Nuestro Arte and the MS Latinx Art Association began with the Vice President Jacqueline Gonzalez and her friends talking about their desire to spread the Latin culture to others in their community in Hattiesburg through art.
Nuestro Arte is an art gallery in Hattiesburg that shows and promotes local Latino artists within the community and give a place for their art no matter how it looks and want to spread that Latino culture and traditions to everyone in the Hattiesburg community.
Gonzalez started her art career at a very young age because her father was an artist, but it took until her late 20s and early 30s for her to take lessons. While she took them, the place where classes were held, hosted an all-student exhibit which was where she sold her first pieces, and that is when she realized she had something going for her future. After that, she traveled to multiple art fairs throughout Louisiana, Alabama, Texas and Mississippi, but shortly got tired of the constant traveling. Gonzalez opened her first art store named after her in Mandeville, Louisiana which marked the start of her stationary art career.
“I guess that was the beginning of me being stationary and being able to have a place where I could show my pieces,” Gonzalez said. “Now here in Hattiesburg, yeah, things are great, you know, I’m part of this gallery, Nuestro Arte and it’s wonderful.”
Gonzalez moved to Hattiesburg to continue her art career. She attempted to have her art displayed around the city, but most of pieces were rejected from being shown. The same would happen to her friend, Hector Boldo. The initial reactions they would get would be, “Yes, sure, we want to show your pieces,” but after looking at their pieces they would backtrack and would say, “Okay, we can show this, but maybe not this one.” She felt as if they would see something they were not familiar with and would be afraid and confused towards the art. This sparked Gonzalez’s and Boldo’s conversations about creating their own place to show their art. This expanded to them saying, “You know, where are the other Latino Artists here?”
After those conversations, they decided to form the Mississippi Latinx Art Association with the goal of locating Latino artists within the community and giving them a voice and opportunities. They realized early in the creation that they needed a place if the goal was to showcase everyone’s art which is how Nuestro Arte was born about a year and a half ago. The owner of the strip where the gallery is located, Chad Edmondson, loves artists and coincidentally wanted more artists in that location which is how Gonzalez and her friends were able to land the place.
Gonzalez wanted to not just show the usual art pieces that Hattiesburg offered. She wanted to showcase things that people were not used to seeing because there were constant issues with their art stylebeing shown. Particularly, her paintings with the Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgin Mary) with the Sacred Heart, but her depiction of Guadalupe is a nude woman. Gonzalez feels as if the female body is one of the most beautiful creations of God and does not understand why people tend to look away or cover their children’s eyes.
“The human body, it’s beautiful, particularly the women,” Gonzalez said. “Something like that, which is most of my, “Sacred Heart,” series.”
Since starting the MS Latinx Art Association, Gonzalez and her friends started off by promoting Latin art, but now they are expanding to promote food, dance and holidays. They hosted the Day of the Dead parade which is a sacred holiday in Latin/Hispanic culture where the community honor those loved ones who have since passed. Gonzalez wanted to show such a big holiday to those in the community. She saw that everyone showed up and showed out with the way people dressed and supported.
“So, to bring that and show something like that, to the community so they can see these are things that we do,” Gonzalez said. “They’re wonderful and there is meaning behind it.”
Gonzalez and her friends started off with strictly only showing Latino artists’ pieces, but a year and a half later they plan to expand that.
Gonzalez has given the opportunity to other artists who are not Latino to go out and find a Latino artist whose art they like and are interested in. She had them pick a certain piece that artist did and were instructed to recreate it in their own way, but making sure it is inspired by the artist they choose. It was successful for the association because they are still reaching their goal of spreading the Latinculture to the community.
“We have done two things, these artists that were not aware of so many Latino artists, they have gone now to research so now they have learned about all of these Latino artists,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez felt so proud of what they have accomplished and appreciated, and the community has responded so kindly. She wants to continue to create different themed exhibits and keep promoting not just art but cooking and dancing or even movies. She wants to continue showing her culture especially now because of the times we are in.
“A lot of the racism and a lot of the ugly things just because you don’t understand because people don’t know,” Gonzalez said. “So, if in our own little way, if we could just share who we are and our beliefs, our culture and if that opens someone’s mind and makes then have a little less hate and more comprehension and acceptance, then we have done our job and that makes me feel happy.”
