 So we want a full circle, shoulder to shoulder, a full circle. Here are some spots here. Shoulder to shoulder, shoulder to shoulder. And so now we are going to begin with a little ceremony to be able to welcome all of us into this space. We are going to be looking at the multiple generations. And so right now, I have the honor of introducing my father into this circle to provide a framework for this particular ceremony of the four directions. And I pass the circle clover to Luis Valdez. The circle is circumscribed by the circle, a square. This is one of the ancient symbols of the world, one of the ancient symbols of the Americas. Cunabu, the creator, according to the mic. An único dador de la medida y el movimiento, the only giver of the measure, and the movement. The movement is a circle, is a spiral. The movement is feminine. The square is the measure. The square is male. You always knew males were squares. Between those two movements, the world speeds through the galaxy. The Mayan zero was a sphere. Within the sphere was a spiral. We are here to celebrate the four directions. But I want to emphasize that the four directions are not static. The four directions are always in motion. We are here to celebrate America. This moment, without being grandiose, has been 500 years in coming. Think about that. We were able to be here in Boston, the cradle of the American Revolution. But there is a continent all around the city. The Iroquois, the Maya, the Apache, the Yachtin, the Aztecs. These are peoples that were here before, the Tainos, the Caribes. America was a half world, already a hemisphere of ancient civilizations before the coming of any other Europeans. Today we speak of Latinos, and this is a Latino gathering. But who are the Latinos, the original Latinos with the Romans? So what is this Latino gathering? It is a melding of two Americans that have remained separated after 500 years and now are urging towards some kind of fusion. Anglo-America with Hispanic America. But this is laid on the basis of an indigenous culture that was already here. A culture that built 400 cities of stone that traced the paths of the stars. This too is present in this so-called Latino conference. These are ideas that spring from the very birth of America. These are ideas that spring from the very heart of the planet and of America. A long time in coming. They share the universality with the cultures of the world. The Mayans knew the four directions. So they are dynamic. The Mayans believed in the four roads, at the unity of the four roads. In order to become completely human, everyone had to travel the four roads. They had to travel the black road and the white road. South America, North America. They had to travel the yellow road, the east, and the red road, the west. The path of the sun as they celebrated the ancient ball game, which was theater and ritual at the same time in those 400 cities of stone. So when we evoke the four directions to initiate this conference, it is not just a hollow ritual. We are evoking the ideas that promoted civilization in the Americas. These are directions fraught with meaning forevermore. We will travel all the four roads in this conference with all their significance. We will travel the circle in the square, the permanent and the masculine. We will travel the exchanges that happen dynamically between all of these polarities, north and south, east and west. And we will absorb the energy from these spiraling of all of these directions, forces, points on the compass, and on the planet. Ultimately, this is celebrating our universality. That is the word, the word that only means we're connected to the universe. We are part of a spiraling galaxy. We've come out of a cycle of 5,125 years, the fifth sun into the new sun just last year. We are part of a new sun now, a sexual sort. And it's up to us to redefine the universe for our humanity and those who come after us. So in that spirit, we're going to celebrate the four directions. I ask you then to join me in this gesture. This is a couch. This, believe it or not, for the Maya, was exactly the same thing as this. This was zero. This was the spiral. This was one. This is the force that generates the four directions. The force that spins the planet. The force that spins the galaxy. The body in this marine object, this concha, this conch, and they used it as a musical instrument to call forth the power of the four directions. We're going to start then with an invocation that is counterclockwise. We will go to the left because we need to go to the left. And then we will go to the right. First then we begin with an invocation to the east, the place from which the sun rises, the color yellow, where intelligence rises out of the mind. Symbol of human intelligence and yellow is that color that represents that direction. So we will turn all of us to the east. I ask you to raise both your hands in homage to this direction and to the idea of human intelligence. The north, in this direction. The north, the color white. The north, the cold black. The north, which is the beginning and the end of the cycle. The winter. And then eventually promising the rebirth. So we pay homage to a north gate. To the north. The centerpiece. And now we turn to the west. To the color red. Where the sun sets. The intuitive sense. The creative sense. The sense that guides all of our artworks and guides our sensibilities in this conference. And poniente. Turn back to the centerpiece. And now we turn toward the south. The black road. Also known as the green