Raw umber, hot pink and turquoise were a few of the colors that invaded the palettes of Latin American Community Art Project artists this summer when they visited the tiny town of El Polvo, El Salvador. “Presence of Absence,” the collection of LACAP artists’ work as well as El Polvo community members, premiered at the University Student Commons Tuesday, Sept. 22 in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month in collaboration with La Unidad Latina Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc.
LACAP is a grassroots organization that was founded in 2004 by Oscar Cornejo and Cathy Mooses to have a mutual exchange of history, talent and knowledge. Painting and printmaking major Sandra Patricia Cornejo is Oscar’s sister and the only Richmond-based member of LACAP. This summer Sandra Patricia Cornejo, Jessica Norris, a painting and printmaking major, and Alex Ritchie, a nursing student participated in LACAP’s trip.
The Cornejos’ mother, originally from El Polvo, allowed the organization to use her future retirement home, known as “la casa de los dos pisos,” or the house with two floors because it is the only house in the village with two stories. “La casa de los dos pisos” provided a haven for participating LACAP artists to lodge, create and hold workshops during their stay.
Sandra Cornejo said the El Polvo community has opened up to its yearly visitors.
“We’ve been coming there for the past four years,” Sandra Patricia Cornejo said. “So, they’re kind of like, ‘What gringo’s are we going to get next summer?’ ”
Sandra Patricia Cornejo said the challenge of working in El Polvo, as opposed to other parts of El Salvador, has been the lack of motivation the younger community members have because they don’t have an incentive to work. They are wired money from family in the states and there are only low wage jobs available in El Polvo.
“It’s like a voice in the back of their head,” Sandra Patricia Cornejo said. “Everyone is kind of on this temporary mentality. ‘I’m not going to be here (in a couple years). Why am I going to invest so much time? ‘ ”
At first, she said the children’s parents were baffled as to why their kids were flocking to “la casa de los dos pisos.”
“(The parents) thought we were messing with witchcraft,” Sandra Patricia Cornejo said. “Like ‘What could possibly lure the children in that small dark house?’ We had to give the parents tours into the house to say ‘Hey, this is what we’re working with: paper mache, loose paper, glue-this is how it’s made.’ ”
Sandra Patricia Cornejo, who has traveled with LACAP to El Polvo for the last four years, said she has seen progress; from kids making their own dance groups, and costumes, to school projects and expressing their views through art.
LACAP members not only influenced the town, but were influenced themselves. Sandra Patricia Cornejo’s painting titled “La Casa Encantada” was inspired by an old woman in El Polvo who was left homeless and built a house out of bottles after she said God came to her in a dream and told her to do just that. Although Sandra Patricia Cornejo never met the woman, her brother and another LACAP member showed her pictures of the old woman and her house.
“I fell in love with her once I saw the photographs,” Sandra Patricia Cornejo said. “I surrounded myself with the photographs trying to recreate the space . Being surrounded by all these bottle caps, the repetition and obsession, it says a lot. There was not an inch of nature in her house and I think it comments on the consumerism of El Salvador.”
Roberto Celis, a craft and material studies and psychology major, thought Sandra Patricia Cornejo’s “La Casa Encantada” reflected Hispanic culture.
“This old lady over here,” Celis said as he pointed toward the painting. “You can see that lady somewhere in Latin America and her struggles. There’s something beautiful-the warm colors she’s wearing. It’s actually really good.”
The El Polvo community influenced Norris’ “Las manos de mi madre,” piece which means my mother’s hands.
“I had heard stories of self-sacrifice, matriarchal societies where men leave to go to the states and work and send back money,” Norris said. “They leave the wife and children and mother-in-law.”
Although this year focused more on the artists’ residency, Sandra Patricia Cornejo said LACAP also holds workshops and that the town welcomes them.
“They don’t see it as something being taken away from them,” Sandra Patricia Cornejo said. “They see it more as providing a service for them. Whenever they come by the house and see what we’re working on, they pick up symbols or elements that say ‘she’s commenting on such and such story.’ ”
“Presence of Absence” will be on display at the University Student Commons Art Gallery until Sunday, Sept. 13. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 7 a.m.-11 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m.-11 p.m. and Sunday from noon-11 p.m. Sales from the paintings will fund art supplies for the LACAP program.