Robert Beltran's speech given at
The Public Corporation for the Arts - Long Beach,
State of the Arts Luncheon addressing
The State of Children's Arts in America
May 6, 1999

 
I want to thank you all for inviting me here today - and I want to extend a special thanks to my friends Nora Manzanilla and Liz Miramontes - Nora works for a very special organization called L.A. Link which is a network of many community-based projects that promote health education, tobacco and alcohol control through media campaigns and youth leadership - they have their hands in so many worthwhile community projects it's hard to give a proper description of all that they do. Liz Miramontes is the vice-president of the Long Beach Latino leadership council which seeks to unify community efforts, preserve Latino culture and language and to advance the political, educational, and economic standing of Latinos in the greater Long Beach community. I wanted to introduce them to you because their work is invaluable, and also because they gave me the great privilege of acquainting me with the city of Long Beach, and especially the Museum of Latin American Art - MOLAA - which now has a very special place in my heart. I was given a tour of the museum and its facilities and its ideas for expansion and its objective to make the museum a place where families can visit for their cultural enrichment, and to be able to take part in creative activities. This is something that I absolutely support and want to be a part of.

      Rob Hankins asked me to speak about public school teachers who influenced and encouraged my love for the arts, which led to my love for the theatre, and acting, directing, set design, lighting design, sound design, etc. And also about the need to make available arts programs for children. I believe that arts programs are as important to the development of our children as mathematics, science, geography, history or any other subject that is taught in school. And I believe that individual teachers can make a lifelong impact on children especially in their appreciation of the arts. I can name many teachers, from elementary school in Bakersfield to Fresno State that made a serious impact on my artistic development. I'm sure all of us can. The teacher's reward is the very fact of this lifelong impact on their students' lives. There are not enough ways for me to thank Mrs. Hoppe and Mr. Collins at Mt. Vernon elementary school - Mrs. Hofstettler at Sierra Jr. High - Roger Winter and Ward Fulcher at East Bakersfield High - Dr. Bob Chapman and Henry Horwiege at Bakersfield Junior College - Jan Bryon, Philip Walker, Paul McGuire at C.S.U. Fresno. Their reward as teachers and mentors is their loving and gracious souls living actively in my soul. Their great impact on my life as an artist impacted my development as a human being, so I want to say a few words on the importance of the arts in children's lives - which is directly connected to the maintaining of their cultural identity - the two are inextricably woven together - and I feel the need to say something about them, especially in this city with a large, diverse Latino population, and because of the great inspiration I got from last night's Cinco de Mayo celebration at MOLAA.

      Unfortunately there are a significant number of people in this country who are threatened by any culture that insists on maintaining it's cultural identity - they say it's un-American - forgetting that the fabric and design of our country is a mosaic of many cultures. They take it upon themselves to decide over the course of time which cultures are acceptable - and so over the course of time the once ridiculed and persecuted Irish becomes accepted, the ridiculed Italian becomes accepted, the Scandinavian becomes accepted - the German, the French, etc. etc. - but woe to the culture that doesn't find acceptance, and yet, are every bit as American as the accepted cultures. Those cultures that aren't accepted are persecuted and ridiculed and made to feel inferior and somehow less "American". That segment of society that engages in this ridicule and persecution only prove how un-American they really are.

      After all, why do immigrants come to this country (often putting themselves in extreme danger and hardship) - but for the hope that they may improve their lives and immerse themselves in all the advantages of what our country has to offer. By striving for that American Ideal they thereby uphold that ideal, often dying in the attempt to achieve it.

      Immigrants come to this country because of opportunities, because of our Constitution, our Declaration of Independence and our Bill of Rights. The people that persecute them declare openly that the American ideal belongs only to an exclusive club, a clique of people with a closed membership, all the while gladly accepting the tax dollars of the excluded to maintain their exclusivity. These people think it necessary to pass insulting laws, laws that damage the self-esteem of children, such as the law making English the "Official" language. And if recent citizens need a translator to explain this law or any other law, so that it can be understood, with the bigot and hypocrite's logic they say no that's wrong - no "bilingualism" allowed. It seems these laws are passed only to maintain an unfair advantage - such as the doing away with Affirmative Action, which was designed to give the disadvantaged as equal a chance as the person with every advantage. But they did away with it - as if the unequal playing field had been made level and everything had been set right. We know that isn't true - they know it isn't true but yet they persisted in such a glaring injustice. Bigotry and hypocrisy rule the day and this damages the self-esteem of our persecuted children.

  The movement to stop illegal immigrants from coming into this country sounds good on paper doesn't it? No one should be here illegally - but yet, employers and business men illegally seek them out and make jobs available to them (at slave wages) - these illegal immigrants are enticed by the prospect of improving their families' lives but when they're found out they're herded together and dumped unceremoniously at the border to fend for themselves - thank you very much for working for us at cut-rate wages and spending a great portion of those wages here in this country (for the benefit not of themselves, but our economy). We persecute the destitute and needy and give only a slap on the wrist to the real culprits - the employers who illegally seek them out and entice them with work and then abuse them with slave wages and miserable working environments. The hypocrisy is too glaring not to incite deep indignation.

