SanTana’s Fairy Tales: Sarah Rafael Garcí­­a

SanTana’s Fairy Tales

Sarah Rafael Garcí­­a
March 4 – May 14, 2017

Developed through a  one-year onsite artist-in-residence at Grand Central Art Center, SanTana’s Fairy Tales is a visual art installation, oral history, storytelling project initiated by artist/author Sarah Rafael Garcí­­a. The project integrates community-based narratives to create contemporary fairytales and fables that  represent the history and stories of Mexican/Mexican-American residents of Santa Ana  (inspired by the Grimms’ Fairy Tales), which include:

The Carousel’s Lullaby
SanTana’s urban history intertwined with a traditional Mexican-folk lullaby and a haunting ghost carousel.

Zoraida & Marisol
The godmother of life or death, Zoraida grants transgente a vital wish at their last breath.

Just A House
Josie, a young girl caught between two worlds, the haunting past and displaced futures.

Hector & Graciela (an homage to the Brothers Grimm’s Hansel & Gretel)
Hunger, uncertainty, border crossings—a precarious  family-life in our little city.

When The Mural Speaks…
One man’s perspective, a fable from the faces on the wall.

The Wishing Well
A central landmark becomes a magical promenade of forgotten wishes and parallel worlds.

The multi-media installation, created by the artist in collaboration with local visual, musical and performance artists, presents bilingual single-story zines, a fully illustrated published book, an ebook, and a large format classical book with graphic art by  Sol Art Radio€˜s Carla Zarate. Viento Callejero’s Gloria Estrada, in collaboration with local singer/songwriter Ruby Castellanos and members of the Pacific Symphony, composed an “open book” sound performance for the project.  The entire collection was translated by poet  Julieta  Corpus  and published in collaboration with  Raspa  Magazine.   Digital archives for the project were researched and obtained by  Mariana Bruno,  CSUF Graduate Student in the Department of History.   The ebook is being produced by  Digitus Indie Publishers.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Sarah Rafael Garcí­­a is a writer, community educator and traveler. Since publishing  Las Nií­±as in 2008, she founded Barrio Writers and LibroMobile. Her writing has appeared in  LATINO Magazine,  Contrapuntos III,  Outrage: A Protest Anthology For Injustice in a Post  9/11  World,  La Tolteca Zine,  The Acentos Review, among others.  In 2010 Senator Lou Correa honored  the artist  with the “Women Making a Difference” award and in 2011  she  was awarded for “Outstanding Contributions to Education” by the Orange County Department of Education in California. Sarah Rafael is also a  Macondo  Fellow and an editor for the  Barrio Writers  and  pariahs  anthologies.  She obtained a M.F.A. in Creative Writing with a cognate in Media Studies in May 2015.

SUPPORT

SanTana’s Fairy Tales was supported  in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, through a grant supporting the Artist-in-Residence initiative at Grand Central Art Center. Thank you to the City of Santa Ana for their generous loan of original elements from the Fiesta Marketplace sign and carousel.

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