Articles by

Fernando González

  • Article

    Mario Ernesto Sanchez — and his commitment to theater — rewarded

    Published November 11, 2014 by

    Mario Ernesto Sanchez, founder and producing artistic director of Teatro Avante and the International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami, received the 2014 Legacy Award in Los Angeles, Sunday. The honor recognizes “outstanding individuals whose lifelong commitment to Latino Theater in the United States and Latin America will have a lasting impact on the field,” said Jose Luis Valenzuela, artistic director of the Latino Theater Company/LATC, in his letter to Sanchez informing him of the award. The presentation was part of the closing ceremonies of “Encuentro 2014,” a month-long gathering of Latin theater artists hosted by the Los Angeles Theatre Center in association with the Latina/o Theatre Commons. “Your work,” noted Valenzuela in his letter, “has had a profound influence on the development of Latino Theater both nationally and internationally.” Sanchez was honored alongside two other historic figures in Latino theater in the United States: Luis Valdez, founder and artistic director of El Teatro Campesino, a company founded in 1965, based in San Juan Bautista, Calif.; and Miriam Colon, founder and director of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, created in 1967 and recently merged with Pregones Theater, another important Latino theater institution. For Sanchez, a seemingly unsinkable champion of theater in Miami, the award means “that we have done a lot but we have a lot more to do. That’s all it means. I’m humbled by it but at the same time I’m very proud. But I always feel we haven’t done enough. We still need to create more interest in the residents of Miami for theater; that’s what we are still lacking.” “Don’t misunderstand me, I’m happy we are getting this award and it belongs to everybody who has helped Teatro Avante and the International Hispanic Theatre Festival to survive, and that includes audiences and sponsors. But I have to be honest, I think there’s still a lot that needs to be done.”  
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    Hattie Mae Williams: Dancing to Miami’s History

    Published November 7, 2014 by

    Photo: Hattie Mae Williams dancers in "Miami Sites Project" at Miami Marine Stadium. For dancer and choreographer Hattie Mae Williams, the question is not whether all the world’s a stage but why shouldn’t it be? She has taken her self-described guerrilla approach to dance performances to supermarkets and churches, subway platforms and cemeteries. “Culture Concrete,” her site-specific dance film project staged and shot at historic, and long-closed, Miami Marine Stadium, premieres Saturday, Nov. 15, at The LAB Miami in Wynwood. “Culture Concrete” is part of Williams’ Miami Sites Project, a 2013 Knight Arts Challenge Miami winner. It includes not only dance and film but music, photography and installations. In fact, Williams and her company, The Tattooed Ballerinas, will dance at the showing of The Miami Sites Mini Episodes series, short videos featuring guerrilla dance performances at places such as Target and bus stops, at Miami Book Fair International on Nov. 21. The project also includes plans to celebrate another historic place in South Florida, the 90-year-old Venetian Pool in Coral Gables. The idea is not only to explore the history and current life of these places, but, as she puts it, “reclaiming and reframing spaces through site-specific/context-specific dance, film, photography and narratives.”
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    An evangelist for entrepreneurship: With events like SIME MIA, Demian Bellumio is promoting Miami’s future

    Published October 17, 2014 by

    Demian Bellumio, chief operating officer for Senzari, a Big Data content recommendation company based in Miami, seems in motion even while calmly answering questions seated at a desk in the company’s conference room. It’s late summer and part of this, no doubt, is because today he’s waiting for a call from a potential sponsor for this year’s SIME MIA, a two-day conference that merges entrepreneurship, media technology and the arts. Senzari COO Demian Bellumio by Carolina Wilson on Flickr. Born in Argentina but raised in Miami, Bellumio has been instrumental in organizing events such as the MIA Music Summit, which brought together people in music and technology, entrepreneurs and investors, and also bringing SIME, a Europe-based event, to South Florida. Last year’s gathering was a partnership between SIME and MIA Collective, of which Bellumio is a founding partner, with support provided by Knight Foundation through 2015. But on this day, he says, more sponsors are needed. And if a potential backer is interested, he’s happy to talk. As it develops an ecosystem for high-tech entrepreneurs and investors, Bellumio is one of Miami’s most enthusiastic pitchmen. He has a success story to tell—and a passion for his hometown.
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    A moveable [artist’s book] feast

