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Axios Latino is the newsletter that summarizes the key news for Latino communities in the hemisphere every Tuesday and Thursday.
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1. The theme to be highlighted: Curating artistic progress
Marcela Guerrero, promoted last week as the first Latina to be Senior Curator at the Whitney Museum in New York, promises to elevate underrepresented voices in the art world.
Why it matters
: The Whitney is one of the traditional cultural institutions in the United States where Latinos have made their way in recent years, after decades of being excluded as artists or academics.
In his own words
: "You have to do the work to make up for all these years of neglect, and it's a bit overwhelming," Guerrero tells Axios Latino about incorporating more of those artists whose works had not been hung in museums until recently. .
"It's not a sprint: it's a marathon," he concludes.
Marcela GuerreroPhoto illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios.
Photo: Javier Romero, courtesy of the Whitney Museum
Guerrero has put on several
well-reviewed exhibits at the Whitney, including a running show featuring artwork by various Puerto Ricans discussing the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
He has also pushed for the museum to have descriptions of the works in Spanish, as well as audio guides and other information, and to add Latino American artists to its permanent collection.
In her new position, she is co-curating a show on Colombian-American artist Ilana Savdie, scheduled for July.
Guerrero previously received accolades for his work at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Yes, but
: Latino representation in the art world continues to lag far behind, says Arlene Dávila, an NYU anthropology professor.
Dávila says that teaching about more Latino artists in universities is key to diversifying the industry.
Guerrero says art fairs and collectors should strive to include more diverse creators in their catalogues, which could help increase the value of their art.
In Numbers
: Last year, 73% of leadership positions in American museums—curators, directors, or heads of educational programs—were held by non-Hispanic whites.
In 2018, it was 77%, according to a survey by the Mellon Foundation.
In that time, Hispanic participation in museum leadership grew from 5% to 7%.
2. Chile and Argentina offer aid to Nicaraguan exiles
The Chilean and Argentine governments
this week offered citizenship to hundreds of Nicaraguans who lost their nationality to the regime of President Daniel Ortega and his "co-president" Rosario Murillo.
Big picture:
The offer, also made by Spain (while Mexico has offered asylum), follows complaints by human rights groups against Ortega for stripping more than 300 opposition figures of their citizenship.
The International Federation for Human Rights said that it was an "aberrant" escalation of the actions of Ortega and Murillo against any dissent.
A spokesperson for the US State Department, Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights also condemned Nicaragua's action.
Ortega has defended the measure, saying that those stripped of their nationality tried to harm Nicaraguan sovereignty: "The United States Government has used them to sow terror, death, destruction, in Nicaragua," he assured.
Namely
: On February 9, Nicaraguan judges appointed by Ortega stripped the nationality of 222 former political prisoners who were exiled and put on a plane to Washington DC.
"We are not asking for anything in return": Daniel Ortega explains his reasons for releasing "mercenaries"
Feb 10, 202301:19
A week later, another 94 opponents, many of whom lived abroad, were also stripped of their citizenship.
They were charged with treason for allegedly receiving international funds and for supporting anti-government protests.
The group stripped of their nationality includes journalists, religious figures, politicians and Nicaragua's two best-known living writers, Sergio RamĂrez and Gioconda Belli.
Context
: Various regimes around the world have stripped people of their citizenship to punish dissent.
The Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) stripped the citizenship of people like Orlando Letelier, a diplomat in the ousted government of Salvador Allende who was later assassinated in Washington DC in 1976.
Fascist Italy (1922-1943) had a similar law.
And the Nazis used similar measures to declare Jewish Germans foreigners.
In his own words
:
3. Failure to investigate the death of a child
A farming accident in Wisconsin that killed a Nicaraguan boy in 2019 has exposed poor working conditions and a disconnect between immigrants and law enforcement in that state, according to new ProPublica research.
Big Picture
: Hundreds of Mexican and Central American immigrants and asylum seekers do farm and dairy work in Wisconsin.
Those jobs are usually dangerous and poorly paid.
More Details
: Jefferson Rodriguez, 8, died after being struck by a manure scraping machine (skid steer) on a dairy farm in Dane.
The police assumed that JosĂ© MarĂa RodrĂguez Uriarte, Jefferson's father, was the one who was driving the skid steer and accidentally ran over the minor.
But the report by Melissa Sanchez and Maryam Jameel concluded that there was conflicting information that authorities had not investigated.
In fact, the reporters spoke to another worker who admitted that he accidentally ran over the boy and was not questioned by the Dane County Sheriff's Office.
The Sheriff's Office told ProPublica that it "welcomes any new information from any witness or party."
Beyond
: ProPublica highlights in its report that migrant workers like RodrĂguez Uriarte lack money or childcare support, who end up spending their time wandering dangerous dairy farms.
Jefferson was not enrolled in school at the time of the incident, with five weeks left in the school year.
He and his father arrived in the US from Nicaragua in March 2019.
What's next
: RodrĂguez Uriarte and his wife filed a wrongful death lawsuit
against
D&K Dairy, the insurance company for that dairy farm, and the driver who admitted to the accident, although the latter was dismissed after the action legal.
The farm's lawyers are defending themselves using the disputed police report as proof that the responsibility does not lie with them, but rather with RodrĂguez Uriarte.
4. Roberto Clemente returns to the shelves
A Florida school district that had pulled an illustrated biography of Afro-Puerto Rican baseball player Roberto Clemente from its libraries returned the children's book to shelves this week.
The book had been withdrawn for review, on suspicion that it did not comply with new state laws that restrict discussions of race and gender issues that can take place in schools.
Why It Matters
: The retirement, albeit temporary, of
Roberto Clemente: The Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates
highlights the confusion among educators that has led to some Republican-led measures over concepts they consider "divisive."
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in public speeches that he believed the district that pulled the book was only doing so to "generate a narrative" supposedly critical of him.
Although his government was the one that approved the laws that forced the revision of the texts.
Book about legendary baseball player Roberto Clemente is approved in Florida school district
Feb 17, 202300:26
More details
: Duval County Public Schools announced that starting this Monday Clemente's book and some others will be available again.
Nearly 7,000 other books have passed, out of more than 1 million that were temporarily withdrawn for review.
5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean
1. The office in Honduras
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has asked the Government of Xiomara Castro to review its long-standing state of emergency.
Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios
This anti-gang measure allows people to be arrested and homes searched without a warrant in two of the country's largest metropolitan areas.
It was decreed at the end of November and was extended this week.
2. The United States approved the extradition
of former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) to face corruption charges in his country, according to the Peruvian Prosecutor's Office.
Toledo is accused of receiving bribes from the construction company Odebrecht in exchange for public contracts, which he has denied.
Pachanga Thursday
Every Thursday we publish our Pachanga to highlight achievements of our readers.
If you have just celebrated an anniversary, adopted a pet or had a job success and you want to celebrate it, send an email and photo to axioslatino@axios.com
congratulations to
Kristian Vazquez-Diaz, whose family wrote to brag that he recently became Director of Association Marketing for Bridgestone Americas.
Kristian Vazquez-DiazPhoto courtesy of Estefania Gonzalez-Solis.
Background Illustration by Axios Visuals
Kristian has two master's degrees from the University of Central Florida in sports business administration.
"I'm very proud of him and I can't wait to see what he will do with his sponsorships, including the Olympics," says his wife, Estefania Gonzalez-Solis.
Congratulations!
Thanks for reading us!
We return on Tuesday.
Do you want to read any of the previous editions?
Shakespeare on the border: how new stagings reimagine his works with a Latin focus
"They knew how to adapt": how Latino businesses are better than before the pandemic