did get to volunteering at the YMCA.

12:56

JP: As, my well, my first when I went to school I was going as a pre-med with the hope of being psychiatrist, soon to learn that I hated math. And it wasn't that I hated math, it was that through out my whole schooling here in the states teacher were never able to realize that there was problem with me in math. When I came over I was six years old like I said before, I could add subtract multiply and divide, knew my times tables backwards and forwards, there was no problem. To this date ifI want to do any type of ah arithmetic, anything I have to translate it ITom English to Spanish in my brain then translate it back. And I,

14:00

for the longest I kept on struggling you know when there was a math problem on the black board when there was something that I had to do. And I couldn't understand why am I what's going on here and it probably had something to do that there was a block that was created with the changes of the languages that my brain was just not able to relate to in doing the mathematical problems. And, my All of those things just started triggering in my mind, Why, again why is that these things happen?

14:32

MM: Did you have Bilingual education or were you...

14:35

JP: No when we came over it was straight, straight into English. Ah, and many many fears because of course now, my family doesn't speak English, I am leaming the language ah, new immigrants into the country which have to go fill out papers government agencies left and right and guess who has to begin to translate. So here is a 7, 8 year old kid who is translating for the adults in the family with the with the fear of if I say something wrong we are going to be deported back to Cuba, and my father is going to go back to jail. So these again, these are things that you ah, you grow up with and that at times when we look at struggles that our families, are communities our Latin communities um, come when we hear that people want to be trying to pass laws to deport back to our you know to countries, central south America Cuba, the islands, people that are here that are struggling that are working, you know hard working individuals that are trying to make

16:00

JP: ends meet in order to survive because in our countries they have no way of doing that you sit back and say you have no idea what these people are going through. And, and what families we kind of at times laugh when we hear that there's 10 people living in a you know two room apartment and we don't know why they are doing that. They are doing it in order to give those 10 individuals a better life. Which back in wherever we come from they were not able to do so, for whatever reasons. Some economics, you know others political. We came over strongly with a political emphasis, but its still the same thing, you know we had no milk, we had no food, we had no shoes.

JP: I Went over to Salem this weekend and to ah, with a mend that came over to visit. And at the Nathaniel Hawthorne's house there's an iron, back from the 1600's. And, it's the iron is made out of metal, some form of metal. And the way they use toiron is by heating a brick putting it into this metal piece and ironing. And I said to my mend, ah, that I remember and it's a story that I'm trying to write. And I've always been trying to figure out how do I create the story to how do I tell the story and its probably going to be Salem is going to probably be the beginning part of the story. When we Came over ITom Cuba we were only allowed to bring two pairs of pants two shirts and two pair underwear that was it you couldn't bring anything else

17:58

JP: And one pair of shoes.

18:00

JP: But we were in this uh, compound filled with all the families that were leaving Cuba We were the last family to arrive to Camarioca, ah which is in Havana it is an off city in Havana and it that is where everybody that was going to leave Cuba back in 65, in that point in time during the Camarioca boat relief, they were all placed there. And our family was the last family to be permitted into Camarioca. At 12 o'clock midnight the doors closed and we barely made it into Camarioca at 12 o'clock because we were at a cousins house there in Havana and we didn't even look at the time. so we were the last ones to drive into the city. But while we were there we were there for probably about 3 weeks before we were permitted to leave finally Cuba. My grandmother would wash our clothes by hand on a daily basis and they would iron them, they would iron them by heating up a can of condensed milk, and that was our iron for three of four weeks while we were there. And when I saw the iron in Nathaniel Hawthorne's house I said, I remembered that, that was way back in the 1600s this was in 1965 and how people when there is a need you figure out a way of doing something.

19:54

MM: Did the brick in the iron trigger that memory or you had remembered it and then connected it?

19:58

JP: I ah, I've always, I mean there's many, because your asking me to tell you some tell you stories and there's many many of those stories in my mind that at some point I have to pull together. And, Ah, just put it into a book format, but you try to find how can I create a relationship with something else that somebody might be use to more common visually that they will be able to see and I always struggle with that how can I interpret two sides you know, um" and when I saw the iron there and it was a brick I said, there's the story. It's Salem Massachusetts, and Baradero, Cuba connecting in one person's life through history. So that at some point in time will be the story or one of the stories of my trek in this life.

