Northeast Ohio Latinx artists come together for 'Doors to My Barrio' project

On view at the Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center in Cleveland's Brooklyn Centre neighborhood is an exhibit for audiences to enter Northeast Ohio's Latinx community - "Doors to My Barrio."

Started in 2016, the ongoing series spotlights many of the talented Latinx visual artists living in this region.

This year a group of Northeast Ohio artists continued the project by creating doors for five additional Spanish-speaking countries.

Letitia Lopez, Executive Director of Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center

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"'Doors to My Barrio' was started in 2016. It was just on an idea from a donation of doors that I received from a friend...And at first I just thought, ‘What am I going to do with these doors?’ And we came up with the idea [like] the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitars. We wanted to do the doors and then have them spread around our ward here. We decided that each door would represent a Spanish speaking country."

Mariela Paz, artist/Honduras door

"I made the door of Honduras. I had the idea of ​​showing the beauty of what is Mayan, with Lenca and with coffee, which is very much part of the Honduran culture. So I painted Ixchel, who is the Mayan goddess of the moon. She has a rabbit, she is always carrying a rabbit. And also at the bottom I made a sample of alfarería or pottery Lenca, which is an ethnic group in Honduras. And there are also some things, some sprigs of coffee, some typical houses. That enchanted me. I enjoyed it so much that now any door I see, I'm going to want to paint doors."

Honduras Door [Mariela Paz]

Maria de Jesus Paz, artist/Argentina door

"One of my best friends of the soul of more than 30 years, she's Argentine. So I tell them, 'Do you know what? Surprise! I’m doing the Argentina door.' Because I loved when we talked, and she taught me how to drink maté. So, practically, here is a summary of the topics of conversation with my friends. And I concentrated on what they really are: sun, tango, maté."

Argentina Door [Maria de Jesus Paz]

Forrest Stone, artist/Spain door

"I was given Spain as my theme. Bullfighters [are] very common in Spanish artworks and everywhere. It's a matador in a matador suit, and he's he's pulling the little blanket, like when the bull goes... looks like the flag of Spain."

Spain Door [Forrest Stone]

Angy Hanon, artist/Bolivia door

"I wanted to include the Indigenous population of Bolivia, because a big percentage of their the people are Indigenous. So it's the Aymara and the Quechua people. I included two women looking at the Andes, and then I included a sunset. One of the rays is the Wiphala flag, which is actually a national flag. It represents the Indigenous people, which I've never heard of that before. I've never heard of an Iindigenous flag included as a flag of the country."

Bolivia Door [Angy Hanon]

Kenron Morgan, artist/Uruguay door

"Back in the colonial times [Uruguay] was a place where the Africans came and it was a place where they came for freedom. That was where they distributed themselves into America essentially. So I have all these different melting pots of people in this door."

Uruguay Door [Kenron Morgan]

"Doors to My Barrio" is on view by appointment at the Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center in Cleveland.