Coincidence or Globalization?

Federico Garcia Lorca (public elementary school in Valencia)

I was 9 years old when I started going to art classes in my old Havana. Federico Garcia Lorca is the name of the grand theater in Havana, and this was the place my grandma used to take me every Saturday morning for my drawing classes. Next to the building I live in here in Valencia there is a public elementary school also called Federico Garcia Lorca. F.G. Lorca was the most popular and influential poet of the Spanish Literature in the 20^th century. Of course this elementary school looks nothing like the Lorca theatre in Havana which was built in the 1830’s with a Neo-Baroque architecture. Despite the architectural differences these two buildings have, every time I walk by this elementary school, which is very often, its name brings memories of my beginnings as an art student.

 

In Spain scooters are widely popular. That was one of the first things I noticed when I arrived here. Actually, on the sidewalk of our building there are always two of them parked. The brand of one of them is “Habana” and it is written on the frontal-left part of the scooter. The other thing that caught my attention was the fact that this bike is ALWAYS parked next to a sidewalk drain which has the year of 1987 stamped on it. I guess the city made some type of construction project in this area that year or something like it. I am not sure at all. I just know I was born in Habana in 1987, and every time I pass by this place it gives me a funny feeling.

Among all the things I packed to take with me to Valencia I knew I had to bring books. I love reading, but I also had to bring lots of things that I knew I was going to need for my time here. I had to make a selection of a few books I wanted to bring, and they had to be small. I only brought 3. One was the most complete written biography of Jose Marti by Jorge Mañach, the second one was “En el Corazon de un poeta” by Pablo Neruda, and the 3^rd one was “Antologia poetica by Ruben Dario”. I love reading poetry, and knew these books were a good pile for entertainment. Ruben Dario was a Nicaraguan poet of the 20^th Century. He was one of the most important Hispanic poets of his time. Before coming to Valencia I was given the address I had go once I landed here. When given the address I did not noticed one thing until I was here. The address where I am living in Valencia is “Ruben Dario 38”.

I like to run as part of my exercise routine. Since the beginning of my life in Tallahassee, living at the Alumni Village I run a couple of days a week around the village. Every now and then while I am running through the village I see Middle Eastern guys from the village playing cricket on the field. For me that was just something new as many things that I have seen and experienced in Tallahassee since I arrived there. The curious thing is that during my daily running routine here in Valencia, while I was running around an empty parking lot, there were Middle Eastern guys playing cricket as well. Since the beginning of my stay in Valencia I did noticed that there was a considerable population from that region of the world living in my block and all over Spain. I don’t know which country they come from specifically, but I do know how to recognize them, and it is from their facial features. I like to think these are coincidences even though it could easily be globalization. 

 

Last but not least has to do with my art practice and the research I am doing these days as part of a development in my art process. I have been looking and studying at different artist from every where. Since I am in Spain I have been confronted with the local art and this has been another tremendous experience. Looking at what other people from this region of the world, from the same generation as I am are doing is an absolutely mind blowing and opening experience. One of the classes I am taking here is a studio class. They call it “project class” and it is a class students take at the end of their Bachelors, as a way of preparing and making their final works, or projects. I really enjoy it there, for the environment is so versatile. During one of those classes we went to visit a museum where there were recent artworks from emerging Valencian artists. It was “Centro del Carmen” which is the Fine Art museum of Valencia, and used to be the Fine Art building of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. As a matter of fact, our professor studied there when he was in his 20’s. When we enter the museum there were several exhibitions going on at the same time and one of them was a very well presented retrospective of the very famous Cuban artist Amelia Pelaez (one of the most prolific artist of the 20^th century in Cuba along Wifredo Lam and others). My admiration and respect for her work comes from way back when I started drawing as a kid. I had never seen a retrospective of her paintings personally and always wanted to.  It was a magnificent feeling being inside a room filled with major works of an artist you admire in chronological order. At this point I did not care if this was a coincidence or not. All I know I was enjoying every corner of her work.

One of the inside gardens at "Museum of Carmen"

 

Hall at "Museum of Carmen"


 Alejandro Simon (FSU/MFA candidate) from Valencia, Spain.