On a sweltering summer night in downtown Modesto, a crowd filled the room at the Valley Improvement Project’s office on K Street while music streamed out of the front door.
This space became a room where Spanish was the first language spoken, not an afterthought.
Poets ranging from young adults to grandfathers took turns at an open microphone to read verses.Stories about love, loss, immigration and the everyday sacredness of rain filled the walls.
The event is part of a growing Spanish poetry and spoken-word scene that has taken root in Modesto over the past two years. The series was built entirely by area art-enthusiasts who said they were tired of watching Hispanic and Latino artists go unseen in the Central Valley.
Together they have formed a new and growing nonprofit, 4H – Cultura Arte Talento Hispano, to address the disparity for Spanish-language performers.
The name 4H (not associated with the ag-based 4-H youth program) works as a Spanish wordplay. The “4” stands for cuarta (Spanish for “fourth”), which echoes the first two letters of three key words: cultura (culture), arte (art), and talento (talent) — the very things the organization set out to highlight, and the H is for Hispano (Hispanic).
“I think it all comes down to third spaces,” said Guadalupe Yepez, one of the organizers of 4H and a Modesto theater performer. “Within my own family, it’s work and it’s home, and that’s it. If you’re lucky, you get to go to church.”
She said she wanted to build something else entirely — “an artistic movement,” open to poetry, painting, theater, anything that pulls people “out into the third space” – public spaces that allow people to gather freely outside of work and home.
So she launched the group after meeting her business partner, Jaime Calderon, during a production of Bertolt Brecht’s “The Mother” at Prospect Theater Project.
Regular attendee Maria Juarez said she “loves” the series and was excited about the opportunities provided by these poetry-related community events.
“I’d like there to be more poetry events like this for older Latinos who only speak Spanish,” Juarez said. “I like these events because there are very few places for older adults, and when you go to places meant for adults, they kind of treat you like you can’t do anything anymore.”
She pushed back on the idea that adulthood limits participation: “People think that once you’re an adult, you can’t do certain things anymore. But we can,” she said.
Series co-founder Calderon, a 59-year-old poet and campesino (a Spanish phrase for migrant farm worker), was born and raised on a small ranch about an hour from Irapuato, Guanajuato, in central Mexico. He said the event series was inspired from a childhood where art wasn’t an option. While he discovered poetry at age 12, his family had no space for a boy who wanted to draw flowers, watch clouds or write poetry.
He first came to the U.S. in 1988, and went back and forth for years before marrying and having his children in Mexico. For the past 16 years he has lived in Modesto, bringing his family to join him once he settled.
Both Calderon and Yepez said they’re thrilled with how the events have evolved and the community has embraced them. Their first event two years ago only had five attendees, all their close friends and family. Now, this past event had almost 50 attendees, and the small office space being utilized was standing room only.
The event last Friday also featured a performance by young girls with Ballet Folklorico Los Falcones. They danced while wearing bright lipstick, slick backed hair, and big colorful skirts that twirled across the floor to the music as the audience clapped to the beat.
The show was a tribute to the troupe’s founder and longtime former program director, Laura Malagón, and celebrated their 28th anniversary.
The free arts series, which hosts events about once a month, continues to grow and attract followers. Calderon said the events are a labor of love, and he simply wants to help others express themselves.
“Our purpose is to bring out Hispanic talent,” he said in Spanish. “The more Hispanic talent we can bring out — especially young people who don’t know where to go — the better. So that’s my idea. And I think I’m achieving it little by little.”
Ximena Loeza is the bilingual communities reporter for The Modesto Focus, a project of the nonprofit Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Contact her at ximena@themodestofocus.org.