It’s a hot day, and the group is eagerly waiting for the field trip to Museo de las Americas, opens a new window and Tonantzin Casa de Café, opens a new window to begin. I help move umbrellas and chairs around as patrons depart the bus, the pink or blue colors on their name tags indicating their next destination. The group splits and half go north to Tonantzin Café, while the other half head south to Museo de las Americas, just down the street in Denver's Art District on Santa Fe. I join my group in the shade outside Tonantzin Café to drink agua frescas made from fresh fruit, and horchata.
Tonantzin Casa de Café
Cynthia, the owner of Tonantzin, talks about what it means to be indigenous – her ancestors are from Colorado and have always been here. She talks about the blue corn at the center of her logo and that it is from Colorado. The blue corn atole, a surprising and unique drink, comes out to us blended and hot. Drinking the hot drink outside on the hot day is wonderful. It creates a strange sensation, the warmth of the drink contrasting with and complimenting the warmth of the day and the sharing of stories in the community. The drink itself is a metaphor to having this café in the Santa Fe art district. An indigenous café on indigenous land, Tonantzin Café is the only place in Colorado which serves atole. This marks the café as different, while proudly reinforcing traditions, double stamping its existence.
Next, we wander the art gallery, featuring the Black cowboy, by Joseph Graves Jr. We download an augmented reality (AR) app, which, when pointed at the painting makes the piece appear to come alive. On the page, the figure first appears abstract with many separate lines which could be the outline of a person. When the app's camera is pointed at it, those lines seem to move together and appear that the figure is moving. While the figure in the painting lays still, it contains its own motion.
Museo de las Americas
The groups switch and pass each other by. Museo de las Americas' art show features youth artists. We look at a piece in the center, the one piece we are allowed to touch. It is a circular, woven rug, containing the interviews of mothers using real details from their migration stories to create an abstract map that is both honestly specific and estranging in its presentation. On the rug map, I noticed 8 stars, each with 8 points, like compasses laying on top of each other, pointing everywhere, nowhere, somewhere. There is something moving about the continuity there. The guide asks what people notice, and they all notice the circles.
People walk from artwork to artwork. Some of us sit down at the art corner to color a drawing of a symbol, called a Nahui Ollin, opens a new window. It is a compass, and each of the four directions symbolizes something to reflect on – specifically the Nahui Ollin, an Aztec/Mexica cosmology. Nagui translates to ‘four,’ and ‘Ollin’ translates to ‘movement’ or ‘motion.’ In their artistry, everyone rebels, and I joke that the symbolism will reveal itself through the randomness, and it does.
One patron draws outside the lines. She loves purple, but colors in pink and blue. She generously hands me the purple crayon, so I can color with what she finds most beautiful. I tell her that the artist who created the map rug, which is purple, laying on a lighter purple platform, shares the same name as her, which means wisdom. Two artists with the same name, in the same place. She tells me that purple is her favorite color because it is the color of epilepsy awareness. Purple wisdom. I decide to draw outside of the lines as well.
Whether patrons drove themselves home or returned on the bus, we were all moved together. As we parted ways, we now hold a shared memory of stillness, sipping agua frescas and staring at paintings and sculptures nailed into place, fruit which once blended furiously, hands which once drew furiously, our minds at rest as we travel out of the heat of the day into the chills brought by this shared experience.
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