Artist and activist Soraida Martinez spoke to a group of Hopkins students Monday in the midst of a display of 21 of her paintings as one of a series of speakers presented by Ole for Hispanic Heritage Month.
Martinez graduated from Rowan University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and also has a degree in psychology. Her mix of interests reflects the intent of her paintings: she offers a unique style in juxtaposing the visual images of her paintings with a written social commentary, a creation that she has termed Verdadism. Verdad is the Spanish word for truth, and Martinez emphasized in her speech that this is what her artwork attempts to achieve.
"It was created to promote a deeper understanding of the human soul and tolerance and to make social change," Martinez said.
She pointed to the Occupy Movement as an instance of this type of large-scale social movement, something that had been lacking in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
"I see the social movement now, but during the time when I [created the term] people weren't really speaking out," Martinez said. "Most people were doing their own thing, and a lot of corporate people just wanted to make more and more money, but the bubble bursted."
Her painting When Money Gets Ugly directly challenged this corporate greed.
"[The painting] was about corporate America and being greedy and keeping money. I always think that if you just take, take, take and don't give back to society, it's never gonna work out.
"I've covered a lot of issues like Medicare and medical issues. I have a painting called America: So Sophisticated, Yet So Primitive…When it Comes to Giving Our People Medical Care which I painted in 2000," Martinez said. "If we're a country that can't even take care of our own people and would rather fight wars than taking care of the people here, then we're not really a sophisticated society, and you're going to get a lot of angry people protesting, and you see that already . . . I predicted that would happen a long time ago. When these people don't have health care and have to pay for medication, what else can you do?"
The issues that Martinez present are not only social commentaries, but also very personal to her in a variety of ways, oftentimes relating to her experience as a Spanish-speaking girl in America. Suspended between the worlds of America and Puerto Rico, she felt that she wasn't fully a part of either as a child and felt alienated in some ways from both. As she grew older, she realized that she was not alone in this feeling and that it was something to celebrate rather than lament.
"When you're young and you're 20-something years old, it's hard to deal with [being different], but when you get older you might like your uniqueness and be glad that you have that and that you have something unique to give out into society . . . kids come up to me and say I'm glad that you said that because I now I don't feel that bad anymore because you went through what I'm going through.
"With most people I get a good reaction . . . I had one lady from Columbia University who really felt a lot of the issues. She said ‘you're speaking to what I'm thinking about and I've never felt like I've belonged here or there' and that's a common issue that's brought up a lot with Puerto Ricans and other cultures. It's a human experience going from one culture to another and feeling like you're not going to be accepted."
She became interested in art as a young girl and from age eight, Martinez knew she wanted to be an artist.
"At school, there was a teacher who always told me that I was good at art. That was something that he highlighted and I liked that because I always liked to draw anyway. I used to draw even when I was five years old," Martinez said. "I've had teachers who have said if you could combine social work and art, that would be a great thing for you to do and I thought to myself I'm not going to do that, but in '92 I found a way to do it.
"It's a hard field to get into. You're taking a risk in life, it's the arts, but if your soul and heart is into it then there's no reason not to do it . . . The arts can give you a perspective in life that you may not see," Martinez said. "If you go through life just looking at the sciences and what's factual it's not a balance. You need a balance in life . . . my favorite artist is Leonardo Da Vinci and he combined everything together."
Despite her passion for the arts, Martinez feels that American perspectives and value in art is lacking.
"As a country we are visually illiterate . . . I get a lot of questions from people from Europe and it is much different because they have art in their curriculum's . . . I think the United States is very backwards in that way. In time I think it will change," Martinez said.
In a way, Martinez believed that her role in Hispanic Heritage Month was something of a misnomer as she is against the entire concept of labelling individuals based on race, culture or sex.
"It's good that it's being highlighted, but I look for the day that we could just highlight humanity . . . I don't like labels, totally don't like labels," she said. "I think everyone should just be ‘human.'"
