SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
The Latino Center of Art and Culture in Sacramento has been a hub for the regions Latinx community for about 50 years. In honor of Frida Kahlo’s life, the center has been celebrating the iconic Mexican painter known for her self-portraits and political activism with festivals and markets.
But this year, the center wanted to reimagine what celebrating Frida Kahlo looks like.
The Latino Center of Art and Culture will be hosting an experimental performance Saturday called, “El Bus de Frida: A Celebration of Frida through the Americas” that infuses magical realism, music and theatre.
“As we were thinking about Frida once again and producing this festival, we wanted to do something different, something that really honored also the diversity of the Latino community in Sacramento,” said Carissa Gutierrez, the executive director of the Latino Center of Art and Culture.
Gutierrez was inspired by a show called, “The Bus with Oars” that was created from magical realism, a style that depicts the real world while also adding an element of magic or fantasy, which Frida Kahlo's artwork has been classified as. She asked Raquel Ruiz, the performer and producer, to help lead a new artistic direction for this year's annual Frida event.
“I told [her], ‘Why we don't put Frida in a bus with a lot of other women from Latin America: politicians, poets, musicians, composers, singers?’” said Raquel Ruiz, artistic director of El Bus de Frida.
A “magical” bus will take Frida Kahlo throughout Latin America to meet powerful women like Violeta Parra, Toto la Momposina, Chabuca Granda, Maria Jose Morales and more.
Kahlo’s life was forever changed during a near-fatal bus accident in 1925. Dealing with a slow recovery, she began to paint art that would become popular for its honest take on exploring identity, and struggling with physical pain and emotional distress. Ruiz wanted to use the bus to symbolize how Kahlo not only created beauty out of pain, but to celebrate her life and introduce other Latina women with their own dynamic stories.
“Raquel wanted to showcase women that haven’t received the recognition that they deserve,” said Crisia Regalado, a UC Davis student who will be playing Maria Jose Morales — an opera singer from Guatemala who currently runs an opera company called Querido Arte: Opera de Guatemala.
Regalado is an independent artist and training to become an opera singer herself.
“It was very encouraging because [Maria’s] from Guatemala and my parents are from El Salvador. It’s really hard to find composers from El Salvador so finding her and learning her journey to bring this music to her country has been very inspiring,” said Regalado.
While the Latino Center of Art and Culture was created out of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement from the 1970s and served Chicano artists, Gutierrez says the community center is an art space, so they mirror the community.
“As we look around, we see that the demographics continue to shift, there are Salvadorians, Hondurans, Colombianos, Peruanos, [and] Brazilians in this community too,” said Gutierrez. “The more space we give to those diverse stories being told, the closer we get to understanding what this Latino identity is because it's actually not one monolith. It's a constellation of stories. I went into this idea for Frida thinking how could we honor her legacy and still be holding a conversation with our community.”
Ruiz also believes this performance is more than just entertainment.
“Latino is one word, but it's one word that comprises a big, big concept,” said Ruiz. “All these different women from different countries of Latin America, different cultures with different backgrounds, they are going to come together with Frida Kahlo and she is going to give them all the space to be themselves.”
“El Bus de Frida: A Celebration of Frida through the Americas” will be Saturday, July 8 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Winn Park, located in Midtown Sacramento. There will be vendors and food trucks. Make sure to get there early to find a good spot to watch the show!
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