road, the blue green road. Fertility. South America. This is the fertility of woman and of the matrix. And of the Amazon jungle. The fertility of court. We celebrate the south. And so again. Fertility and death. The two polarities of our existence. East and west. The path of the sun. From intellectual book learning to intuitive learning. Let us invoke all of these forces in our conference. And hope that this will lead us to greater understanding. And patience. In black age. Where is me oh through you. You are my other self. If I do harm to you. I love and respect you. If I do harm to you. I do harm to myself. That's the embodiment of these ideas. And the four directions. We need each other to spiral. And to generate forces and power. There are no two Americans. Only one America. The north and the south are coming together. The east and the west are coming together. And we will redefine the century. With new ideas. The new millennia. With new creativity. Now we are going to move. To the second part. Of this invocation. And for this I need to ask. All the companions. Have you cleared the way. This is going to be our outfit. Today is Halloween. This is Halloween. The eve of St. Hallow's Day. Which is also on the day. November 1st. And the other is Muertos. And so we are going to celebrate. All of our ideas. Concepts and movements. And so for this we are going to ask everyone. Bring their offering. In order to do this. We want you to come up to the microphone. And to give your name. State your point of origin. And a very brief mention of what your gift is. And what it is that you are presenting. We will present these. And then one right after the other. While one goes to place his offering. We will then bring the second person up. We are going to go counter clockwise this time. We went around this way. I mean clockwise this way. So we are going to start this way to the south. And go this way to the east. Started the east. Started the east and come this way. Each one by one. All the way through we make the full round circle again. Is that clear? Yes? Okay. This is my offer. I bring. The power of the theater. Of the spirit. The theater of Campesino has been working on. For almost 50 years now. The power of the farm worker. The so-called stoop labor. Who brings all of their humanity. Into the fields. To create the food that we all eat and consume. May the world learn to respect these workers. And the power of the theater of this theater. My name is Clyde Valentino. I'm here for Brooklyn, New York City. And I have a photo here. Taken by. And this is a photo of. Miguel Pinedo. And Sandra Maria Estavez. I have this hanging in my living room. And it was a gift from my book. I'm going to put that on the home. The line from Cornish play that made me stay in the theater. And not become a literature professor. My name is Kevin Becerra. I live in Boston, Massachusetts. And I brought aerosol. The poetics that I copy. I used the first time I taught dramatic theater. I'm Matthew Paul. And the bracelets that I wear. Well, I live in the east. Because they remind me of my west. My name is Irma Mayorga. And I'm a teacher at Dartmouth. I brought a picture of Helen Keller. Because I was 12 years old. I got cast in multiracial production as Helen. So she has always been the start. With my thinking about theater. Hi, I'm Noemi Muntus. I teach in the Department of Drama in the town of Tops. This is a flash drive. It holds all the words that I've written about. And the memories of all the lifetime more. My name is Jose Carrasquillo. I come from Vieques, Puerto Rico. My work is in the DC area, primarily. Today, I am going to give you something that I have in my possession for many, many years. It's a little cow. And every time I open a show, I have it in my pocket. And I just rob it. And it just provided me with a lot of luck and a lot of inspiration over the years. In other words, I'm including a rainbow flag. Mine, lesbian, gay, bi, and transgender community has made some strikes this year. So I am placing on the altar a USDA certified gay child. My name is Stephanie Ibarra. And I'm coming from New York today. And so I am putting this little book of poems that serves as sort of a creative, a personal touchstone for me. It's called Chica. It's called Chica. I'm from New York. These are trinkets that I use to hang around my neck as a kid that maybe tell stories. And they're put together with a guitar string. I'm Jerry Ruiz from New York, originally from Brownsville, Texas. And I brought the copy of Marisol and other plays that I bought in red shortly after college and opened up this new amazing theatrical world for me. I'm Henry Guilin with that. And I brought a copy of Tennessee Williams' Camino Real, which was the which was one of the textbooks from the very first playwriting class I ever took. And it just reminds me of my time with Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw who convinced me to stop being a geologist and start writing. I'm Mikaela Cruz from the Brownsville, New York. And I brought two other fierce women with me. Mariana Fornes and Ruth Malachek. My name's Alex Beach. I come from New York and I brought a rosary, my mom gave me which represents to me my religion and the thing that I love and hate the most which is pretty much I don't know what to do. My name is Daniel Cotkitz and I'm from Sioux Falls, Chihuahua. I'm giving to this organization, this group is gathering my father's hat. My father was always fighting against everything I did, all the time. And so he made me strong. And in