Arts & Entertainment

Groton's Invisible Residents

Expressiones Cultural Center Brings Voice To The Underserved

Guido Garaycochea was raised in Peru and lived in Chile before coming to the United States seven years ago as an artist-in-residence. Garaycochea’s experience as a newly-formed immigrant had a profound effect.

“Once you’re here, you become a minority and you become a Latino;” Garaycochea said of his experience, “something I never was before in my life. [Before], I was a person without a title—probably ‘artist,’ but that was it.”

Latinos make up 13 percent of the state’s population, 8.5 percent of the population in New London County, and, as of 2007, 2.6 percent of business owners in the region—the largest showing of any ethnic group.

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It’s no wonder, then, that gallery owners Garaycochea and his oartner, Jose Ulloa, have carved a niche in serving this sector of the community.  

In addition to creating their own art, they now focus on representing and curating Latino artists.

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“[I wanted] to help support others with the only tool I had in my life, which is art,” said Garaycochea, “The mission was harder [and] a little more intense. We felt that we were representing our culture and that was not only a major honor, but also a mere responsibility.”

The couple created traveling exhibitions in Miami and New York before opening a small gallery in Stonington. A year later, the gallery moved to New London’s metropolitan Bank Street. The move signified another passing season, as the couple refined their mission and scope again to serve Latinos in both an artistic and social capacity.

“There is something about being in small communities—there is no going back to big cities,” said Garaycochea. “Home is here. [And] that’s a feeling I hadn’t had in my life before.”

Serving a Community

Expressiones Cultural Center now serves a population of at least 200 participants. The gallery offers film screenings, lectures, concerts, a book club led by a university professor, culinary lessons, children’s programming, and, of course, studio art classes.

“Ninety five percent of what we do here is free,” said Garaycochea. “We provide the instructor, we provide the material; we provide everything.”

Most of the programs are run from the gallery, as Garaycochea and Ulloa have not had luck building relationships with local schools or service organizations.

“Being Hispanic is not easy in [this] community,” said Garaycochea. “You have to insist and insist. Until you are there, you are a fighter. People don’t know us, so I don’t know how much they’re going to trust what we’re doing.”

By far the most controversial work of Expressiones, is that which benefits the population of undocumented immigrants in the area. Members of the gallery organize bilingual language classes, art studio courses, and other assimilation programs for both citizens and noncitizens.

“These people are invisible,” said Garaycochea on undocumented immigrants. “They are talented persons, they are very gifted persons, and they need some kind of education.”

Getting in touch with this segment of the Latino community has been difficult. They don’t want to be visible, Garaycochea said, and there are too many problems.

Working within the Latino community is only part of Expressiones’ mission. The gallery also works on outreach to other ethnicities.

“I don’t think we’re trying to reach one niche of the community, I think our mission is to put the two parts together,” said Garaycochea. “We are trying to be bridge between the two communities [and] the arts is a wonderful element to do that.”

Walls and Bridges

Building a bridge from the Latino community has been a challenge for Garaycochea, as the gallery is yet in its nascent stages.

“One of the difficulties we have is that we’re not an established organization—we are new,” said Garaycochea. “It seems like you have to be born with a past [here], and if you are new, you have to prove a little bit harder to the community who you are and how serious you are. We are creating our own history. It’s only a matter of time.”

Garaycochea believes that Latinos too face a similar challenge and one overcome by Italians, Irish, and other ethnicities at the turn of the century.

“You come here, and from one day to the next, you’re an immigrant, which has a connotation,” he said. “You become a minority and you become a lot of things that you never thought you were going to be or you were going to represent." 

“Once you realize you’re there, you have to fight and you have to take your responsibility, not to make money and not to enrich yourself,” he said on fighting to establish a reputation. “Your responsibility as a social being is to make society and community better.”

“It’s a learning process and you have to know about the dynamic of the country—and we are learning that,” Garaycochea said. “We are staying in the country, but we are not tourists. This is our home.”

El Futuro

Most of the resources brought to the gallery from the sale of its art are poured into its education and outreach programs.

“It’s not like you can write a grant for undocumented immigrants,” said Garaycochea. “It’s not an easy time for anybody and it’s not an easy time for a nonprofit that is Latino-oriented, that is new, and that doesn’t have a reputation.”

The gallery’s latest project focuses on consumption—certainly inspired by the immigrant experience. The project uses an innovative and tactile approach to creating art with recycled material—in this case reclaimed pianos from Caruso music. Renovated art pieces are, then, displayed publicly throughout New London. (Pieces currently on display in New London are located at the plaza, garden center, library, train station, New London Harbour Towers, and Hygienic Art.)

“These things mark the life of the people. Ordinary everyday people,” Garaycochea said of the public works project. “They’re either going to have an open mind for art or become art lovers. And just with that I think they change the architecture of life and are going to become more positive, loving people.”


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