Conexiones

About the Book

As stated in the Introduction:

Conexiones, presenting some of the traces from Spain to the Crossroads of Louisiana and dedicated to El Corazón de España, introduces the general reader to the acculturation and interconnections between Spanish and American culture — with Louisiana as a prism revealing the rich colors of Spain and its effects on America.

It was inspired by the exhibit of Spanish art held at the Alexandria Museum of Art in Alexandria, Louisiana during the fall of 2003 — a unique exhibition of Spain’s religious art, antiquities and icons. Conexiones carries a preface by Javier Rupérez, the Ambassador of Spain to the United States. We wondered if we couldn’t provide a book which would give the reader a taste of the variety of ways in which Spain, Spanish culture, and Hispanic culture are intertwined in the history, people and imagination of Louisiana. Thus the Crossroads Symposium Project was created, with the assistance of the Downtown Press, an entity devoted to furthering civic and cultural activities — both serious and entertaining.

We were even bolder in thinking that purely ‘local’ authors might know enough to provide the reader with a rewarding look at things Spanish. That book you now have before you, and you will be judge of whether this miscellany achieves some success. But before sketching the contents inside the covers, we would like to direct you to the equally bold colors on the outside of our book, featuring the work of the noted Barcelona artist, Jose Maria Garcia-Llort. Señor Garcia-Llort and his wife Martha Crockett lived in Central Louisiana in the 1950s. Within the book you will find Ms. Crockett’s engaging story of those years. Barcelona art historian Àlex Mitrani provides a discussion of Señor Garcia-Llort’s art and gives an overview of modern Spanish art as well.

The contributors to Conexiones include specialists in fields ranging from history to art, from literature to the guitar. Your guided tour starts appropriately enough with Louisiana and Spain. Here you will find an account by Jerry Sanson of the history of Spanish Colonial Louisiana. Bernard Gallagher discusses the reaction to Hispanic culture in the writing of Arna Bontemps and his close friend from the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes. Arna Bontemps was born in Alexandria, Louisiana and his birth home now houses an important institution, the Arna Bontemps African American Museum. Richard Gwartney reflects on Federico Garcia Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba, and on the perils and adventures in recreating the play. Philip Tapley tells us about Louisiana’s heroic St. Denis, who founded the city of Natchitoches in l7l4. And David Ker Texada gives an account of his Central Louisiana family which traces its history directly back to the Spanish colonial period.

Conexiones next turn to two exceptional Stories. The first is the memoir by Martha Crockett de Garcia-Llort, a vibrant account of living with her husband as artists and as residents of Central Louisiana. The rich gumbo of multiple cultures, Spanish and Louisiana style, is stirred and enjoyed. The cover of Conexiones displays the work of Garcia-Llort, whose vivid colors depict both Spain and Louisiana.

Jock Scott then tells the astonishing and heroic story of his aunt, Natalie Vivian Scott, a participant in both the First and the Second World Wars, a prime mover in the French Quarter literary renaissance of the 1920s, and a member of the Mexican-American colony of creative friends in Taxco, Mexico, where she made her “permanent home within a vastly different culture.”

At the heart of Conexiones we find personal stories.
Crossroads begins as Dessie Williams tells the story of her uncle who returned from Spain to a still segregated Louisiana, a fascinating account which concludes with her interview with Mayo Brew. Elizabeth Levy recalls living between the ages of two and five in Spain — Spanish w

About the Author