the last five years of his life he was there for me and come to the shows and encouraged me. And I think this is a great place to leave this hat. I'm Stephanie Vedon. I hail from East Harlem, New York City. And I brought an image of a poster drawing that was free which I saw when I was 13 years old and you made me realize that I can do theater about myself and my people and not just what's this story about. I am Candido Pirado. Well I've got a bottle of opener that I've had for 20 years and after every show we celebrate and sooner or later somebody will ask some of that bottle but it also gives me comfort because I was holding my pocket and I'm going to miss it a lot. And tonight one of you will ask. My name is Brian Vedon. I come today from New Jersey but always by way of New Mexico yesterday as I left in Mexico coming here I said I needed lots of things so I bought postcards and of course I left them in the room so I didn't make a postcard because in some ways wherever I go I'm always a postcard from Mexico. Good evening. I'm Abel Lopez from Washington D.C. originally from Texas. I'm a college Spanish theater and I bring with me a photograph of Hugo Arrepega-Membrano who led a group of artists to create the first art space in Washington D.C. with a passion to the work not only in the community but I think to a whole people. And the other photograph is of a actor who is there to remind us even though they bring us to be with us in body but we're still with us in spirit. I'm Zacharias. I live in Washington D.C. originally from Mexico City. I've never been able to sew and I thought it's important to do things that scare you and that you can't do and see what happens. So I sewed this this weekend and I have a blank piece of paper for all the hopes that I hope we can write in it afterwards. So just to remind me to do things that are scary and different. Thank you. My name is David Lozano and I'm with Calabria Theater Company from Dallas, Texas and this is a photo that I folded out from a clay that we produced with El Laboratorio de la Máscara from Mexico City and it's about a young Chicano boy who comes from Mexico for the Day of the Dead and they also bring with them following them the deceased family members who are wearing El Laco masks for Mexico and this young boy learns about the tradition of the Day of the Dead and so I feel I've always related to this character because I was a Chicano boy that didn't even know what Chicano meant and I didn't know my language and it's through theater that I learned all of this and that I live it now and so I placed this on the altar for my father who passed away last year who I live and work with his flame every day. My name is Teresa Madero I'm originally from Cuba via Southern California and now from Dallas. As I was looking around my apartment what to bring, what to bring this sort of popped up and said take me, take me it's got a lot of energy from being outdoors for many, many years and it's a star with a crystal it just reminds me to look up sometimes when I get into the habit of looking down it just reminds me to look up. My name is Amparo Garcia Cruz my daughter Surya she's 14 years old and if you hear this there's some wild seeds in here and this is a fan I'm a fan of wild seeds the wild seed the seed that has no real reason to even exist but the wind gets a hold of it and it does what it needs to do and it makes some flowers grow so thank you for welcoming me and underneath this there's the New York Times review of my play that was about my hometown Little San Diego, Texas, 4,000 people and underneath all that is the leftover recycled TCG fan because I met most of you when I was a director's fellow so I'm real grateful that that's the leader of the wild seed. My name is Anthony Rodriguez from the Aurora Theater in Atlanta, Georgia today I brought a picture of my parents we're from Cuba and it's both passed on and my father's because it speaks to my heritage and honors the sacrifices that my parents made so that I could be an artist New York City this is an indigenous wisdom that the Bosnian friend who shared his wisdom with me gave it to me and I would like to bring it up My name is Mario Ernesto Sanchez and I'm from Miami and if you're from Miami you gotta be Cuban they're Cubans from the island and they're also Cubans from the peninsula I'm from the peninsula of Miami this was given to me was given to me when we opened a box of Zapatofacea of Virgilio Piñera and it came from Cuba it's a cigar leather case which I didn't want to give it away but you forced me to I'm from San Juan Bautista I brought a well-guided ego of the United Farm Workers which was an inspiration for me when I first saw the Cateca Pacino perform 28 years ago on a fat men's trip Rose Cano from Lima, Peru and now Seattle and this is my mother, my father Bella Toranzo Toranzo and Rodolfo Cano Fuentes and I realized after whether I inherited their art sensibility and the reason I'm an artist because they were artists my father was a beautiful painter he painted beautiful houses and he mixed colors back when you mixed the porvo and then in the neutral color and so I think he taught me a lot about that and my mother makes beautiful clothing she told me it was an art to sew a button and it was an art to ironing and so I thank them my father's passed away and my mother's still alive so I wanted to honor her in Vina my name is Marc Valdez I am the son of migrant farm workers and this was I was recently in Hawaii and this is a gift that was given to me so it's a nut it's