Mexican photographer Xavier Tavera places immigrant experience at forefront of American history

In the Twin Cities art scene this weekend, a documentary photographer reshapes Latin American narratives with a series of portraits, while the Taste of Minnesota festival transforms downtown Minneapolis into a hub of local flavors, live music and art.

In White Bear Lake, five Black artists honor the enduring strength and cultural heritage of Black motherhood across generations.

Latin American narratives: cowboys and aliens

Mexican photographer Xavier Tavera blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy in his exhibit, “Fictitious,” at CLUES Latino Art Gallery . The collection features conceptual portraits depicting Mexican cowboys, aliens and individuals marked with symbolic border tattoos, offering a provocative exploration of the Latin American and immigrant experience.

Tavera, who has dedicated much of his career to documentary photography of the Latin American diaspora and the Latino community in Minnesota, addresses themes of historical erasure, cultural identity and social-political issues.

“I’m very interested in the erasure of certain communities,” Tavera said. “I mean the Asian community, the Black community, the Native community. These stories and histories that I’m trying to put out are American stories, and it’s easy for the mainstream community to dismiss them as ‘Mexican and Latin stuff,’ ‘Black stuff,’ as opposed to recognizing them as an actual American story, and that’s very problematic.”

One segment of “Fictitious” explores the history of cowboys, or, vaqueros. Although classic Westerns established the cowboy as an Anglo-American icon, the original vaqueros were Indigenous Mexican men .

“It was not until the 1700s when the word ‘cowboy’ came into the English language ,” Tavera said. “Before that, there were only Mexican cowboys. The Anglo cowboys would hire Mexican vaqueros to teach them everything from wrangling cattle to braiding the lassos, you name it.”

In his Minneapolis studio, Tavera preserves this cultural legacy through four portraits depicting Latinos and Latinas dressed in traditional cowboy attire.

Another series in the exhibit features two individuals who sport tattoos that depict a row boat and bridge, symbolizing migration and the border, which are central to Tavera’s work.

“I’ve been going to the border of Mexico and the U.S. for the past six years, photographing different sections of the border from coast to coast several times, and I’m going to continue to do that,” he said. “The sense of a border interests me throughout my documentary work, but I’m also putting iconography to the front of the conversation.”

Perhaps the most striking series in “Fictitious” is Tavera’s exploration of the use of the word “alien” to describe immigrants.

“I started analyzing the term ‘alien,’ and it’s very derogatory,” he said. “But I grabbed that term and said, ‘Hey, you call us aliens? I’m going to show you how alien we can be.’”

This body of work features characters outfitted with space helmets, boomboxes and metallic accessories.

Tavera recalls a specific image from the series showing an apartment complex in south Minneapolis adorned with seven satellite dishes. These dishes, often used to access Spanish-language television, are “essentially about communication,” Tavera said. “How do we keep culture? How do we keep the language?”

“I was close to five years undocumented and the shame that produces in the community is harmful,” he said. “You hear it in how people talk about people who are undocumented, like I’m not one of them, right? No, we’re the same people. We just happen to not have the proper documentation and hopefully eventually we all have the proper documentation so we can have a voice and a vote.

“I’m going to tell anybody who will listen about my undocumented experience in this country, and I don’t see it as shameful. I see it as part of the experience that makes me who I am and I’m grateful for that.”

Despite the exhibit’s imaginative elements, “reality is even stranger than anything that I can imagine,” Tavera said. “Reality in photography is something very tricky. It’s essentially a representation of what you’re seeing but it’s an edited representation, even when it’s documentary work.”

CLUES will host a celebratory event with Tavera on July 20 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Date: Now through August 9.

Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Location: 797 East 7th St., St. Paul

Cost: Free

For more information: Visit clues.org .

Taste of Minnesota brings local music, food and art to Minneapolis

The Taste of Minnesota returns to downtown Minneapolis for a two-day celebration of local cuisine, music and art. The event features four stages of live music, and will include bands HERARLO and L.A. Buckner & Big Homie . Hip-hop DJ Sophia Eris , who opened for Lizzo’s international tours, will also perform.

Sunday’s lineup includes Sounds of Blackness , iconic producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, funk legend Morris Day and jazz singer Aja Pharham .
The event offers 50 food vendors spanning southern Mexican , Tibetan , Thai and Kenyan cuisines, among others . Additionally, more than 40 art vendors will showcase their creations.

Date: Saturday, July 6 and Sunday, July 7

Time: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Location: Nicollet mall, 505 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis

Cost: Free

For more information: Visit tasteofmn.com .

Multimedia art honors Black motherhood

Five artists celebrate the enduring strength and legacy that Black grandmothers and mothers offer across generations in curator Eshay Brantley’s exhibit, “Ode to my Umi.”

Hosted at the White Bear Center for the Arts in collaboration with the Emerging Curators Institute , the exhibit features interdisciplinary artist Namir Fearce , graphic designer Precious Wallace of King P. Studio , author Donte Collins , performance artist Ashe Jaafaru and Bayou.
A community reception is scheduled for July 11 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Date: Now through August 2.

Time: 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Location: 4971 Long Ave., White Bear Lake

Cost: Free

For more information: Visit whitebeararts.org .

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