      Is it any wonder that we have a lot of angry, frustrated, disillusioned young people who have had the natural optimism of youth taken from them so uncaringly, so unmercifully. The holocaust of World War II was more humane than the slow, painful, spiritual death of these millions of children. It seems we're doing everything we can to deny them self-esteem - poor schools, lack of textbooks, poorly paid teachers, cutting of arts programs, and no respect for their native culture or native tongue. Our politicians have failed them - our so called role-models have failed them - the lottery has failed them - we've all failed them. There are literally millions of hurt, wounded children who need to be healed. How do we do that when they are confronted everyday with hypocrisy and unequal playing fields in politics, academics and economics. Even the power of prayer has been denied them in the schools.

      Maybe now the only hope is in the example of the true artist and artistic expression. And by the true artist I mean the person who with an elevated consciousness, the highest moral values, seeks to communicate his vision of the human experience in a sincere, responsible way. The artist is a person who absolutely cannot live a fulfilled life without the means to express himself. The painter, the composer, the sculptor, the actor, the singer, the dancer, the architect etc. etc. - if not allowed to express himself is a stifled human being. A stifled human being is a frustrated, angry, disturbed person just a thin line away from turning that stifled creativity into destructiveness. It is in our nature either to destroy or to create. The two boys who did all the killing in Colorado built pipe bombs instead of painting a mural - they bought guns and ammunition instead of books or paintbrushes - they spewed hatred from their mouths instead of reciting poetry. So many people paid the price because these boys, obviously feeling outcast and rejected weren't invited to sing in the choir, or rehearse the school play or join in projects that would have occupied their minds in a creative way.

      Artistic expression is the natural refuge and sanctuary for the outcast, the persecuted, the lonely, the rejected. In it he can find solace in his peculiarity and may even turn it to his advantage. It begins to heal the wounded soul and slowly but surely self-esteem and wisdom grows in the child. Think of the great Michelangelo who was despised and ridiculed, yet found great solace in his art and thereby changed the world and became one of the most admired men who ever lived. What if all the arts programs had been cut and poor Michelangelo didn't have that creative outlet. Would he have eventually turned inward with hatred and bitterness and done damage to his society? It's possible. History is filled with the outcast and the rejected who found peace of mind in artistic expression and transformed their lives for the betterment of society. The face of the world might be so different, if Adolf Hitler had only been accepted into that art school in Vienna.

      I remember when my mother and step-father were divorcing and my family's world was turned upside down and I'd be walking to school with so many disturbing thoughts in my head - the worry, the uncertainty of the future. What a great relief it was to be able to walk into the choir room in the morning and along with seventy-five other students sing my heart out. Bach, Schubert, Mozart, Brahms, Handel, Vivaldi (some of them society's misfits) all reached out to me over the centuries to soothe and caress me in my pain. When I had rehearsals for the school play then William Shakespeare or Eugene O'Neill or Luis Valdez reached out to soothe me - such is the healing power of art.

      I remember my brother Louie who is one of the best musicians I've seen or worked with, who was obviously going through the same pain I was, getting in fights, getting expelled from school; possibly on his way to becoming one of the best criminals I've seen and worked with. Instead he found himself through music and has since been able to travel the world and continues to touch people's lives through his playing and songwriting. Artistic expression did so much to turn us from destructiveness to creativity and a sense of responsibility to our community.

      Cutting arts programs in the schools and our communities is just an example of the uncaring, insensitive attitude that is taking hold in our society. The National Rifle Association is a more powerful institution than MALDEF, the NAACP, the National Endowment for the Arts. And this powerful organization is more concerned with arming teachers against students than it is with nurturing the hearts and minds of children. Fifteen people were killed at Columbine High School. How many more people would have been killed if innocent students had been caught in the crossfire between gun-toting teachers and two crazy students? Those students were hell-bent on killing, and they had all kinds of weaponry. The National Rifle Association would have had to arm the teachers with bazookas, machine guns and hand grenades to match the fire power of those two students.

      Our short-sightedness, our insensitivity, is manifesting itself in this kind of approach to curing our society's problems. We need to arm our teachers not with guns but with better training and better salaries. It's a damn shame the way we treat teachers in this country, and they have such an influence on our children. In my opinion, teaching is the most noble profession.

      I'm proud to be among all of you here who obviously care about enriching our children's lives through the arts, of building self-esteem through pride in their cultural identity. But we have so much work to do to undo the damage that's been done. Let's not underestimate the great damage that has been done - and accept the challenge to undo it. Let's demand of our politicians to do and give more - of the great corporations to do and give more - of affluent and influential private citizens to do and give more - to ask of every citizen to do and give more.

      From what I've seen today, Long Beach can be that shining city on a hill that cannot hide its good works, that leads the way to revitalizing, rejuvenating, and healing our children and our communities. I know God will bless us in our endeavor , and I want to thank you once again for allowing me to take part in that good work.
      Thank you.