Ron Garcia
OC Register – “A Taste of Santa Ana offers food, music and more”
by Richard Chang, Report on arts & culinary festival in Santa Ana, 2012:
You’ve probably heard of “Taste of Newport” and “The Taste” of Los Angeles, but have you heard of “A Taste of Santa Ana”?
You may be hearing much more about the Santa Ana version, since it starts this weekend.
The first-ever Taste of Santa Ana takes place at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the historic Santora Arts Building downtown. It’s co-presented by United Artists of Santa Ana and the third annual OC Film Fiesta, which kicked off last weekend and continues through Sept. 16.
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ArtsOC Newsletter -“California Arts Council meets again in Orange County”
by Arts OC, 2012:
Santa Ana City Council Member Vincent Sarmiento (left), ArtsOC Executive Director Rick Stein, and OC Film Fiesta Director & VP, United Artists of Santa Ana Sandra Pocha Pena at the reception co-hosted by ArtsOC and the Bowers Museum following the September 12 meeting there by the board of the California Arts Council.
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs009/1102237885473/archive/1110959167548.html
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OC Register – “OC Film Fiesta screens free films in Santa Ana”
by Richard Chang, Report on OC Film Fiesta in Santa Ana, 2011:
Here in Orange County, we’ve got film festivals celebrating indie movies, classic oldies, student projects and Vietnamese productions.
But one significant audience has been overlooked, until recently.
The second annual OC Film Fiesta gets underway Saturday in downtown Santa Ana. This festival’s focus is on Orange County’s growing Latino community, as well as its history and culture. More than 1 million Hispanics live in Orange County, comprising the largest non-white ethnic group, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.
https://www.ocregister.com/2011/09/03/oc-film-fiesta-screens-free-films-in-santa-ana/
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OC Weekly – “Zorro Rescues Santa Ana from Itself”
by Matt Coker, Story on OC Film Fiesta, 2011:
Who would have guessed it would have taken a gringo playing a Spaniard nicknamed fox who was introduced in a 1919 story set in San Juan Capistrano to save the effed-up Santa Ana City Hall from itself?
And yet, Douglas Fairbanks will be on the big screen again tonight, in his classic 1920 silent film The Mark of Zorro, kicking off the second annual, 16-day–and, most important–FREE OC Film Fiesta.
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San Antonio Current – “Lucharan!”
by Roberto Ontiveros, Cover Story on “Rudos y Tecnicos” performance and art happening at Gallista Gallery, 2010:
When I get to Joe Lopez’s Gallista Gallery — a Southside art space Lopez downplays as rustic but strikes me as alive with color and culture — I encounter three artists drinking beer and listening to an oldies station. They’re building a platform for an upcoming art show/performance/wrestling extravaganza. Rudos y Tecnicos will feature roughly a dozen local painters and performers, many of whom are already training with Westside lucha libre wrestlers. The December 11 event will pit San Antonio-based artists against masked representations of war, domestic violence, homophobia, and DREAM Act-resisting Kay Bailey Hutchison.
https://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/lucharan/Content?oid=2289516
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OC Register – “Latino Veterans gather at the Yost on 911”
by Theresa Cisneros, Story on the honoring of Latino Veterans at OC Film Fiesta, 2011:
A group of Latino veterans gathered at the Yost Theater in Santa Ana on Sunday to pay tribute to those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, and to speak about the experiences of Latinos in the military.
Alfonso Alvarez (California National Guard), Alex Diaz (Navy), Maria T. Solis-Martinez (Air Force), Sam Romero (Marine Corps) and Louie Olivos Jr. (who didn’t serve in the military, but comes from a long line of veterans) made the remarks during an OC Film Fiesta screening of “The Longoria Affair.”
https://www.ocregister.com/2011/09/12/latino-veterans-gather-at-the-yost-on-911/
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OC Register – “Santa Ana Film Festival Starts Saturday”
by Theresa Cisneros, Story on the first annual OC Film Fiesta in Santa Ana, 2010:
SANTA ANA — Santa Ana is home to an increasingly diverse population, comprised of English speakers, Spanish speakers, newcomers, longtime residents and thousands of others.
Artist Sandra Peña Sarmiento hopes to unite all of them through her latest project — a 15-day film festival being held in conjunction with Fiestas Patrias, an annual city celebration commemorating Mexican Independence Day.
“I wanted to find something that would appeal to all of our communities and create an intersection of discourse and dialogue,” said Sarmiento, a filmmaker/artist/writer who was raised in Santa Ana. “And I’ve always found that cinema is the best way to do this.”
https://www.ocregister.com/2010/09/03/santa-ana-film-festival-starts-saturday/
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MySanAntonio – “Cinefestival? Yes we Wilmer!”
by Jim Kiest, Notice on the Cinefestival film festival guest appearance by Wolmer Valderrama, 2009:
Arts writer Elda Silva sends this post on the upcoming Cinefestival:
The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center has announced the lineup for the 31st CineFestival en San Antonio. The Latino film festival will run Feb. 5-8 at the Guadalupe Theater.
Titles screening include “Days of Wrath,” which festival co-director Sandra Peña-Sarmiento describes as a breakout film for actor Wilmer Valderrama, a k a Fez of “That ’70s Show” fame and the voice of the title character in the animated kiddie show “Handy Manny.”
https://blog.mysanantonio.com/weekender/2009/01/cinefestival-yes-we-wilmer/
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Hand Held Visions – “Truce in the Culture Wars”
by Dee Dee Halleck, Post on the ending of the Centro Boycott, 2007:
I hadn’t been in San Diego too long in the early eighties when I found the Centro Cultural de la Raza. This former water tank in Balboa Park was the dynamic nexus of cultural expression in the border town. The Border Arts Workshop was just beginning. There was always a buzz of activity: poetry readings, art exhibitions, performances, fiestas and lively discussions. Victor Ochoa was the presiding spirit: his murals graced the exterior and his gentle humor was a benediction to all the activities of the place. It was the only place in San Diego where farm workers, pipe fitters and college professors mixed. As a weekend approached, friends would ask, so what’s going on at the Centro this weekend? And like as not there would be something happening there: perhaps a poetry reading by Jesus Papoleto Melendez, an opening of an exhibition of envelopes drawn by Latino prisoners in California prisons, a performance by a folkloric group from Mexico, a film about Nicaragua that Tania Winter had dug up.
http://deedeehalleck.blogspot.com/2007/06/truce-in-culture-wars.html
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La Pensa San Diego – “Reunited and It Feels So Good”
by Raymond Beltran, Report on the end of the Centro Boycott, 2007:
This Wednesday, artists re-entered a place they hadn’t seen in nearly seven years, El Centro Cultural de la Raza, an old city-water-tank-turned-arts-venue created by Chicanos back in 1970.
They’ve been boycotting it, with vigor, after a new board of directors took control in 2000, uncompromisingly changing by-laws, ousting members and dismantling committees that had been in place for three decades.
This year, with the help of a third party resolution group, a long awaited compromise between the old guard and the new has been achieved. A boycott that has tarnished reputations, led to demonstrations and a lawsuit, and more importantly, left Chicanos without a consistent cultural venue, has been lifted.
http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/archieve/2007/june29-07/Reunited.htm
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