21:13

MM: So you were talking about, you took psychology you tried to figure out why people are the way they are and why things happen, um how did you then get to...

21:22

JP: To the YMCA that was your question. Um, being going to school

21:26

MM: You graduated, when did you graduate?

21:28

JP: Ob, I graduated in it took me a long time to graduate so can we skip that question? (laughter) Uh, I was one of those uh, that I was, everything school was fine, and then the MCA came into my life and the YMCA ruined my life. Ah, because I became very passionate about the Y that after I got involved with the Y I didn't want to do anything else, except work for the Y.

22:00

JP: And I didn't care what I did for the Y, it was just the Y. So, I was in school and again my major was Psych. There was an add in the paper posted for summer camp counselor my second year or my first year in school. I said, "Hmm that's right down my alley you know I'm going to be a psychologist, ah, that wilI probably be something good to do during the summer," and my family wanted me to get out of the house for the summer, so good job. Ah, went and worked for the Y that summer, did not create an impression on me there were just too many things that I saw that just were not what I expected of the Young Man's Christian Association at that point in time, which is what the YMCA stands for. Ah, left that summer, the second summer was not expecting to go back a mend of mine said, "Oh yeah I'm going back let's go blah blah blah," a new director had come on board, went back, still did not create a connection. The third year of me being at Y there was a new director still and that probably became the person, John Stanley, who made the change in my life and in the direction that my life was going to go was going to go forth, from then on. Because in my mind he epitomizes leadership, epitomizes ah, love caring and everything that the YMCA really stood for or stands for, and he became my mentor so, I wanted to be John Stanley and I think that through out my whole life I've wanted to be John Stanley and follow in some sense his footsteps. So at that point in time,

24:00

JP: because that's what I wanted to do, work with the Y, I just became more lazy in terms of the school work and said, "I don't want to do this anymore I want to work with the Y." Stopped going to school my senior year and just started working at the YMCA part time was not going to get any place.

24:23

MM: What was it that the Y did that you were so, what was it that John Stanley stood for?

24:28

JP: It was, it was him. It was the individual. Ah, and I think that it was it's the way that we see things and creating those connections and that somebody's able to just create a connection and build a relationship with you. Ah, his leadership skill just the way that he presented himself, the way that he talked the way that he guided people was what made the difference. He was not that much older than I was. I think that John was 26 years old when, and I was 21, 22, so the age difference was not that great. I think that's how old he was, and, but he looked like a giant. In my eyes, he was a giant, and again it was because what I saw him do, ah, and the work that I saw him do

25:36

MM: With the community?

25:37

J

P: With the community and with the kids and with the staff at camp. So that was what changed. Because I didn't have a degree way back then the Y just there was no future for me, all I kept on doing was just working part time ah, and just

26:00

JP: little odds and end jobs at the Y, and he kept on saying to me, "TilI you go back to school I won't even recommend you for a job it's not gonna happen." And he kept on pushing me that I needed to go back to school and finish my degree and it was then the struggle of "but I don't want to go back to school this is what I want to do." And finally I did end up going back to school and then finishing my degree. Once I finished my degree I worked in a psyche unit for three years, but the bug of being with the Y had already bit. And I in the psych in the hospital what I learned what I saw what I did there, as somebody that just had come out of school it was great wonderful, I learned a lot, I mean it was no longer the text book, it was actually seeing what we had talked about in text in real life. So the experience there, it was a private psyche so I had a lot of opportunities to really interact with the doctors with the nurses ah, whole hospital staff with the patients and really learn, but the YMCA kept on creeping back into me, and after three years I said I really want to go back and work with the Y, and since then on and off that's what I've done and that was back in 86, yeah 86, when I started professionally with the Y, have left it on and off, and left it and have gone done other things but then have returned to the Y.

27:53

MM: And what did you do there, you talked about having Open Mic?

