d annsintemeive ntalthheal a andtiddicreon tnta. in rt sho, ea27 metns g ptinge eopl offe thstre an tod insi hou s ye7.on 2 damian trujillo: hello and welcome to "comunidad del valle." i'm damian trujillo, and today local artist, elizabeth montelongo, opens up a new exhibit in san antonio on your "comunidad del valle." ♪♪♪ damian: we begin today with the monthly visit by the consulate of mexico here in san josé. with me is ambassador alejandra bologna once again on "comunidad del valle." ambassador, it's been a while. welcome back to the show. alejandra bologna: thank you so much for your invitation yes. has been long time but i'm glad to be here. damian: thank you for being here. well, this is a big month. september is a big month. it's fiestas patrias es el día del grito tell us everything that's happening with

the consulado when it comes to mexican independence day. alejandra: of course, we are going to have the celebration on september 15. you know, we have been working very hard with the support of consul member, magdalena carrazco and consul member, sergio jiménez to create comité de fiestas patrias that now it's--with that comité we will have a big, big event of celebration of the independence day. so we invite everyone to join us at city hall. will be september 15 at 7 p.m. in city hall plaza. and it's going to be a great opportunity to connect with local authorities, community leaders, business, and all of course delicious mexican cuisine. damian: that's, again, september 15 at the city hall plaza here in downtown san josé.

the president of mexico holds this at palacio nacional, the same grito. the consulates all over the world hold the same gritos. tell us what a grito is. alejandra: yes, of course. i think that mexico's a unique country that has a special way to celebrate their independence day. whate do is we have a protocol ceremony that reproduce the call that make in -- cura hidalgo one of our heroes of the independence process or a fight. it's--reproduce that call. he in a church call--ringing the bell and call everyone to start to fight against the spanish colony. so what we do in all around the world is to reproduce that moment with the local communities with mexicans abroad. our president always has this ceremony at palacio nacional and

it's really a great moment to unify the country too. it's a way to connect when you are abroad, when you are outside mexico. it's a way to connect for all mexicans that live abroad to connect with mexico. damian: yeah, well, it's called el grito. it's again reenactment of father hidalgo's cry and yell for the fight for independence. we have about one minute left, consul. you also have a busy month when it comes to the semana laboral alejandra: yes, we had last week the semana laboral during the labor celebrations that has united states, we also have consulates met that we have around the united states and canada. we at the same time have a special week that we gave a lot of information to our community so they can be knowledge about

the rights they have, doesn't matter what is their situation. all people that is working has rights and those rights have to be respected in equity and in diversity. damian: and i love what you say all the time is that these are rights not only for labor day but the entire year, those rights are--need to be protected. the consulate of mexico in san josé is right here on enzo drive. we're gonna show you that information once again. they are there providing services for mexican nationals and anybody who needs that assistance. and again, don't forget el grito on september 15 at the san josé city hall plaza. thank you, embajadora. we'll see you again here next month. alejandra: thank you so much. damian: thank you. and up next here on "comunidad del valle" local artist, elizabeth montelongo. stay with us.

damian: she's an artist from san josé and now has a new exhibition and exhibit in san antone. with me on "comunidad del valle" is elizabeth montelongo.

it's been a long time, elizabeth, since you've been on the show. elizabeth montelongo: yes, it's since 2013. damian: well, you know, the images that you provided us are just spectacular. we're gonna roll those, and tell us about this new exhibit that you have now in san antone. elizabeth: sure, so this exhibition that just opened this month in august, it's called "the euphoric dance of the unconquered mind," and it's at centro de artes in san antonio, texas. it's my largest solo show so far and so it's, you know, extra-exciting that it's out in texas and sharing this work with the san antonio community. the exhibition has 32 of my oil paintings on canvas of meshika dancers from the san francisco bay area. and the paintings are, like, heavy in pastels so i paint with

a palette knife and it creates a very, very heavy texture, the very colorful paintings, and i paint from photographs that i take of danzantes of meshika dancers here in the bay area. damian: and i've noticed in watching some of these images that the danzantes they don't have a face, right? they don't have eyes, they don't have a nose, a mouth. tell us about that. elizabeth: yes, so i chose not to paint faces. i think there is one painting, one of--like, among the first, it might have been the second or third in the series that i painted, it showed a little bit of a face, but other than that i decided just to not put any features in the faces of the dancers in the paintings just to focus on the energy of the dance

and the significance, the symbolism, and that way it's not, like, a specific person. the paintings aren't about specific people. and sometimes i do make changes to, like, the colors of the the copili, the head-dresses and, like, the positions of the dancers, the way they come out on a photograph. i combine photographs and so it's more about, like, the energy of the dance and the spirit of the dance than about individual people, so that's why i don't paint the features on their faces. damian: what fascinates you about la cultura? what fascinates you about the meshika dancers, the aztec dancers, that allows you to, you know, to dedicate an entire exhibit to them? elizabeth: well, it's a few things. so, early on, when i first started painting the dancers, i

did it because i was just drawn to the dance. i guess not something that i grew up seeing, and so once i had moved to san josé, here in santa clara county, i was able to see meshika dancers and, you know, hear a little bit about this ceremonial tradition. and then in the, you know, in the following years i started learning more about what we call, like, raza history, -- raza studies, and other mexican american studies at san josé