Commentary: Final De Colores Art Show reception set for Oct. 15 in Santa Paula

By Frank X. Moraga / www.Amigos805.com

Say it’s not true, but it looks like the final De Colores Art Show will kick off with a farewell reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15 at the Santa Paula Museum of Art, 117 N. 10th St.

The works of between 25 and 30 artists will be displayed at the museum. The event will also feature a slide show by a photojournalist who is documenting the immigrant experience in the region.

The 18th annual exhibit of art will continue at the museum until Jan. 29, 2012.

“This is the very last one. No can do. No more. Muy viejito,” said founder Xavier “Big X” Montes.

Over the years, the festival has been held at the Santa Paula Train Depot, in front of the California Oil Museum on Main Street and Veterans Memorial Park in Santa Paula, two years in Ventura before finding a home in recent years at the Santa Paula Art Museum.

At its height, the festival featured dozens of 805 regional and Los Angeles-area artists, arts and crafts booths, a variety of food vendors and musical entertainment.

However, Montes said the time has come to close the show.

“Times have changed,” he said on Wednesday after he returned from installing the final pieces of artwork at the museum. “A close examination of many things led to me letting go the show.”

When he first started the art show, there were very few venues for Latino/Chicano art in Ventura County and the rest of Southern California.

“But a whole new generation is coming up and they compete with each other and attend each other’s events,” he said.

Another challenge has been the poor economy in recent years and lack of community financial support.

“(People) don’t realize that attending a fundraiser helps out a lot,” he said. “Getting five, 10, 20 dollars at a fundraiser for an event like this is key. In the last three or four years, fundraising has gone down and down.”

While he spent time and money organizing a fundraiser earlier this summer in Santa Paula, complete with musicians donating their time, the gathering only drew a small crowd.

Besides the economy, some of the reasons behind the declining financial support for De Colores may be related to Montes’ outspoken stance on immigrant and cultural rights issues, he said.

“I saw a change when I spoke out in favor of farmworker housing and against profiling people of color in letters to the editor,” he said. “Many folks I knew who would say hello to me would then shun me, ask me to take them off my email blast. They would ignore me and walk on by. They began to see, politically speaking, I was too far to the left. I wasn’t born yesterday.”

Finally, the time spent organizing the annual event has taken a toll on his own artwork and musical pursuits.

“People don’t realize it takes a year organizing an event like this. As you get closer to the date itself, it takes away time and energy from my artwork,” he said. “I can’t show my latest artwork because of the time I spent on De Colores.”

After he made the decision this year to cancel the festival portion of the art show, Montes said he weighed all the factors and decided De Colores had run its course.

“It was a combination of things that led up to this decision,” he said. “It’s pretty much time to do this.”

However, don’t expect Montes to fade back into the background. He still plans to continue his community involvement in issues, expand his artwork, perform at a variety of other venues and work with young people to develop their musical talents.

Also, following the artists reception at the museum, there will be an gathering from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15 at Los Arcos Restaurant, 978 E. Main St., down the street from the museum featuring the musical talents of “Los Amigos,” Montes said.

So here’s wishing Montes a wonderful artists reception, post reception and gallery exhibition from your friends at www.Amigos805.com as we urge the community to come out and support this final tour of the De Colores Art Show.

For more information on the De Colores Art Show artists reception, call 805.525.5554 or send an email to info@santapaulaartmuseum.org

— Frank X. Moraga has previously worked with such publications as the Ventura County Star, the Oxnard Press-Courier, the Los Angeles Daily News and the Orange County Register. The views expressed by Frank X. Moraga do not necessarily represent the views of Amigos805.com