27:58

JP: I, here, in ah, my position when I was here, I was operations director for the East Side Mt. Hope YMCA, meaning that I was again, day to day operations. So there was an Executive Director and then it was me as second and kind of supervising different programs. With the arts it was I mean I've always been connected with the arts in one way or another. East Side is in a very eclectic community, we have Brown we have RISD we have different pockets of ethnic community there because it is the East Side, we have a lot of artists that live in that area and that are members of the East Side branch so it just felt for us it felt good to begin to do work with some artists in the community. And our prograrn that we kind of were, had been doing was a poetry writing open mic prograrn that that we use to call Poetical Triad. And we would host this on a monthly basis out of AS220, ah we also in at the branch itself we created what we calling our gallery at the Y and we would exhibit works by different artists, local artists. And they would be to ah, just display their work on the YMCA walls. Given the opportunity which is my belief in the arts and galleries and anything like this is that you have to give people the opportunity to be able express themselves. And at times there's a fear in ah, people no I'm not as good,

30:00

JP: I can't paint, I can't take photographs, they may have the desire and they may take good photographs they may paint but they do that as a hobby. So, the walls at the Y was providing that opportunity for somebody that was not,that wouldn't consider themselves an artist but that had that opportunity. With the writing with poetic, it was much more traditional already established artist in the community. And those are people that are published both locally and nationally and they would be presented at AS 220 as, so it wasn't exactly an openmic because it wasn't just open to anybody it was specific individuals that were being hosted and asked to read their materials that evening.

30:59

MM: How were you introduced to the arts?

31:01

JP: I was introduced to the arts in school. From ever since I can remember, I've been on in some form or another, which is a regret that at present the school budgets have to cut the arts from, from their budgets. I remember the elementary school in the Bronx, and the school would always be taking us to Metropolitan Museum, to Lincoln center, to Carnegie Hall, to the Brooklyn Center for the Arts. We were always in all of the museums. We were always on the weekends; there was always some type of show going on in the school auditorium. We had a band, we had an orchestra, we had a chorus.

32:00

JP: There were art teachers. We were always doing things. That doesn't happen any more, at an elementary level for sure, and middle school even, even less. It's gone. So that created that basis for me being very much intrigued about the arts. And, it felt good you know. You put a kid and you give a kid that's 8-9 years old a violin in there hands and you teach them how to play, and then you put them on stage and you hear people applauded you and its like, you're in you're in heaven, you know. The self esteem that you're building there is its tremendous. That kid doesn't know how to play the violin. I don't know how to play the violin. And I would take the violin and it would probably sound EEERRRREEE. You know who knows, who cares, it didn't matter, you know. To me I was on top of the world.

JP: Ah, in middle school we, I remember doing two, through the chorus in middle school we did two performances at two different times at Carnegie Hall. And, it was like...I remember the buttons that they gave us. It was, "Look Mom! I'm at Carnegie Hal!!" And it was the school choir singing at Carnegie Hall. I don't know if the school system in New York still does that but, it was "I'm at Carnegie Hall," you know, and nobody cared, you know. There was no, there weren't any producers; there was nobody giving us a contract to sing or anything like that. But we, people applauded us, everybody. We felt, we felt great. Because that's what we were, and for kids that lived in south Bronx to be

34:00

experiencing these things, it was wonderful. So that's my initial connection to the arts. And that's why again I believe that yes, there's this place for established artists, but there's also a place for just the arts just to be connecting with the general, ah population. So in using the arts as a way of building self esteem.

JP: Right now I'm working with the west end community school through a grant that we received and it's helping the kids in the program write a book and it's going to be a book of poetry short stories and drawings that the kids are doing. Ah, we hope to be able finish it by December that's our goal right now. The way that it's going, Ay, it may take a little bit longer because I'm having it been difficult trying to get these kids to use their imaginations. IfI tell them to describe something, they can't describe it, their imagery is totally gone. If I say, "Write something that makes you happy," they wilI continue to use the word happy. "I feel happy. I'm happy. This is happy." They cannot describe the word happy in any other sense then using the word happy.

35:34

MM: Do you think it's because nobody's been asking them to do this?

35:37

JP: I think so they're not use to it they're not use to, the process of further developing that thought, and so, we are stuck with basics. Read to them because I keep on bringing poetry to them. Read...

36:00

JP: Langston Hughes to them, had no idea who Langston Hughes was. Maya Angelo, had no idea who Maya Angelo is. And these are one not so contemporary, but one's that very much contemporary. Ah, you know an Amcan American woman that's out there. She was here in mass not so long ago a few weeks ago reading her stuff. So, these are individuals who have written some good interesting material that is very much appropriate, ah Shell Silverstein no concept of who Shell Silverstein is and those are, if you haven't read Shell Silver at least one, one of Shell Silverstein poems in middle school what are the schools reading and its because that's not what's out there.

