>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
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>> Katherine Blood: So it is the Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca and they go by the acronym ASARO and they sign as a collective and this is partly as a way to weigh the size of this. So, this is partly as a way to be in solidarity together but it is also a safety measure because this group began during the teacher uprisings in 2006. I am going to lay it down. It is a little difficult to--
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Yes, you want to crumble it up. 
>> Katherine Blood: But they are very fresh so these began during the uprisings in 2006 and the artists signed as a collective partly as a safety measure to keep some individual anonymity.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Oh that's right.
>> Katherine Blood: But the images are very powerful. They were meant to be shown on the streets. They were meant to bring attention to any number of different issues that were important to the artists. So, artist's responses to an array of different social and political subjects.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: And then, so you are right this takes place in Oaxaca and just like in the other examples these are artists that are saying something to the public at large. And Oaxaca has a lot of art recently that has been coming out. 
>> Katherine Blood: Absolutely.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: And I just meant some artists in, a great group of artists, the Oaxaca, the Oaxacanos, in Seattle. There's a great group of artists in Seattle and here we see doing a similar kind of work but this is very different. And I am so glad to hear this. And we are going to also perhaps feature some of this work by ASARO--
>> Katherine Blood: ASARO
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: ASARO Asamblea
>> Katherine Blood: Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca, so thankfully they're called very concisely by ASARO.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: ASARO.
>> Katherine Blood: Can we talk a little bit about the imagery here? 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Sure let's talk about the imagery. 
>> Katherine Blood: It is really interesting in terms of visual literacy because it is a very poetic image. It is not a literal image. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: That's right.
>> Katherine Blood: And you sort of have to spend time with it and read it just the way you would read a poem or a book. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: That's true. So, there's kind of like an 
[foreign word] a close line, or it could be a rail, or it could be a rainbow.
>> Katherine Blood: I thought a [foreign word].
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: A --
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Right. And there's the eyes and there's a woman's face looking down and she's very sad, serious, troubled, solemn, in pain perhaps. And then there's a three more [foreign word] hanging and flowing in the wind or rain. And they are images of?
>> Katherine Blood: Angels.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Angels.
>> Katherine Blood: Three angels.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: And there are two hands shooting out of the earth or the darkness and they are- What are they doing?
>> Katherine Blood: It looks very, it's an ambivalent image to me because they look very vital and they are reaching to the sky but the figure is essentially buried. And so you have all of these clues that lead you to the idea that this is maybe a memorial or a mourning image. Although, there's, it's not titled. It's not dated but we know it's from around 2006 to 2009 so we know when and where it was made and by whom. And we have these clues but you can interpret it different ways.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: That's right. And even the buried figure remains vital.
>> Katherine Blood: And the cacti and the mountains and the rain also shooting stars, you know, so lots of different --
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: And the artwork is also vibrating.
>> Katherine Blood:  Absolutely. It is really robust, this carving. Yes. I mean it is a very classical image. We have images by Elizabeth Catlin that are celebrating the laborer, the worker, the farmer, and the title here they have given us some from text you see very prominent front and center dignidad --
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Dignidad.
>> Katherine Blood: Dignity. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Dignity.
>> Katherine Blood: And then smaller--
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: And smaller hidden figures which say  [foreign word]. 
>> Katherine Blood: Yea.
>> Struggle, fight and what are those? Are those the corn?
>> Katherine Blood: Maiz.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Maiz kind of has a sense of being a grenade. 
>> Katherine Blood: It's true. They almost look like, yes so it is a power image. They almost look like weapons.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Like weapons. 
>> Katherine Blood: Yes, it's true. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Yea.
>> But every person can come to these images and sort of get something different from them. And we know a little bit about, we know a lot about the artist intent but I love that almost everything here, these are, sometimes they have documentary elements or responding to specific events in history and time but they are poetic images. They are artist responses. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: They are poetic images and they are beautiful. They take time to create and yet they're looking out they want to tell us something but not necessarily for private. Who knows? Let's leave it open. Are they private? Are they public? Are they both--
>> Katherine Blood: These are meant to be in the street. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: These are meant to be in the streets. Now they are meant to be out the streets again throughout the United States. 
>> Katherine Blood: It belongs to every-- I mean we have been giving you wonderful red carpet treatment but this treatment is available to anyone who comes here as a researcher. This collection belongs to everyone. It belongs to you, to you, it belongs to everyone. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
>> Katherine Blood: You have been creating new artwork and new poetry on the spot, right here, automatic drawing.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Yes, I have.
>> Katherine Blood: Responding. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Yes, I have. This one is called Give Power. And --
>> Katherine Blood: [Laughs] that was generous.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera:[Laughs] as a matter of fact, I think that was your line. Was that your line? 
>> Katherine Blood: He asked me to title it and of course I am with a Poet Laureate of the United States and I got nervous and I didn't want to provide a title and I said you are giving me a lot of power and so you are like that's what we are going to call it. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: That's right.
>> Katherine Blood: Empowerment.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: That's right.  We are not going to wait for to write, we never wait to write. Always write right there at the moment. If you wait to write, something is going to happen. As a matter of fact, write before you write. That's the idea. So it's called Give Power and since today is an anniversary of 9/11--
>> Katherine Blood: That's right.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: So here, this a very, it's a drawing poem and this is Give Power and it is dedicated for and then there is a heart in a circle. So, I am going to leave that with you. Perhaps it is dedicated to love and to unity. And it has images like this. So page one and two is la luna, la vida and the last page is estrellas. The moon, life and the stars. 
>> Katherine Blood: And these are reoccurring motifs for you? This is something you carry with you, I think. 