    Published October 16, 2014 by

    EXILE books at Locust Projects. Photo by Nabil Moo.  The EXILE Books display cases have a minimalist, clean design. They are both an installation and a tool, elegant, but also sturdy and purposeful.  They also have wheels. EXILE Books is an itinerant artists’ bookstore, and for the next year, it will move around various locations in South Florida. The first stop at the Locust Projects, in the Design District, concluded with a site-specific performance by the Peter London Global Dance Company on Oct. 9. Up next is Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables, where it will reside from Oct. 15 to Nov. 20. And from there, on to Miami Book Fair International. In a border town often defined by movement and reinvention, it is a statement, poetic and practical.  “Miami has that atmosphere that allows people to do things that are more experimental or provocative. That’s kind of the beauty of Miami, and clearly, it’s generating a lot of attention,” says visual artist, curator, writer and Knight Arts Challenge finalist Amanda Keeley, the architect behind EXILE Books. “Miami is still forming an identity and it offers so much opportunity. There are a lot of entry points for people to start whatever they like to start. That’s very exciting, and probably why I was drawn back.”
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    Brothers’ keeper: Teo Castellanos’ family story in 22 voices

    Published October 8, 2014 by

    Above: Teo Castellanos won a 2013 Knight Arts Challenge grant for “Third Trinity,” a one-man play he wrote that debuts Oct. 10 and is directed by MacArthur Fellow Tarrell McCraney. The two sat down earlier this year to talk about working together and the process of adapting the work for the stage. Actor, writer and director Teo Castellanos once put a deep slice of true Miami, in all its glorious diversity, promise and miseries, right on stage. Set as a jitney ride through town, his one-man play “NE 2nd Avenue” offered a mirror to a city still becoming. It was a tour de force. It turns out that it was just preparation for telling his family’s story and the tale of three brothers on different paths. Castellanos won a Knight Arts Challenge grant in 2013 to stage “Third Trinity,” a one-man play directed by playwright, actor and MacArthur Fellow Tarell Alvin McCraney. It was commissioned by The Miami Light Project in 2011 and premieres at The Light Box in Miami on Oct. 10-18. Castellanos also won the challenge’s People’s Choice Award for his project.  “I said I’d never do another solo piece again. That was hard work,” says Castellanos, his voice trailing off. Then he adds: “Different challenge.”
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    The art of technology—and vice versa

    Published September 24, 2014 by

    When art and technology meet, the collision is bound to create sparks of inspiration. That’s what happened during the Art Hackathon, which took place Sept. 20-21 in Miami. The hackathon was a collaboration of The LAB Miami and The YoungArts Foundation with the support of the Knight Arts Challenge, which The LAB won in 2012. About eight teams worked over two days at YoungArt’s Biscayne Boulevard headquarters focusing on creating apps to make it easier to discover, interact with, or enjoy art. There were practical apps with an educational bent, such as the winning project MIArt by the team comprised of Brian Garbarz, Augusto Peña and Claudio Romano; but there was also playful approaches such as Art Dare You—a game app inspired by both “Truth or Dare” and “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”—by the team of Isabela Dos Santos, Katherine Martin and Robert Hellestrae, which was the first runner-up.
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    StartUp Cuba, one entrepreneur at a time

    Published August 11, 2014 by

    Photo: Cuban entrepreneur Yamina Vicente, Decorazón (2013 photo). Credit: Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA) on Flickr. If a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, perhaps a significant economic and social opening might gain footing in Cuba with the success of Sandra Aldama’s soap micro-business, or Marianela Pérez’s Pizzeria Nella. They — along with Niuris Higueras, owner of the Atelier restaurant, Yamina Vicente, who owns Decorazón, an event planning business, and Deciré Verdecia, owner of Decy Spa and Hair Salon, all located in or around Havana — are part of a generation of enterprising cuentapropistas, the self-employed, a budding sector in the Cuban economy that began to emerge after the government decided to allow private business ventures in 2008. The five businesswomen were part of “StartUp Cuba?,” a conversation at Miami Dade College Friday morning. The event was co-sponsored by the college’s Idea Center and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Initiatives, with the assistance of the Cuba Study Group. The Cuba Study Group initially brought the entrepreneurs to attend the annual convention of the Association of Studies of the Cuban Economy as well as other academic and professional activities related to their various lines of business in Cuba. It’s another sign of Miami’s importance as a center of entrepreneurship.
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    Cuba empresaria: una emprendedora a la vez