36:56

MM: How old are they?

36:58

JP: Middle schoolers. So I'm going to say 11, 12 years old. But again, its sad to say that just even the basics, at least hasn't been done with these kids. So there's no creative writing program in the schools. Then you take that to a higher level because how am I going to pass an SAT how am I going to be able even consider or think that I'm going to be able to attend Brown University, won't happen. So, no wonder then statistically we then see kids that by when they get to high school they've already dropped out. Why? Because what you've given me is hopelessness. You're not, you're not teaching me that I...

38:00

JP: can be a performer that I can sing that I can act that I can stand on stage and hear the applause of the people. That's what I was given. That's why you can put me to do whatever you want to I'm gonna do it. Whether I know how to do it or not. I will do it. Why, because at the beginning someone told me, you can. So now I believe that I can. You know, I'm stupid because many times I'm doing things that I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm still doing it anyway because my self esteem tells me that I can do it. So, I may fail in the process, but I'm still gonna try. You know, a kid doesn't know how to swim, they don't know to swim because nobody's ever tried to teach them how to swim. So they go through their lives without ever going into a pool or without ever going into the water or the ocean and they'll never get on a boat they're aftaid.

39:02

MM: What's the make up of the school?

39:04

J

P: Predominately, it's a Gilbert Stuarts, Gilbert Stuart is predominately African American and Hispanic. I mean it has its white Anglo population in there but that's probably a percentage just simply because of the community that it's in. It's a Providence, inner city urban Providence.

39:30

MM: So then how did you get into the work with Sol Gallery? I kinda wanted to go over, I heard that for a while you didn't have a space and so trying, how important was it for you to find a space?

39:41

JP: Again, Sol Gallery was me leaving one job being involved with Sol as a board member. I came to town three years ago, so my initial contact with Sol Gallery was moving ftom Miami...

40:00

JP: to Rhode Island and trying to find "where are the Latins hanging out?" I needed to feel that I was connected to my culture up here, some how, some way. And, Sol Gallery, there was a guess there was some type of exhibit that I saw and it talked about Sol and I said, "Oh, there it is. I need to go and see them." And ftom the very first day that I walked into Sol I felt the warmth. You know, of the people that were working at Sol, I felt comfortable from the very first moment that I walked in. So that became that group of individuals whenever there was an event I would go. And slowly slowly it just kept on that those individuals became my personal mends here and I started volunteering then on the board of Sol. Once the position became available ah, then it was just an easy transition that this is really what I wanted to do. And basically it's using the skills the knowledge that I have of working no profits to try to make Sol work not just for the short term but for the long term. If, and for Sol to be able to survive it has to it has to go in that direction if we want to do the things that we we feel that Sol needs to do. Because it's not just a gallery space it is connecting with our, with the kids in the community with the seniors in the community...

42:00

JP: ah, specifically Latino because it's not there. And then also providing the Latino artists a home where they can say hey there is a place here that we will always have and that we wilI be able to call our own and that we will always be able to hang our stuff in. Ah, that's, it's needed.

42:20

MM: So, it's a struggle for the Latinos to find spaces, outside of Sol to host their work?

42:25

JP: Ah, there's plenty of Galleries ah, in town. Ah, I mean plenty of galleries, we have great museums, but when you look at it and you say okay how many artist, Latino artist, are there here and do they really have a place that they can call home? There isn't, so we need it we need it in town. We need a place that people that our community can feel proud of that we can teach through the artists that are here. Which Just look at look at the art that's on the wall here and you see the talent and the skills and every single one of them can showcase their art in any of the other galleries in town but there is a pride when you say my art is being shown in the gallery for my culture you know and its not that we're exclusive to Latino artists, we showcase everybody, and but there's something about being able to say. There was nothing back when Sol started in 98, there really was nothing, so if there is nothing or very little now there use to be less way back then. And that's when it started it was a group of Latino artists that had no place to showcase their art. And they said, "We have to do something about it." So it was ground grassroots,

44:00

let's develop this, and that's how it started, you know. Ah, and we now have the responsibility to be able to in order to honor that commitment from 1998 to continue this and for the future, for the future artists that are out there. Artists and artist wanna-bes.

