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Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.295.1, Connecticut Historical S ...
Lao Ceremony; New England Concurso de Trovadores; Barns; and ¡Que Bonita Bandera! Exhibit
Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.295.1, Connecticut Historical Society, Copyright Undetermined

Lao Ceremony; New England Concurso de Trovadores; Barns; and ¡Que Bonita Bandera! Exhibit

Subject (Puerto Rican)
Date2003
Mediumslides
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.295.1-.18
Description2015.196.295.1-.4: Slides of a ceremony at the Lao temple in Morris.

2015.196.295.5: Slide of competitors and musicians on stage and outside at the New England Concurso de Trovadores.

2015.196.295.6-.7: Slides of Connecticut barns. The location of the barns is unknown, possibly eastern Connecticut.

2015.196.295.8-.9: Slides of competitors and musicians on stage and outside at the New England Concurso de Trovadores.

2015.196.295.10-.12: Slides of the ¡Que Bonita Bandera! exhibit installation.

2015.196.295.13: Slide of Concurso de Trovadores event participants: photographer Juan Fuentes (left) and musician and judge Virgilio Cruz (right).

2015.196.295.14: Slide of the ¡Que Bonita Bandera! exhibit installation.

2015.196.295.15-.16: Slides of a gourd cuatro made by Graciela Quiñones-Rodriguez with a flag and other Puerto Rican symbols carved onto it on display in the ¡Que Bonita Bandera! exhibit.

2015.196.295.17: Slide of a Connecticut barn. The location of the barn is unknown, possibly eastern Connecticut.

2015.196.295.18: Slide of competitors and musicians on stage and outside at the New England Concurso de Trovadores.
NotesSubject Note for 2015.196.295.1-.4: Connecticut was a major resettlement site for Southeast Asians in the 1980s. The Lao population numbers over 3,000, living primarily in urban areas such as New Britain, Bridgeport, East Hartford, and Danbury and for a time in the 1990s-2007, in rural eastern Connecticut. While many Lao have found employment in factories, service industries, farming, and trades such as food, they continue to face barriers of language, lack of education, and lower income levels, all against a common backdrop of serious emotional wounds from the Viet Nam War era. Youth aged 10-19 years old have been by far the largest age group among Connecticut Southeast Asians. Maintaining young peoples’ awareness of heritage, culture, values, and language is a major goal of Lao leaders and parents. The Lao community sustains its traditional cultural practices in several ways. Several temples around the state provide gathering places where Buddhist monks and nuns offer spiritual services and cultural festivals. The largest temple is in Morris, where the resident monk Khoutavong has created exquisite Buddhist statues and traditional architecture with symbolic carvings, ornamentation, and shrines. Dancer and educator Manola Sidara developed and has directed Lao Narthasin, a traditional dance group now in its third generation of dancers. They perform classical, folk, and social dances that highlight cultural values such as respectful behavior and appreciation for elders. Manola also specializes in creating ceremonial decorations that express wellness, spirituality, and bonding during community celebrations, and she also promotes health and healing through her work as a master chef. The Lao Association of Connecticut (LAC) formed in 1980 to unite the community and assist in economic development, cultural preservation, education, and health. For many years LAC offered classes in language, history, food and medicine, verbal arts, traditional music, and singing at Jefferson School in New Britain, and the group organizes several heritage festivals each year at the Morris temple that are attended by hundreds of Lao people. Other Lao community groups around the state also develop and present spiritual and cultural programs as well as health initiatives.


Subject Note for 2015.196.295.1-.4: Wat Lao Buddha Ariyamett Aram Temple in Morris, Connecticut is a center for the Lao community and their Buddhist worship, situated on several acres of land in rural northwestern Connecticut. Founded in 2002, the temple has beautiful statues of deities and traditional figures as well as several buildings for worship and community gatherings, many of those decorated and constructed in traditional fashion by the resident monk. Khoutavong Yongchaiyuth, traditional Lao ceremonial woodcarver, serves as the resident monk of the Wat Lao Ariyamettaram Lao temple in Morris, rural northwestern Connecticut, having moved there from the temple in Danbury. Khout has been a monk since he was fourteen years old, and in the temple in Laos he learned woodcarving, sculpture, stonemasonry, and painting. He was brought to the U.S. in 1999 by the resident monk in Danbury to build decorative stone and woodwork, and Khout practices the same traditional crafts at the temple in Morris where he serves the spiritual needs of the Lao community. CCHAP has documented activities at the temple over many years, including New Year festivals, the water ceremony, temple dedications, and led a cultural tourism group to visit the temple in 2006. CCHAP connected the temple and community to a 2007 WNPR project on health care in Connecticut ethnic communities. As part of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program Year 18 (2015-2016), Khout was a mentor to two monks, Xaiyo and Somchay, from the Smithfield, Rhode Island Lao temple who came to the temple to learn how to build, restore, and decorate Laotian spiritual statues and buildings. Over an intensive few weeks, the young monks from Rhode Island gained skills of designing, molding, casting, cutting, and applying that helped them to revitalize the older structures at their temple. They presented their learning at a festival at the temple in 2016.