a tree nut and it's a it's a seed inside of it and it reminds me of gift giving reminds me of hospitality reminds me of the land and the Hi, I'm Diane Rodriguez I'm a native Californian I live in Los Angeles now I was a student at UC Santa Barbara in the 70's and I went to the first Denaz Festival which was in San Jose, California there are people here that were with me I'm not a native Guachis which was phenomenal and it changed my life and it changed so many people's lives and I like the guy that played the devil he became my husband he was in the show and this is a program cover be a part of the ever so that's it my name is Olga Garay-English and I was at the 1986 convening that everybody keeps talking about I was young and vibrant then from the third National Hispanic Theater Festival which I helped my dear friend, Maria Nista Sanchez start about 28 years ago in Miami and I've lost some weight no but that was really my introduction to this fabulous family of people and I'm so proud that I was there in 1986 when I was young and I'm so proud that I'm here tonight to share this with you also thank you for having me when you're still young my name is Juliette Carrillo I'm from Los Angeles and I ran the Hispanic Playwrights Project from 1997 to 2004 brochures that were calls for entries from that particular program and I brought it because I got to meet so many amazing amazing artists incredibly talented artists many of which are here and so I brought them to honor you guys to celebrate you guys Hi, I'm Lori Maloria from Los Angeles, California and I brought a picture of my hand, Maria Elena Vidal de Ramos because she came to this country when she was 18 and it was her courage and her sacrifice that allowed me to do what I do and her every time I'm working on something and I wanted to share her strength with you all Hi, I'm Olga Sanchez I brought I'm from Portland now originally from New York I brought a photograph of my mentor Ruben Sierra who I knew briefly but who had an amazing impact on my life through his generosity this is a photograph of him in the year before he died and this is a program of the memorial that happened at the University of Washington where he taught and where he started his group theater and I believe definitely Pioca as well, part of that group before the group and so I placed this on the altar he was an immense inspiration Hi, I'm Marisa Chivas I come from Los Angeles via and Gula I brought a glass of rum from a very special bottle that I brought from Cuba 10 years ago and it sat in my pantry waiting clearly for this weekend and I bring it in particular to honor my ancestors I was released and I come from San Francisco but originally from El Paso and I bring a piece of California Hi, my name is and I bring a collector's item this is a button from the Zutsu production and it ain't easy to give it up but I give it in honor of everything that this play did to change the face of American theater there's a theme developing because my offering is also about Zutsu my name is Christopher Acibo I am a living in Ashland originally from Los Angeles and I bring this because it is the first memory that I have as a nine-year-old boy of my parents getting ready to go to the theater my mother getting dressed up my dad telling her to get the hell into the car because they're going to be late and the excitement of that night is palpable to me and by a great joy in my life that I got to design this production in Chicago so that is my offering My name is Tony Senera and I come from Portland, Oregon I brought a calabeta which I have named Little Jim Quibis Little Jim Quibis was a Puerto Rican actor the first actor that I used in a production that I directed and Jim Quibis was a pain in the ass and but he was a blessing but he had more passion and love for Latino theater than anyone I have ever met and so I bring him here because he would have loved when as not just my name is Elisa Marina Alvarado from San Jose, California and I bring some little butterflies my puripacha people, the butterfly is the spirits of those who have crossed those who have passed over and they do their migration and they return about this time of year to visit us so I brought some butterflies and I also brought some tobacco and sage from my garden and of course a little calabeta head it's kind of cool all the wonderful theatristas who played calaberas with us I brought two things I brought a photo of a mural that Galleria de la Raza did it is a commentary that's happening right now in my city especially the mission district about the hyper-judication that's happening with people that are being pushed out and then the other thing I brought was a poem for my grandmother Erdinda Trevino who passed away last year I bring with me a picture of my amazing sister Lupe Antiveros who should be here with us Lupe became my mother in Zutsu she was my first stage mother and she's the mother of our theatre downtown LA Hi my name is Sandra I'm in between La Voya California and Los Angeles I'm born in New Mexico and I brought a picture of my daughters they're the reason I help support the arts because I believe it's important for the next generation to empower young girls My name is Tiffiana Lopez and I'm from Los Angeles and I brought two things the first thing is a paper that has the word inter on it because inter was the complete seed of all the work I do in Latino theater and meeting McDowley Cruz and setting the seed off in place about meeting all the other playwrights that structure my work but I also brought