44:26

MM: So where did they start showing? Or where did Sol Gallery like where was it's first, did it have a place and then it moved here?

44:33

JP: Urn, there first, back in 98 in Cranston was their first home. After that it moved to City Arts and City Arts they were there for approximately 3 years. City Arts needed the space for their own work, so two years ago we found ourselves with having to move and pick our stuff, our buckets, our brooms, our mops and leave. Financially because Sol has always been just a gallery space, we didn't have the money to be able to pay the rent that's being asked of places out there. So we struggled for a long time trying to find a location. We did some gallery shows at City Hall we did another gallery show at URI so we've done some gallery shows in the mean time around but nothing that was ours. We looked for places and every place that we found,

46:00

JP: there was always something that was not connecting. Either the price was too much or the landlords did not want us to do anything to the walls it needed to stay the way that it was. And for us those types of restrictions would not work. Not for a gallery. Ah, kept on looking and finally during the summer we connected with Puentes and..

46:34

MM: It's a person?

46:35

JP: Puentes is an agency that is an offshoot of Sun, Rising Sun Mills. So it's a non-profit that is working here in the Olney Ville Community. Trying to do work within the community both for the Latino and non Latino residents of it and empowering them in different ways. So, it's I looked at them kind of, like an incubator ah, doing different programs under their kind ofIike having an umbrella. And then there is different non profit agencies that are working around it and they have along track, and some good goals as to what they want to do here within the mill complex at 60, um at 60 Valley. Looking around we stumbled upon Puentes somebody told us about it or something like that. And we came to visit them and told them our story and what our needs were, and what we were looking for. They were very open very receptive to what we wanted and we started working with them.

48:00

JP: Ah, we looked at this space and felt that after being closed for two years, that this was going to be an awesome space to have the gallery. It's rustic, ah kind of very industrial type of a look but for whom we are in terms of the community wise I think that it fits its not this pristine type of a look that you walk in and you can be threatening to people that are not use to the arts. And I think that that's on e of the best reasons of why I enjoy and why I like it because this location is non threatening I can go into a museum and if I'm not use to going into a museum its like "What's here?" And again, that's what we try, those are the barriers we try to break down. That somebody from this community, ah that's not use to going into a museum will be able to come in here and feel very comfortable in looking at the artwork and not feel all like "I don't know what's on this wall?" and that they have to try to interpret the artwork to figure out what it is, it doesn't matter. You know and this exhibit showcases that because it has both traditional artists interpreting something that anybody in the community can relate to, and then it has other things that the more just common folks would know what its about.

JP: If you're ftom the Latin community you know perfectly well what Santaria is all about. You know very well what Espiritista is all about so at some level this exhibit is able to connect with people and that is what we are all about.

50:02

MM: So earlier you talked about traditional and nontraditional art in the exhibit. Urn, so what do you think the reception is by the community when they come in and see, you know some of these on display. .

50:13

JP: I can probably tell you that on the night, our opening night, we probably had a 150 people, you know I would love to tell you it was 200, and we might of we didn't count heads. But we had tremendous amount of individuals here. Which again, ah, it was wonderful because after being for such a long time, without having a location, and reopening in a totally different location then what the community had been use to, getting everybody to come back to see the grand opening was just tremendous. It's just the power of the support that we still have out there. Sol Gallery still has out in the community. We are just totally grateful for those people who have maintained that support of us. Um, the reception to the exhibit was great because of that because they were able to see that connection between an artist like Francisco, like Anna, like Julia in the same location as something with, with a shrine to a god, you know, or a belief that they are use to seeing in the streets. You see Botanicas allover you know Broad Street. So walking in here and seeing Santa Barbara, San Lazaro, ah, and all of their saints like that it's...

52:00

JP: not something that would be uncommon to them, so again its non-threatening. Walking in and seeing, you know, a crucifix to some degree on the wall it's, would not be uncommon. And that connection for our first re-opening of the gallery I think was a great idea. Ah, in terms of, apart ftom the theme and what it means, ah, I think that this one was able to connect with the community. And it's been very well received.