Biographical Note for 2015.196.295.1-.4: Khoutavong Yongchaiyuth, traditional Lao ceremonial woodcarver, serves as the resident monk of the Wat Lao Ariyamettaram Lao temple in Morris, rural northwestern Connecticut, having moved there from the temple in Danbury. Khout has been a monk since he was fourteen years old, and in the temple in Laos he learned woodcarving, sculpture, stonemasonry, and painting. He was brought to the U.S. in 1999 by the resident monk in Danbury to build decorative stone and woodwork, and he practices the same traditional crafts at the temple in Morris where he serves the spiritual needs of the Lao community. Khout was also invited to St. Petersburg, Florida to build a temple and carve several sculptures, which took him only a month. He has passed on his knowledge to other Lao Americans, teaching the young monks from the large Lao community in western Rhode Island, in Year 18 (2015-2016) of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.


Subject Note for 2015.196.295.5, .8-.9, .13, & .18: The Institute for Community Research’s Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program and the Puerto Rican traditional music group Amor y Cultura produced a day-long Concurso de Trovadores (troubador folk singers) competition and concert, with master musicians from Puerto Rico and local singers. The event took place at St. Anne’s Church Hall, 820 Park Street, Hartford on September 27, 2003. The competition ran from 2pm-7pm, followed by a concert of competition winners and master musicians from 8pm-10pm. The event was free and open to the public.

The goal of the project was to enhance appreciation for Puerto Rican traditional arts both within the community and for general area audiences as well. The performance of this beautiful and highly skilled music can show Puerto Rican arts at their best, as an expression of the love Puerto Ricans have for their island and culture. A committee of local Puerto Rican artists and cultural leaders advised in the project’s planning and production. The event revived a beloved activity in Hartford’s Puerto Rican community. Started by master cuatrista and community music educator Virgilio Cruz, the Concursos held in the early 1990s brought traditional Puerto Rican singers to Hartford from all over the Tri-State area and New England. Virgilio Cruz returned to Hartford as a judge for the 2003 competition, along with famous and experienced trovador Mariano Cotto, and Hartford lawyer and traditional music aficionado Richard Zayas.

As in the traditional Concurso, trovadores competed by improvising a décima, a form of folk poetry, with live traditional music accompaniment provided by Amor y Cultura. Following the competition, the master musicians Cotto and Cruz gave a concert of traditional folkloric music, accompanied by Amor y Cultura. The winning trovadores also performed. The competition attracted participants from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, bringing new audiences to Park Street, a vibrant neighborhood which is a Puerto Rican cultural heartland for all of New England. Amor y Cultura is one of the most popular groups working in this genre in Connecticut. The group’s mission is to preserve and perform the folk music of Puerto Rico, carrying on the traditions of the island’s music that have been transplanted to neighborhoods on the mainland. The event was funded in part by the Evelyn Preston Memorial Fund and the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign.

Amor y Cultura is one of the most popular groups working in this genre in Connecticut. Their mission is to preserve and sustain the folk music of Puerto Rico, which is so important to the history and character of Puerto Rican culture. Amor y Cultura carries on the traditions of the island’s music that have been transplanted to neighborhoods in Connecticut while also reaching general audiences who learn about and appreciate Puerto Rican culture through it. Amor y Cultura was featured in concert at the Institute for Community Research in July 2003 as part of the Que Bonita Bandera exhibit there, and Alfred Rivera organized a Puerto Rican music festival and traditional trovador competititon in September 2003.


