Latino Artists Are Influencing the New York City Art Scene

I love New York City [NYC], a city with world-class museums, brilliant theatre, opera and orchestra venues, fabulous art galleries, artists’ studios, and more than twenty-three thousand restaurants to delight and often surprise every taste.

Juan Rodriguez Juarez [1675-1728]. Casta painting “De Mestizo, y de India Produce Coyote.” Courtesy of the Hispanic Society of America.

What I love best about this great city is its growing population diversity. New York City has always been a city of immigrants. Over three million New Yorkers were born outside the United States, making up about 36–37% of the city's population—one of the highest proportion of immigrants in the country.

The "Virgen de los Remedios" (Virgin of the Remedies) is a significant Marian devotion in Spanish and Latin American Catholic tradition, often depicted in colonial art. Courtesy of the Hispanic Society of America.

The recent U.S. Census for New York City reports 39.8% Whites, which includes Jews, Irish, Italians, English and others who self-identify in this category. Whites are still the largest demographic group in the city. According to the latest Census report, Hispanics represented 28.9% of the city’s population. This category includes Mexican Americans and some Puerto Ricans and Dominicans who may also self-identify in this way. The Census counted 23.4% Blacks [which may include Haitians, Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans, as well as African-born and African-Americans who identify in this way]. Blacks and Hispanics combined make up half of the city’s population.

Times Square New York City is a major hub for Latino service workers. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

The Asian population [14.2%] has recorded the fastest non-White growth over the past decade. While Little Italy is near extinct, Chinatown and Latino communities keep growing. The largest Latino groups in the city are Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Mexicans. Black New Yorkers represent 23.4 percent of the city’s population with significant communities in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Harlem.

A major study on the Latino community of New York City by Virginia E. Sanchez Korrol. Collection of Ricardo Romo.

One of the Latino communities that we delighted visiting in New York City was Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan. The “Heights,” often referred to as the "Little Dominican Republic" of New York City, is renowned for its vibrant diversity. The Heights, popular for its Dominican and Latino cultures, directly inspired Lin Manuel Miranda’s first Broadway musical In the Heights. The show is a tribute to the Hispanic community of Upper Manhattan, particularly Washington Heights, and draws heavily from Miranda’s personal experiences and the lives of those around him.

In the Heights, the Latino population is overwhelmingly of Dominican descent which comprises between 62% and 64% of residents. Black or African American residents in the Heights account for approximately 7–9% of the population. Harriett and I joined Dr. Marcus Burke of The Hispanic Society of America for a delightful lunch in an Upper Manhattan Washington Heights Dominican restaurant. A cafeteria style array of Dominican dishes allowed us to choose a variety of delicious combinations.

New York City skyline with Central Park. Photo from the Guggenheim Museum by Ricardo Romo.

Railroad entrepreneur Archer Milton Huntington (1870-1955) founded The Hispanic Society of America in 1904 with the object of establishing a free public museum and reference library for the study of the art and culture of Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and the Philippines.

Dr. Burke, the prominent long-time curator of The Hispanic Society [now retired], told us that the museum holds more than 900 paintings and 6,000 watercolors and drawings. The Hispanic Society offers a comprehensive survey of Spanish painting and drawing, including masterworks by Spain’s great painters, El Greco, Velázquez, Goya, and Sorolla. We were awed by the magnificent Casta painting “De Mestizo, y de India Produce Coyote” by Mexican artist Juan Rodriguez Juarez [1675-1728]. In addition, we marveled at the beautiful work of Mexican artist Jose Agustin Arrieta of an Afro-Mexican El Costeno ["The Young Man from the Coast”].

Jose Agustin Arrieta [Mexican 1803-1874], “El Costeño/The Young Man From the Coast.” Courtesy of the Hispanic Society of America. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

The Society’s collection of sculpture contains outstanding pieces from the first millennium B.C. to the early 20th century. On the first floor, we saw magnificent examples of ceramics, glass, furniture, textiles, ironwork, and jewelry– part of the more than 6,000 objects in the Society’s varied collections of decorative arts. A current exhibit by Brazilian artist Adriana Varejão titled Don’t Forget, We Come From the Tropics features new paintings from her renowned Plate series. These large-scale fiberglass tondos are hand-sculpted and painted in oil featuring exuberant depictions of Amazonian flora and fauna. Varejão's works reflect on the Amazon rainforest as a vital nexus of ecology, art, and culture, stemming from Varejão’s two decades of research with the Yanomami people. The imagery explores themes of nature, femininity, rebirth, and the complex legacies of colonization and cultural exchange.

Adriana Varejão from Don’t Forget, We Come From the Tropics series. Courtesy of the Hispanic Society of America. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

The Hispanic Society Library offers unrivaled resources for researchers interested in the history and culture of Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and the Philippines, with more than 300,000 books and periodicals. The collection includes 15,000 volumes printed before 1701, along with over 250,000 manuscripts, letters, and documents dating from the 11th century to the present. Public Relations Director Mencía Figueroa informed us that among the works on paper, 15,000 prints afford a unique view into the graphic arts in Spain and Latin America from the seventeenth to the early 20th century.

Adriana Varejão, from the Don’t Forget, We Come From the Tropics series. Courtesy of the Hispanic Society of America. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

The collections of the Hispanic Society are unparalleled in their scope and quality outside of Spain. The Society addresses nearly every aspect of culture in Spain as well as a large part of Portugal and Latin America into the 20th century. More than 175,000 photographs from 1850 through the early 20th century document the art, culture and customs of Spain and Latin America.

Adriana Varejão from the Don’t Forget, We Come From the Tropics series. Courtesy of the Hispanic Society of America. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

New York City has many great museums, and seeing them all would require a long stay. In addition to visiting the Hispanic Society of America, during our week in NYC we were able to explore the Metropolitan Museum of Art [MET], the Museum of Modern Art [MOMA], the Guggenheim Museum, the newly renovated Frick, The Whitney Museum, the International Center of Photography [near the Tenement Museum in Lower Eastside], and the Museo del Barrio in Harlem. We also visited the Gagosian gallery in Manhattan which featured the world famous Spanish artist Picasso and works from Picasso’s estate. In Chelsea, the Gagosian Gallery featured the work of world famous contemporary artist William de Kooning which included large bronze sculptures and paintings representing different periods of his work.

While we were in New York City the New York Times featured Candida Alvarez in a full page story about her exhibit at the Museo del Barrio. Born in Brooklyn her art career was shaped in her twenties by studio instruction at El Museo. Alvarez’s parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico and she identified as “Diasporican,” a term that reflects her Puerto Rican roots and upbringing in the diaspora.

Candida Alvarez art at the Museo del Barrio. NYC. Photo by Ricardo Romo.

In my next essay I will share photos and information about iliana emilia garcia [she does not capitalize her name], a prominent Dominican-American artist, and provide insights into an interesting historic gallery that currently displays her work.

Candida Alvarez art at the Museo del Barrio. NYC. Photo by Ricardo Romo.