Críticas Magazine

Bruce Jensen

Stories of people ignored
February 28, 2008

Indigenous Mexicans and Guatemalans adorn the walls of the Vista Public Library of San Diego County.  An exhibit there "focuses on the people no one else photographs," we read in Saturday’s San Diego Union-Tribune, in an article by Pablo Jaime Sáinz. The twenty images of ethnocultural misfits, people who don’t fit in where they are, were shot by African-American photographer Tony Gleaton who says "the most important part of these portraits is to tell the stories of people ignored by the larger society."

Gleaton has spent years in Mexico and other lands looking closely at such people: indigenous Tarahumara in the state of Chihuahua, Seri people on the coast of Sonora, and African descendants throughout the hemisphere. His best-known project "Africa's Legacy In Mexico" shines spectacularly on the Smithsonian's website. 

Gleaton's collection "Tengo casi 500 años: Africa's Legacy in Mexico, Central and South America," featured on the site of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County tells the story of African culture in Latin America. The artist’s own site has many of his pictures and his words. "My work examines our common elements and the disparities, which in making us different," he notes, "also bind us together in the human condition."

Library visitors in Vista and two other branches where the photos have shown have a certified superlibrarian, José Aponte, to thank. The director of the San Diego County Library system told the paper that the mission of the Vista exhibit is to

Aponte is an amazing man. A librarian's son, a champion bicyclist, a political activist with decades of experience running libraries--his story has a lot to teach anyone working in public service.

Posted by Bruce Jensen on February 28, 2008 | Comments (0)