‘Shyamala’s daughter, how many times/ has your mother been mispronounced/ in a pile of letters, doubts/ her red intonations, fragrant words/?[ …] did she want to go back?It is the first lines of Leticia Hernández-Linares in her poetry Welcome, who are talking to Kamala Harris, painted on a bright turquoise wall in her Sala de Deseos.
On August 26, the highly anticipated 2-year work of 10 local artists at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) was unveiled during their closing ceremony called Dreamseeds.
US-born Salvadoran artist, educator, poet and activist Hernández-Linares is one of the YBCA10 who presented her art installation called the room of wishes.
“We were given the opportunity to bring life and color to a space previously known for its white walls and to make a truly open statement about art as a means of social transformation and consciousness-raising, Hernández-Linares said.
As an artist-in-residence at YBCA, Hernández-Linares saw what it was like to work with abundance, to have support, resources and space.
“I created with the minimum in my 25 years of experience; it was kind of nice to have a little moment luxury“, said Hernandez-Linares.
Hernandez-Linares’ the room of wishes was born as a poetic response to Vice President Kamala Harris’ unsolicited message at a press conference on her trip to Guatemala in June 2021.
“I want to be clear to people in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trip to the United States-Mexico border: Don’t come,” Harris said.
Harris is the daughter of two immigrant parents who moved to the US in the 1950s. Shyamala, Harris’ mother, is from India. Hernández-Linares in her poem, welcome, addresses Kamala as “Shyamala’s daughter”.
Hernández-Linares makes it clear that she meant no harm with her stanzas.
“How can you [Harris] simplify a very complicated situation? Have you seen the legacy of laws, interventions and imperialism that the US has done in Central America,” said Hernández-Linares.
According to the Associated Press, the United States has officially intervened directly with military coups in Central America at least five times since the 20th century. Political and economic instability, linked to foreign corporate interests, has resulted in rampant violence, socio-economic inequality and corruption in the region.
of the room of wishes it was also born out of Hernández-Linares’ nostalgia for the living room of her childhood and typical of immigrant families.
“I wanted it to be like my living room that shows the deep closeness I felt to El Salvador even though I grew up in the US,” Hernández-Linares asserted.
Hernández-Linares’ parents immigrated from El Salvador in the 1970s. Their story was so strong and their pride so vivid that Hernández-Linares always felt connected and understood what her culture and heritage were.
“I also wanted to focus our individual power to predict and manifest our future, so that’s why La Muñeca sin Pena at the entrance of hall it’s not a nuisance doll, it’s an anti-disturbance doll,” Hernández-Linares said.
Doll without sorrow it was the welcoming prototype of the Sala de Deseo full of symbolism.
Anna Lisa Escobedo, an artist and YBCA staff member, helped work on the doll. Mercedes Huerta, who also works at YBCA, unexpectedly donated huipil for the muñeca from her family of Guatemalan weavers. It was a team effort.
One step in hall and a counter on the right had a string of dried corn leaves on which you could write your manifestos, tie them with string, and hang them outside.
In the center of the room was a wooden marimba, built by the YBCA team, and played by Yoni Asega. Visitors played it and created short tunes as they displayed their wishes.
Hernández-Linares wanted to provide opportunities to interact with it, touch things, read a book, feel comfortable and take up space.
On the left wall, a fragment of her poetry Welcome stood out. Sitting below her, a small Central American library had about 80 books by authors such as Gioconda Belli and Rigoberta Menchu, next to Hernández-Linares’ book. many girls.
“I wanted my doors bookshelf have a painting of Latin American buses that usually have fruits, chickens, people and I wanted to have books at the top, like a bookstore,” said Hernández-Linares. “Fred Alvarado beautifully painted exactly what I wanted on the doors of my bookstore.”
Hernández-Linares would dedicate the Sala de Deseos to the Central American diaspora, especially that in the Mission.
“I would dedicate my work to other first-generation kids like me who grew up inside a home where your culture was rich and famous, but people outside were misrepresenting and dehumanizing,” Hernández-Linares said. .
Sala de Deseos welcomes you in response to the violence of Kamala Harris saying “Don’t come”.
Hernández-Linares is currently working on a book of poems called The neighborand in new projects with the Women’s Building.
On Día de los Muertos, Hernández-Linares will host poetry readings in Potrero del Sol Park.
For the near future, Hernández-Linares also has further plans.
“I want to expand this library idea from my Sala de Deseos, I hope that one day SF State will have a Central American library,” said Hernández-Linares.
Hernández-Linares’ Sala de Deseos will soon be leaving the YBCA, but will be moving to the Mission Cultural Center in a few weeks and next March to a local bookstore in the Mission called Medicine for Nightmares.
