For the week of May 28 - June 3, 2003

Sun Valley Center explores evolving cultures

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By ADAM TANOUS
Express Arts Editor

The relationship of the United States and Mexico is a long and complex one, and it is not easily characterized, despite our tendency to do so. What is clear is that the multifaceted cultures of the two countries have had profound effects on one another since the mid-16^th century.

The migration of people from south to north from Mexico was initially and is still largely driven by economics. However, with that migration there has been a constant current of language, traditions and culture flowing both ways.

While the influx of migration originally occurred in the Southwest, much of that migration, especially in the last decade, has spread beyond Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California into other regions of the country, including the Wood River Valley.

The political and social ramifications of this constant, cross border movement are profound and often divisive. And while the marrying of two cultures—arguably even more than two—is never seamless, it is a process that ultimately leads to understanding on both sides of the increasingly illusive cultural border.

In an effort to further that understanding, the Sun Valley Center for the Arts in Ketchum has developed a multidisciplinary program that focuses on the Mexican and Mexican American experience in America. Through educational programs, fine arts displays, performing arts, literature and traditional celebrations, the Center is hoping to bring into finer focus the amalgam of culture evolving both here in the Wood River Valley and in the West in general.

The two-month program comprises many elements. An outline of the areas of exploration is detailed below:

 

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