Subject Note for 2015.196.295.10-.12 & .14: The exhibit, "¡Que Bonita Bandera!: The Puerto Rican Flag in Folk Art," was on display at the Institute for Community Research Gallery in Hartford from July 10 - September 12, 2003. Featuring depictions of the beloved flag image in a variety of folk art forms, the multimedia exhibit included musical instruments, mundillo lace, paintings, masks, posters, murals, and clothing. The powerful symbol of the flag, and its ability to identify and uplift the Puerto Rican community, inspired the exhibit and associated programming. The opening event featured música típica, bomba dance, and Taino music to illustrate the three cultural strands in Puerto Rico. The project’s goal was to use art to inform audiences about the vibrant cultural expressions and the values of Puerto Rican neighbors in Hartford and Connecticut.

CCHAP convened a local advisory team for the project: Alfred Rivera of the music group Amor y Cultura, Joel Sanchez of SINA, Josè Rodriguez of the Hartford Economic Development Commission, Kelvin Roldan of the Mayor’s Office, Ana Alfaro of Northeast Utilities, Calixto Torres of the Connecticut Puerto Rican Forum, student Yedalis Ruiz, and artists Graciela Quiñones-Rodriguez, Victor Pacheco, Glaisma Pérez Silva, Ilka Robles, Hector Vallines, and Felix Delgado. In addition to their planning advice, team members were actively involved in helping with exhibit installation, promotional materials design and distribution, public relations, and performances.

The exhibit was developed and circulated by City Lore, a longstanding community arts organization in New York City whose mission is to foster New York’s and America’s living cultural heritage. Curated by folklorist Elena Martinez and artist George Zavala, ¡Que Bonita Bandera! opened at the Hostos Center for Arts and Culture at Hostos Community College in the Bronx. After the Hartford showing - the only New England venue - the exhibit traveled to the New Jersey Historical Society and the New York Historical Society. Original funding for the exhibit came from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Scherman Foundation, and the Lily Auchincloss Foundation. ICR’s Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collaborated with City Lore in the planning and scheduling of ¡Que Bonita Bandera! from the beginning of the project. Hartford project funders were the Institute for Community Research, the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the City of Hartford, Connecticut Light and Power Co., the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The exhibit featured traditional Puerto Rican mundillo lace, carnival vejigante masks, photographs and samples of murals and urban memorial wall art, and assemblages that use the imagery of the flag in public parades and festivals as well as private spaces and altars in the home. Framed photographs by Martha Cooper and Carlos Ortíz depicted contemporary urban expressions of the flag symbol, and black and white framed photographs from the CUNY Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños documented historical contexts and uses of the flag. Further information on Puerto Rican history was provided through bilingual signage and a video.

In addition to the art included with the exhibit, CCHAP added Connecticut-based artists’ depictions of the flag in photographs by Juan Fuentes; in a poster by master printmaker Samuel Lind for the New Haven Puerto Rican Day Parade; on cuatros made by Edwin Rios and Graciela Quiñones-Rodriquez, ceramics by Victor Pacheco, cakes decorated with the flag design, car decorations, and other local folk and popular art works. CCHAP augmented the signage, in English and Spanish. A banner was produced for the exhibit, with an image of artist Victor Pacheco’s mural from Park Street, and this was hung on the side of the building facing Wyllys Street.


Biographical Note for 2015.196.295.15-.16: Graciela Quiñones-Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican educator, social worker, artist, and luthier who apprenticed with William Cumpiano (Easthampton, MA) and has built cuatros, tiples, and bordonuas. Graciela is also a cuatrista and higüera (gourd) and santos carver. She served as an advisory committee and exhibiting artist and workshop leader for CCHAP’s three Puerto Rican projects, starting as a community scholar with Herencia Taina, CCHAP’s 1998 Taino exhibit project, researching the techniques of higüera preparation and decoration for use as household utensils, ornaments with Taino or political iconography, or musical instruments. She also worked as an artist-presenter for the Massachusetts Cultural Council summer institute on Puerto Rican cultural heritage for Springfield, Massachusetts teachers. Graciela is a highly respected arts educator, woodcarver, and singer with the Connecticut Latin music group Tierra Mestiza. She is a Connecticut Commission on the Arts Master Teaching Artist and Artists Fellowship winner. As part of the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in Year 3 (2000-2001), she worked with master luthier Bill Cumpiano. Together they built cuatros, tiples, and bordonuas, older forms of Puerto Rican stringed instruments. As part of the apprenticeship they built a cuatro on the basis of a photograph of an unusual form from the early 1900s, which has a bent wood body rather than a hollowed-out base. They demonstrated their partnership work at the Lowell Folk Festival in 2000.


Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for these artists, events, and communities.


Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
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