52:42

MM: So who comes in to the community? Latinos come in... who supports the gallery?

52:47

JP: Everybody. Everybody and anybody. Urn, that, um wants to. At present my job again will be to create grants ah, from funding agencies both locally and nationally to be able to maintain the gallery. So, the hope is that we're able to ah, to do that with local money. We'll begin to do fundraisers, so the local community will be able to support us in that way. In the traditional like any other non-profit agency doing traditional yearly sustaining campaigns. Ah, to be able to ah, again to maintain the gallery but also to do programming. Because what difference now for Sol wilI be that it's not just going to be the gallery space for the exhibits, but we are also going to do programming. Like the program that I just told you about. ..

54:00

JP: working with the kids, we want to do programs with seniors. And helping seniors write their memoirs and tell their stories in whatever means they feel like interpreting that be it paintings drawings or writing just them or even ah, telling their stories into, into a recorder like your, you know like your doing now and then us creating some type of way of presenting it to the community. Seniors go around thinking that again my perception, but just from knowledge, that their life is worthless. You know, they've reached an age when they are disconnected with ah, with grandkids with their family and they just feel, "What's left?" And I think that by making or by having seniors tell the stories of the things they have done in their lives, we will capture that again that feeling of "I am worthy. I am somebody in life." And not leave their time on earth feeling like it's been a waste. So, the hope is that by us especially with the Latino community providing that outlet for them to express themselves I think will be something will be something good and in able to do that we need the funding. So...

55:45

MM: Is there anything else that...

55:46

JP: No.. .(laughter)

55:48

MM: Is there anything about like the artists that you could. ..

55:51

JP: Um, the artists just look at the artists on the wall. I mean all of them every single one of them. When we went to and aw, said this is, "We're reopening and we need for you guys to create some pieces of art that, ah that you know will look great and worthy of hanging on the walls for the first show," every single one of them ah, said, "We're here." And more people wanted to participate. The problem was that because of the altares we had to give the altares, enough space for them to be, we didn't want the altares to be one on top of each other because they needed to be visually, ah, seen and have their own space. And also again, there was that crossing between the art versus the religion or the themselves as a worship sight and we didn't want to we didn't want to create those, you know that feeling that okay I have 20 altares right one on top of each other for them as a workshop sight it would not have been ah, would not have been appropriate. So we gave all the shrines all their own specific ah, space. But many more artists wanted to ah, partake in this, and they'll have the opportunity, you know we're here. Um, we aren't going anywhere. So ah, every two months we will have anew show. This show ends like a said before December the 3rd ah, and then we will do our next show at the beginning of January. Ah, it's not just our show, there's another part that also we do here. Which is called Tertulias and Tertulia is the Open Mic. But it's an Open Mic to the community so that's anybody. If you want to dance if you want to sing if you want to recite if you, if just wrote a story last night or a poem last night because you got some thought in your mind

58:00

JP: that you just want to come to read it at Tertulias, the stage will be set, the mics will be on and that's what its about. And if you see some of those pictures that are that are there, that's those are tertulias. And again it's a gathering of the community to showcase themselves. Ah, you don't have to, you're not a professional, you know but the stage will be provided for you. And everybody dances and laughs and you does whatever, impromptu you know. So, and again, provide the means for people to express themselves, and hopefully in the process enrich their lives.

58:47

MM: And the providence community..

58:48

JP: And the providence community.

58:51

MM: Thank you so much...

58:52

JP: No thank you, ah.. ...it's good work that's being done. That Sol, ah that Sol is doing. Again, I'm really grateful that we were able to find um to find a space.

59:12

MM: How many people are on the board or how many...

59:15

JP: Um, we're looking for board members, more board members now. Cause we, we're at that stage, it's a pivot stage, ah of growth. Ah, so we have seven board members, and we just voted this week to bring in three new board members so um we're going to bring three new more and then again we'll go in search for more. And then we have some board members that are , honorary board members, they're not on a regular meeting schedule but they are kind of like for the on call. If we need to have.

1 :00:00

JP: their expertise, well call upon them for that particular subject that we need to tackle. Um, but we need to increase our board numbers.

1:00:18

MM: Looks like you're on a good start. I'm very excited about it. Thank you so much for letting me come over.