Twinkies to represent another path of my work which is the dramaturgy and the string into performance because it was when I first performed Luis Alfaro's new approaches that I accepted that personal stories about our wounds as the source of everything we might do to transform ourselves and heal our community My name is Rose Portillo I'm from Los Angeles, California but I'm a native but wherever I go I bring Isleta Tejas with me and my father and I were rather tumultuous and yet he took me to the theater and what I realized here there was clarity and we could talk to each other and so I bring a crystal sphere and I encourage you to hold it because what I discovered is when you hold the sphere you hold light in your hands I'm from Los Angeles the daughter of Cuban and Spanish immigrants I bring two things I bring a small mass from Italy that represents my journey from being in love with Comedia de la Art to my awakening with D'Affaro Campesino and the mass work that's related to that and I also bring a cast gift from a production at the Los Angeles Theater Center which is my second home the bottle of vodka it also represents what we do after the show My name is Kosovo Valenzuela and I brought a little tequila and memory of my great friend Jose Valenzuela from the Sonora Desert also known as Tucson I'm bringing a crow feather the crow is a messenger so I bring it in the spirit of that we will be messengers from wherever you're coming from and also to take messages back there and also that like birds are able to fly and see the big picture that we're able to do that as well My name is Lydia Garcia originally from Los Angeles I'm living in Nashville, Oregon and I'm bringing something that reminds me of the first theatrical experience that I had at the age of 15 the first touch of the Shakespeare which for an English language learner was an incredibly frightening experience so I bring Juliet Stagger from early on Juliet the TSA did not take it from me it's amazing I was a little worried and to always remember that childlike wonders that I had in the multi-purpose room in Laverne, California and to always remember that when I saw Juliet now you're about two the next week my first question to her was not how did you learn all those lines but show me how you did the thing with a dagger show me how because I want to do it I'm a voice teacher and a Sonoran girl and I bring a plaque that my father gave me made rest in peace when I was 10 years old and he's the man who taught me to sing and grita with the best of them and told me it was okay and that's showbiz I'm asking Michael to stay and my name is Marcos Najeda and I bring two things to offer and they're both connected to this wonderful artist I live in Los Angeles now but I'm originally from Arizona and my heart hurts when I think of my state and the condition that it's in and so I my hope is that through artists like all of us in the room that good things can come to the place that we live in and Micah this is a gift actually to me from Micah and a traveler gave it to her to keep her safe and so I'm offering it back out to us to keep us safe in this journey and so that's the physical offering that I have and this one is an intention that also comes from Micah too because as an artist particularly a Chicano gay artist I've always been struggling to find my voice and Micah I took her workshop with her once and she said Micah's just released the tension and I said Micah what does that mean Micah's just bent over and released her signature something in that spirit I say so I think we're gonna fight our voice here we go California I brought an image of the logo of my first theatrical troupe in Pittsburgh, California after eighth grade I never took drama at school because I didn't see myself in any of the work that was being done and theatrical locals maybe believed that I could be included in this world and that's the reason I'm here good evening everybody I'm Luis Alfado and I I'm from Los Angeles, California last year or two years ago now I got to work in Chicago and my collaborators were a group of young men and one of them one day said to me that he had just had a little boy so I bought him a little t-shirt and then the next day I went to rehearsal and G-Dog had been shot and killed on the south side of Chicago so tonight I get to finally give him the t-shirt I'm from Boyle Heights, Los Angeles and I bring this little Mexican doll straight from Mexico from an indigenous woman's hands who represents to me the indigenous struggle but she also represents the sacred feminine and the goddess energy that's coming and nothing's happening with our goddess energy so I honor her because she's bringing in the new renaissance and this little girl this feminine energy brings the green corazon which represents the healing heart my name is Jesus Reyes I come from El Lino, Argentina called East LA I'm very happy to be here but I had several years in San Jose and I didn't bring anything because I built altars and I think they're beautiful but I've never had one I have one sort of a picture of my mom and my aunt but Josefina Lopez had her little plastic wordsita and she was so kind, thank you so much for sharing with me and she gave me while I picked it out across so the altar is a little private a little thought and I ask you to share thought with me but don't say it just think it and that's just gonna go on thank you I'm from Los Angeles by way of New York and originally from Colombia and my very first teacher was Maria Ivory Formez and one of the things