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Issue 104 Summer 2008
THE BOMB BLAST
Critic David Pagel describes the work of Rubén Ortiz-Torres as both “phantasmagoric and realistic.” Torres creates images that are overwrought, cliched and fantastic, which also reflect the sociology of border crossing—from both sides of the border.
>>>Artist George Moore talks to the grand maestro of Mexican art, Francisco Toledo, about his home state of Oaxaco, his mythical art and the legacy he’s built for his people.
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Ernesto Neto’s art, formal abstraction in the shape of sexy biomorphs, might seem an oxymoron. Curator Bill Arning and the Brazilian artist address the dichotomy of rigorous pleasure.
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Juan Manuel Echaverría’s art spawned from his love of metaphor and literature. He studied the journals of the New World’s conquistadors and priests. Artist Calvin Reid discusses Colombia’s second apocalypse with the artist.
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Cuban born Guillermo Cabrera Infante is one of Latin America’s most respected and celebrated writers. His books, brimming with wit and word play, are also moving political analyses of life in Cuba.
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Mayra Montero’s writing moves beyond the three-dimensional world into realms of ancestry, Santeria and voodoo. She and fellow Cuban writer-in-exile José Manuel Prieto discuss via e-mail the dual notions of geography and identity, mystery and discovery.
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Adélia Prado’s poetry is filled with a reverence for the commonplace—the color yellow, a refrigerator, a rooster, a black umbrella—through which she expresses her divine faith in God. She speaks with her English translator, Ellen Doré Watson.
>>>Claribel Alegría is one of the foremost poets of Central America. A supporter of the Sandinistas and mentor to the young intellectuals drawn to Managua during that period, she has published over 40 books of poetry, fiction and testimony.
>>>Los Van Van have been making music you can dance to for over 30 years. If you think this means they’re easy, don’t. Colombian writer Silvana Paternostro, talks with the band’s leader Juan Formell.
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Chanteuse Susana Baca dedicated the past two years to researching the contributions of black musicians to Peruvian music. Poet and novelist Jaime Manrique talks with the singer about coming face to face with the past.
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