    Published August 11, 2014 by

    Foto: Empresaria Yamina Vicente, Decorazón (2013). Credito: Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA) en Flickr. Si un camino de mil millas comienza con un paso, quizás una apertura económica y social en Cuba se puede afianzar con el éxito de la micro-empresa de jabones de Sandra Aldama o la Pizzera Nella de Marianela Pérez. Ellas — junto con Niuris Higueras, propietaria del restaurante Atelier; Yamina Vicente, dueña de Decorazón, un negocio de organizar eventos, y Deciré Verdecia, dueña del salón de belleza y gimnasio  Decy Spa y Peluquería, todos negocios ubicados en o alrededor de La Haba — son parte de una generación de emprendedores cuentapropistas, un incipiente sector de la economía cubana que comenzó a emerger en el 2008, luego de que el gobierno decidiera permitir empresas particulares. Las cinco mujeres de negocios fueron parte de “StartUp Cuba?,” (¿Cuba Nueva Empresaria?) una conversación en el Miami Dade College el viernes en la mañana. El evento fue co-patrocinado por el Idea Center y el Center for Latin American and Caribbean Initiatives, (Centro para Iniciativas en Latinoamérica y el Caribe) parte del Miami Dade College, con la asistencia del Cuba Study Group (Grupo de Estudio de Cuba).
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    Digital initiative to expand help for military veterans

    Published July 16, 2014 by

    Above: IAVA-organized 'Storm the Hill' day in Washington, D.C. Credit: IAVA on Flickr. The numbers in the scandal over the delays in health care and other benefits incurred by the Department of Veterans Affairs were shocking. As of June 2013, returning veterans trying to get help for medical issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, had to wait an average of 336 days, according to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the largest nonprofit organization for post-9/11 veterans and their families. The wait was almost triple the VA’s stated goal of 125 days. By March 2013, the so-called “backlog,” the number of veterans waiting to access benefits, had reached 611,000. But numbers never tell the whole story. To help put names and faces to the real suffering brought about by these delays, in 2012 Knight Foundation committed $250,000 to IAVA to support the development of The Wait We Carry. The site is an interactive visualization tool of the wait times many veterans have been enduring but also a means to learn about each veteran affected and connect with them. (Each entry has “Learn more about this veteran” and  “I want to connect with this vet about his experience” links.)
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    Ideas, passion, persistence and the right mix for startup success

    Published July 11, 2014 by

    Music producer Jermaine Dupri spoke at Tech Cocktail in Miami. Photos by Ezequiel Williams. The book launch of “Startup Mixology: Tech Cocktail’s Guide to Building, Growing and Celebrating Startup Success,” by Frank Gruber, the founder and CEO of Tech Cocktail, brought together entrepreneurs, on stage and in the audience, and featured sound advice, a llama and cocktails. What else do you need for your next successful startup? As it turns out, quite a bit more — which is the subject of “Startup Mixology.” “The reason to do this book was that it took me 10 years to start my company and run it myself,” explained Gruber in a post-panel interview at The Stage in Miami. “It was a scary, long process to figure out on my own and I made a lot of mistakes. So I wanted to create the book that was not out there when I was trying to do this and something that would be easy for people to follow. There are a lot of books out that talk about a lot of the different components but I wanted to create a comprehensive guide that only would tell you how to do it, but [it would tell you] also the harsh realities of it too. Because it’s hard.”
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    eMerge Americas captures South Florida’s entrepreneurial energy

    Published May 7, 2014 by

    Photo credit: Two Parrot Productions. From a distance, the choice of rapper Armando Christian Pérez, aka Pitbull, to make the closing keynote remarks of the first eMerge Americas Techweek, a six-day-long tech expo which started with a series of events on Thursday and culminated with keynotes, panels and other sessions at the Miami Beach Convention Center on Monday and Tuesday, must have seemed, well … so Miami. As it turns out, Pitbull’s engaging persona, a mix of charming, streetwise rogue and smart, hard-working businessman, suggested the embodiment of the Miami that the organizers of the event wanted to project. Put simply: Yes, we have the sun and the fun, but we are open for (tech) business too. “People think Armando is a fun-and-party guy, which he also is,” said Manuel D. Medina, chairman and CEO of Medina Capital and the key organizer behind the event, acting as host and interviewer. “But one of the things that really impressed me about Armando was [his] work ethic.”