TXF Board in the RGV Part 3: Meeting & Reading

by guest blogger Moira Porter

11/20/2011

Sunday morning we awoke and gathered to share a scrumptious breakfast of quiche from City Cafe (McAllen) and fresh fruit.  A brief board meeting gave us an opportunity to discuss fundraising scholarships for young people accepted to UT Austin's College of Fine Arts that would be matched dollar for dollar by the college. 

We welcomed Rita and Beto Conde to the house and settled in for a special reading by the author of the recently published America Down By the River, a collection of short stories and poems by Beto Conde.  Beto's reading took us back in time to El Jardin, a barrio of San Benito, in the 1950s where young boys growing up in the between space of Mexican homes and Anglo schools are mesmerized by the mystery and knowingness of the way the world is, as explained by Chencho the pachuco.  We felt the lush chill deadliness of a single-file line in a Vietnamese jungle.  And were brought back to humanity with Los Vecinos, where the antics Don Bruno arriving home in the middle of the night interrupt a young boy's sleep, and Brownie the German Shepherd, plays a critical comedic role.  With hugs all around, we get on the road. Hasta luego.  Nos vemos. - Moira

Moira Porter is Chairperson of Texas Folklife’s Board of Directors

We really did come to work: we held a board meeting.  Really.

Beto Conde shares his collection of short stories.

TXF Board travels to the Rio Grande Valley

by Nancy Bless
  

Our board chairman, Moira Porter and board member Susan Morehead joined Cristina Balli and me on an action packed, weekend trip to the tip of Texas. We took some back roads from Austin, sampling BBQ (Luling), bread pudding (Beeville) and cabrito (McAllen) along the way-- with church spires and court house cupolas pointing our way to historic town squares. Somewhere around Falfurrias the heat, wind, palm trees and cactus let you know you are entering Tejas.

Mark with his work

Saturday began in downtown Brownsville at Galeria 409, housed in a 158 year old building right across the street from the border wall and a US/Mexico crossing point. The wall, at least in this section, is like a wrought iron fence, albeit 20 feet tall. Galeria 409's owner, the artist Mark Clark, produced an "Art Against the Wall" exhibit--at the wall--that featured a 30 foot bamboo and reed ladder studded with thorns, and piñatas in the forms of life sized border patrol agents, one of whom is looking through a pair of (piñata) binoculars. 

Bottom to top: Susan Morehead, Moira Porter, Mark Clark

Mark hosted a lunch at the gallery for us to meet with University of Texas Brownsville History Professor Manuel Medrano and businesswoman and cultural activist Bitty Truan to talk about Texas Folklife and our mutual interests in preservation and promotion of traditional expressions in the Valley. There was lots to discuss as each has tremendous passion for regional culture and history. Dr. Medrano will be working closely with us on "A Place at the Table," contributing essays on the Taquerias of Southmost and on the area's struggling fishing and shrimping industry.

And of course--the best of all is getting to meet artists and see some great art! Mark Clark's own work was a revelation: intense, contemporary interpretations of Mayan mythology filtered through a somewhat wry and loaded (as in thinking about many things) imagination. Bitty, whose late husband George Truan was an artist, has a beautiful home on a Resaca filled with Mexican and Mexican American art. We wish you could have seen it all!

More posts on our Valley coming soon; stay tuned!