that she we talked many, many days at the Hispanic Playwrights Lab in New York and one of the things that she talked about was that as writers we have some responsibility to talk and to use our writing to address our community and to speak for us to the general public so I'm also directing at an institution in California in LA Pomona and this year I'm directing a play of the Danube by Irene and it's for her I'm Lisa Fortes, I'm from Chicago Chicago! but I grew up all over the place my father's a Cuban exiled my mother was an Air Force brat so they were very herobotetic Brasca, Wisconsin Texas, Chile Brazil, Colombia so the first play that I read that had some shape in it that could not explain my experience but in some way I believed in I had a shape but I believed in was the Bacchus by Jean Genet My name is Anne Garcia Romero I'm from South Bend, Indiana I bring my family to the statue because of two reasons one, I wrote this play inspired by a play I saw on my diya in Madrid, Golden Age Omedia and second of all, my mama's pregnant with me, she was studying plays like this My name is Lalo Cantoneurillas I am right now from Iowa Field of Dreams originally from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico and I brought a couple of things one is one is to honor the first Latina to an appeal to prizes that postcard of my recent production of water by the school which was at the University of Iowa and the second is a brooch that was given to me by a lovely actress by the name of Linda Lopez I was, it was my first assistant directing opportunity at the Theater Campesino for the Virgin of Tepeyac for Rosa Maria Escalante and it's a coffin shaped brooch handmade from tin it has a little muerto inspired by Posada and for me I'm bringing this in honor of our deceased and loved ones and those who have passed and who have inspired us thank you and I am currently from Michigan but originally from Oakland, California and I brought a play by August Wilson because something strange happens every time I've seen one of his plays I absolutely lose my shit and start crying like a little baby at some point in the play that happens and so it just always inspires me and reminds me the power of great language and words how's everybody doing my name is Alberto Hustiniano and I'm from the great white north and I'm originally from New York but I've lived most of my life in Minnesota great state of Minnesota and I'm honored and humbled to be with all of you here tonight I bring a little streamer which I used to take with me when I did my dog and pony show in different places in the communities when I started Teatro de Fueblo and just a reminder that many people thought I was kind of wacky for starting a theater among Norwegians and Swedes and it always reminds me of my center thank you my name is Quina Valdez and I'm from the north of California San Juan Valdezta originals from the 1970s one by Teatro Campesino called El Diatro Notes and the other Chicano Theater 3 magazine issued by Tenaz, El Diatro Nacional de Aslan Hi, my name is Alex Mena I live in Chicago by way of Miami, I'm not Cuban so I brought two things and it just occurred to me now that they're religious that's not why I hold them or bring them they both, I came across them actually this summer and yet they are two objects that I have touched and held every day at very desperate moments and at very happy moments for the past four months one is my stadium from New Mexico a place that I first, for the very first time in my entire life felt incredibly connected to the ground and dirt and land around me, it's never happened to me before and the second is a prayer card from the mission in San Juan Valdezta the second place that I felt I had is just a spiritual awakening, connection and a feeling coming home that I have never had before so I bring these because they brought me so much luck, happiness and peace My name is Abigail Vega I came here from Chicago, originally from San Antonio and via Emerson College in Boston so it's very weird to me and I brought a boarding pass for all of you this summer we did a summer tour and I feel like at least a third of you either took us to dinner or rest so this is the boarding pass from Heathrow back to the states and it says we survived this is community, this is you guys so I'm getting it back I live in Chicago I'm a Tucson girl I'm from California, I'm from Oregon I've had the pleasure of spending a lot of time on the beach and writing a lot of plays inspired by the ocean and one day I woke up early and the ocean spit out the spray it's a fossilized and I really love to meditate on objects when I write and to me this object is about breaking down old structures and building new ones I'm Jacob Avanon I'm from Gilroy originally but in Chicago soon to be New York City and I drew a picture of David Hen because the moment that changed my life was seeing my mother perform in David Hen's Depeyac and she was a danceante and that moment was the moment I wanted to be in the theater and I think David Hen also gives me strength and I think she's watching over us this entire weekend I'm Sandra Matos I'm a Chicana somehow wound up in Chicago but happily I brought the cover of a Sandra C's Netters book because when I was a college student at Fresno State I went to hear her read from one of her books and I couldn't stop crying and I couldn't figure out why and the friend that I went with just kept handing me tissues and I just kept falling and when it was over I realized it was because it was the first time I saw