On the second floor of the City Museum New York a sign indicating that one is about to dive in Bembé Byzantine, a show that tells the stories of diaspora The Latin America of the city, with mosaics, watercolors and paintings by the artist with Puerto Rican roots Manny Vega. But this show may never have existed. Perhaps no one would have taken it upon themselves to look for Vega’s scattered works, much less bring them to the Museum. It exists because Angel exists Monxo López, the “first permanent curator of color” since the Museum was founded 100 years ago.
“It’s a shame that I’m the first in 100 years, especially when the Museum is located here, in El Barrio,” says Monxo, a 51-year-old Puerto Rican who arrived in New York with his wife in the spring. of 1999 with the idea of making money and continuing to Belgium, Beirut or Istanbul to continue his study of the politics and history of the Islamic world. That never happened. The city deceived them. Monxo started playing guitar with small rock or jazz groups. He worked for ten years as a cartographer. He became a Doctor of Political Science and an environmental activist in the South Bronx. He bought a house in Mott Haven. He had a daughter. He was teaching classes. But Monxo has a “non-stop head”, as he says. The time came when he got tired of the academy.
“It didn’t give me space for everything I wanted to do, which was related to music, with cartography, with the activity that I do,” he says. In 2019, when it was probably not thought that Monxo could be completely different, after playing enough music, studying, teaching courses, founding the group South Bronx United with others or submitting solar panels in several community gardens, was selected to work at the Museum as a Mellon Foundation Fellow. Last year he held the position full time.
Until now, the Museum was “a secret that the white people had reserved only for themselves.” Monxo never thought he would get the position. He admits this while we talk in the Museum cafe, where people greet him all the time. They greet him in English, they greet him in Spanish, but Monxo always answers them in Spanish which they understand or pretend to understand. Many things are happening at the Museum for the first time: all the exhibition texts have never been bilingual before, the audience is now less white and younger, the themes are between -regional and more community-based, without putting New York as “the last. coke the desert.”
– I think New York is the most wonderful place in the world. But I’ve also traveled enough to know that this is a benefit to me and not necessary to some degree.
At least four days a week you can see Monxo walking the halls of the Museum. Their work involves reading, studying, researching, talking to experts, visiting artists’ studios, but above all it’s about making friends with people. “I’m doing my job my way,” he says, not just any curator, but “a curator of community stories.”
Ask. What does it mean to be a New York community storyteller?
Answer. I am still defending that position, it is ongoing. But it’s basically about two things: telling stories that reflect the ethnic and racial communities that live and have historically lived in New York. Wherever possible, bring the donations, the crosses of these communities. That’s one of my priorities. When I make the shows I don’t decide for myself the plot or the narrative, the themes or the sections. I always allow myself to be carried away by the voices, ideas and concerns that these racial, ethnic communities of practice or communities consider important to define themselves.
P. In your case, which community do you belong to?
R. There are several. The most important community that I feel I belong to is the community of my environmental neighbors in the south of the Bronxa community of ideological friendship, shall we say. The artistic and cultural community in which I work is also important, which includes the Museum, but also includes the Clemente cultural center, where most of us are Latinos, although everything is there. And third, I would describe myself as Puerto Rican. But I think one of the most amazing and beautiful things about New York is that it is a place that makes us all break with that and redefine ourselves. Sometimes it breaks our identity. Because here you find the world, and the world is a wonderful place, with wonderful people from everywhere, with stories from everywhere, and that density, how close the city brings you forcing, forcing you to accept and welcome that disorder at the identity level.
P. What if New York makes us believe that the world is here, but it’s just an illusion because the world is so much more?
R. Obviously, the world is not here, but the place I have seen and know is where the closest doors to the rest of the world will be. There are so many people, from so many angles, that we live quickly, with the relative freedom that people have to be who they are, both individually and collectively. You can be in your community and leave. I love being among the Puerto Ricans and I love getting away from there too.
P. How does a Latino conservative make his way through so many communities?
R. My grandmother said you have two ears and one mouth, because you have to listen twice as much as you have to talk. So it’s listening to people, and listening means being really interested in the stories they want to tell, the topics people want to talk about, and forgetting a little bit about what you’re talking about. ask for And when one has that perspective, the potential for friendship rises. You are not trying to express your voice and statement. It is essential that communities, and especially individuals, see that what you want to do is an open space so that their stories, and what they want to say about themselves, is the work that ends up in the gallery. The other thing is patience and time. My next show, next year, is about him Constitution of New York 400 years ago by the Dutch, but seen from the point of view of the Lenape, the Indians who had lived in this area for more than 10,000 years. These natives are still alive, they are all over the United States. There is a perception that it is difficult to work with indigenous people, but in reality cultural institutions approach them to draw a story, there is no interest in listening to them or giving them a voice or ‘ opening a space for that voice to come out. I have worked with them for almost two years and have become their friend. And it was difficult, they are very jealous of their history, their voice, especially because no one speaks for them. And that takes time.
P. How do you bring the wealth of the community to the institution?
R. Through diversity. Although we are not native, the Lenape, when they learned that I and the other keeper I work with are Puerto Rican and from the Bronx, they opened their doors to us. That alone won us points. The fact that we are Puerto Rican, Latino, immediately gives confidence to that community. If there is no diversity behind a museum, if a museum does not reflect the diversity of the city, trust will not be developed. That has been a problem that museums have had historically United States and here in New York.
P. You say that the indigenous communities accept you for being Puerto Rican. And has it happened to you on the other side, communities that don’t look at you the same for being Latino?
R. There are no such communities, there are people who are like that. I have never experienced not feeling welcome in a community or group, but I have felt that way from people. Especially people of a certain age, who I would prefer to be treated better. There are people who have even questioned me if I am a real doctor, what the fuck? This is the cleanest place I have ever worked in my entire life. I have always worked in very diverse environments. At the Museum they have always treated me well, but this is the first time I have felt that I am in such a white environment.
P. So being the first permanent color preservative, how important could it be today and for a time we still don’t know?
R. When I arrived here in 2019, the Museum was already dealing with the problem of lack of diversity, which is not only in terms of employment and staff, but in the stories being told. Since my arrival, I have worked to ensure that we buy works and collect works by artists especially of color, but not only, but by people who would find it more difficult the gathering, especially Latinos. In that sense there is victory. I work like an animal, and I know I earned my position, I deserve it, but I’m also here a little by luck, and a lot because of the anonymous work done by many people before I arrived. It is somewhat dramatic, because one feels a responsibility to communities and individuals that other colleagues of mine do not feel. I live in fear of disappointing my people, the Latinos, Puerto Ricans, Puerto Ricans from here The Communitywho know that they have an ear with me in the Museum within this institution, that they feel very proud of my success, and that is why I am always careful that to do anything that could embarrass these people.
2024-09-21 04:00:02
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