Local opinion: Photographer shines light on Latino culture
Most people reading this do not know who Luis Carlos Bernal was.
Though for nearly half of Tucson's population — 45% of us are Latino — Bernal offers an opportunity to celebrate our culture, even three decades after his death.
His work, now on exhibit at the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography, focuses awareness in what is a fraught political era for Brown People. More on that in a minute. First, a little about Luis Carlos Bernal.
Bernal was a photographer whose images of Latinos reveal life that is extraordinary because it is ordinary. What he recorded led to his recognition as the father of Chicano photography.
Born in Douglas, Arizona, in 1941, he developed an interest in photography as a child, and he earned fine arts degrees in college. In his career, he captured the beauty and diversity of his people, from west Texas to the West Coast. His images of people and homes in Tucson barrios are especially moving for me.
Bernal taught photography at Pima Community College and was bicycling to campus in 1989 when he was hit by a car. He was in a coma for four years before he died at age 52.
Knowing of his tragic end and seeing his life's story and work elicited deep emotion in me, including a welling up of pride in la cultura and recognition of our rightful place in society. ¡Viva la Raza!
At the same time, the reflection raised anger, hurt and fear in me because, while my people and our culture are equal to others, we are under attack by those who consider us less than.
A cohort of politicians and their disciples fill white people with fear of and hate for us, saying we don't belong, are here to replace them, are genetically inferior and inherently evil.
Those falsehoods have an impact on our lives, causing stress and anxiety, depleting our health and leading to what psychologists call "functional freeze." Think of it as going about your day while constantly having to look over your shoulder for a threat. The trauma leads to a numbing as we go through the motions.
People who don't know me and my people strive to cancel our beauty and verve, as portrayed in Bernal's portfolio. They hate me because I am brown. To them I am other, I am less than, and somehow, that thinking has been made all right in our society.
It is not all right. What is all right — emphasis on the "all" — is our inclusion and full participation in society, our right to be and belong, to work and seek the dreams we have in our souls, as portrayed in Bernal's poignant and powerful images.
Such thoughts and feelings are ever present in me, ameliorating my anxiety and fear. I am made brighter by the light Luis Carlos Bernal drew into his cameras and projected onto paper. His is a legacy of our culture that leaves me standing with pride in defiance of the haters. ¡Mil gracias, Señor Bernal!
Shraddha Hilda Oropeza is an integrative health and wellness coach and a yoga therapist. She lives in Tucson.
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