somebody who looked like me doing new art and so that night I decided that instead of joining the convent I was going to be in town but my blood is Colombian I ate rice every day of my life from the time I was a little girl until I left my parents' house 18 years later and my grandmother died one morning making rice I saw her just a few minutes after she had had her stroke and the image of her lying on the linoleum kitchen floor of my parents' house with rice scattered all around her body stayed with me and it became the image that inspired me to create my first piece I'm a private terrorist from Chicago the first four and a half years of my life were spent in Mexico and I have very few memories of those first four and a half years before I even knew there was a lot of states and one of those memories is of the Mexican top that my uncle then shared with us and I happened to be in Mexico about three months before my son turned four years old and I came back with 24 tops similar to this we had a party and I was good I gave them as a party gift to the kids and you have not lived until you've seen four 24 four year olds it reminds me that we not only passed down our memories to our children but we also passed so much of our work everyone's been talking about mentors and stuff and I've had many mentors and the cycle keeps going we don't keep it within ourselves we pass it on to others as well and that's what I'm giving to y'all I'm Regina Garcia I'm originally from Alabama but I grew up in New York and now living the wonderful adventure of the state of New Mille and we're casing but for the life of me it hasn't made it into any show and to me it so it hasn't moved from my studio so to me it symbolizes everything that has stayed quiet stagnant has not moved and needs to get out of the way my name is Nancy Garcia Loza I know there's another Garcia Loza here because I had a moment when that happened I come from Chicago before that somewhere along the line I'm from Jalisco, I'm from Bocha I'm from here, I'm from there too and I made a little Mason jar that reminded me of the reason that I got into this crazy world is for storytelling I put in this jar the names of all of the ghosts that I carry some of them are ghosts that are still alive some of them are ghosts that are truly ghosts but they're ghosts that didn't know how to write some of them are my abuelas they taught me the power of words they were wonderful storytellers but they taught me a powerful lesson if you can't write a song, you can't tell your story and it's going to be taken from you please let me do this I just want to take you all in because this is amazing I bought this North Star to guide us you want to tell us who you are? I'm Donia Taracho I've represented Chicago what I've been in LA the past two years but I've represented Chicago I bought a North Star to guide us because I have so much faith in what we're doing here where I think we can do the potential and I'm shaking because I'm feeling all of you guys have energy I also brought this is because it's the single most important symbol in my life my middle name means the selene means luna and I started a company named luna and for the past three years there hasn't been a full or a new moon that I haven't prayed to ex-chid thank you Hi, I'm Christopher DiPaola I am living in Chicago originally from South Florida I just brought a simple pen and when you think about it there's a lot of complexity and mechanics actually inside to make this thing work and so it's kind of symbolic of the simple decision I made to start writing and then realizing now still today being here how complex that decision I'm from Chicago my parents are from Puerto Rico so I I was working one day a job as a bartender one of the many jobs as artists that we do in order to support the art and this Croatian lady who was one of the clean ladies in the building gave me a prayer card and she gave me this as well which is the saint of Croatia and on the front of it it says if you knew how much I love you you'd cry of joy so I'd always keep it in my wallet and there's even an imprint of little medallions hanging there so it just reminded me of the kindness of people it also reminded me how important a faith, love of miracles and kindness are from strangers short hi I'm Penny that's Mitch and I'm Clarey so I brought this necklace which has a peacock feather on it which reminds me of Oscar Wilde and the aesthetic movement which is my family, my first family of writing and of our being Fortnez which reminds me of Alpha Broadway in the beginning of that movement and how it impacted so many of us and of Lapa Hi Linda Lopez I'm last I'm the daughter of Cuban nationals born in Colombia and proud member of Red Sox Nation I love the boss I brought I wrapped it into my grandmother's pancre chips that she embroidered for me which I'm not going to leave on the altar and I have a picture of my daughter because everything I do I do for her for sharing your names for sharing where you're coming from for sharing your stories of inspiration for inspiring us for creating this altar this altar is holy made holy by your gifts it is memorabilia lack of a better word but it is not a museum by any means we welcome you to touch it to pick up the stuff to look at it to read it just don't take it with and it will be up for the next three days for us to find inspiration for us to collect our inspiration back for us to fuel ourselves with to nourish us and then come back to the circle we are going to take a five minute break thank you