>>Juan Felipe Herrera: I think you got me on that. I think you got me on that. And then there is kind of a light gray marker with a moon and kind of like the  sea anemone and an energy ring and some waves and some Mayan numbers. And we made a book out of it. 
>> Katherine Blood: Yes. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: We made a book out of it.
>> Katherine Blood: On the spot. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: On the spot.
>> Katherine Blood: You did it today. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Did it today.
>> Katherine Blood: Very quickly and directly from your conscious and subconscious emotions. It is wonderful and also poetry.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: And we did some poems too and I am just going to show them to you. Here is a poem, it's called Lantut [phonetic] 6 Green Method and here's another one, it's called Little Shoes on the Corner and this has to do with the prayer rug. 
>> Katherine Blood: Right.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: It has to do with a prayer rug. 
>> Katherine Blood: Right. The Helen [inaudible] drawing.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Yes. Little Shoes on the Corner, the beta carpet, are you waiting, fly with rebirth, prayer; for us all come together, but how, two, two, two, two, two, two, two cultures, banner, American, Arab how, how, how, how the buildings come back up as we stand, color to color, Americas Middle East, together, nontoxic, screen method.
>> Katherine Blood: So beautiful.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: So we can do this anytime and what else do we have? 
>> Katherine Blood: Let's walk around the corner to Julia de Burgos [phonetic] is one of the heroes in your recent book. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Yes, we are going to walk around the corner and to Julia de Burgos, Puerto Rican poet, an amazing activist, woman of her time. And we also have it in a multicolor format done by, who is it--
>> Katherine Blood: Antonio Martorell from Puerto Rico and printed in Ponce. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Antonio Martorell from Puerto Rico?
>> Katherine Blood: Brand new acquisition, 2014. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: 2014?
>> Katherine Blood: This one is 2014 and it is again a combination of digital and traditional woodcut print making. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Digital, traditional and then we have a lot of material that we have been just bringing out and it is all available here. We have Octavio Rodrigues [phonetic] with [foreign word].
>> Katherine Blood: [Foreign word] series which relates to your book of [foreign word] poems.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: That's right and that's Octavio Rodriguez and then we have Yolanda Lopez and she's talking about farm work of women and--
>> Katherine Blood: Woman's work is never done. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Woman's work is never done with Alordes Worta [phonetic].
>> Katherine Blood: Another hero.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Another hero and then we have something very magical. A Russian--
>> Katherine Blood: Leanna Teescov [phonetic] from Moscow and he, this is from a series that he conceives of as a visual poem. It's called his private moon series and you really --
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: I like that.
>> Katherine Blood: Sort of went deep into these images.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: I like that a lot because it is so dreamlike and it is not, you know, direct message piece. It is something that you meditate on and it is eerie and it is magical and it is luminous and it is multi layered and with little poems written on the side. Little poems written on the side of a beautiful print and all this material is just so inspiring. And then we have this particular artist that you mentioned to me--
>> Katherine Blood: Robert Blackburn. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Robert Blackburn, another amazing silk screen artist. 
>> Katherine Blood: He is a lithographer, color lithography and that is what this is. This is called Girl in Red and it is from 1950 and one of the wonderful things is that it was on exhibit at the Library of Congress in our 1897 Historic Jefferson Building. We had national exhibitions of prints for many years and this work was hanging at a Library of Congress when it was fresh off the press in 1950.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: In 1950, so see, that's beautiful. I am really inspired by that piece. It's beautiful. 
>> Katherine Blood: Well he was another person, this Casa de Colores idea was something that he also took to heart. He grew up during, he grew up in the WPA Harlem Arts Center, where he learned lithography first as a very young, talented artist. And then he worked at a master printer at a legendary print making studio called ULAE with Rauschenberg, Jasper, Johns, Frank and Faller. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: That's amazing. 
>> Katherine Blood: And he, in the late 1940's, he made his own studio which was open and his concept was that it was open to artists of all stripes. And also of different levels of abilities so you have master artists working with artists who are coming to print making for the first time. So, it was his own Casa de Colores, the print making workshop in New York. You would have loved it. You would still love it, it still existed.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: I would, I still love it and I am so glad you taught me all about him. And we also have Juan Fuentes [foreign word] Chavez, Juan Fuentes [inaudible] Chavez, amazing print and then we have [foreign word] and Lydia Mendoza.
>> Katherine Blood: You asked for music. You asked for music, Tejano [assumed spelling] music specifically, yea. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Tejana music, pioneer from the 1920's, Lydia Mendoza then just kept on going. And created so much great root music or source music for the rest of us that came along with guitars and especially women song writers and all the musical heritage that we have for Latina's and Latino's and of course, the public at large, United States and our truly American culture. Beautiful print by [foreign name] and it is also here in it's beautiful, radiant colors. 
>> Katherine Blood: You are making a really wonderful point, which is that all of these connect to all of the different artistic languages so you can go and listen to original music. You can go and listen to poetry readings by poets across time, you know. It goes on and on, this sort of connections and layers. Thank you for bringing your artists by and your poets voice to these materials. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Katherine. This is really beautiful. I want to thank you for inviting me over. 
>> Katherine Blood: It's an honor and a pleasure. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Thank you and for bringing out these beautiful materials. A family of great artists for the people. 
>> Katherine Blood: Yes.
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: And Casa de Colores and [Foreign name] and we are going to work on something to feature from this beautiful collection for everyone to see online pretty soon. 
>> Katherine Blood: Are seed and flowers and plants. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Seeds and flowers and plants and prints and photographs. How's that? 
>> Katherine Blood: Perfect. Thank you. 
>> Juan Felipe Herrera: Thank you so much. 
>> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at LOC.gov.
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