John Jota Leaños, an Assistant Professor of Social Practices and Community Arts at the California College of the Arts, is a disrupter.
His battlefield is the social, political and cultural consciousness of the nation. His weapons are an array of art mediums, which he uses to educate, cajole, and poke the public into action and thought.
“My approach to art is by any medium necessary. I use any skills I can to get the message out,” said Leaños.
Originally from Pomona, California, Leaños’ bio states that he “identifies as part of the mainly hybrid tribe of Mexitaliano Xicangringo Güeros called ‘Los Mixtupos’ (mixt-up-oz).”
In the late 1990s, while working on a Master’s in Fine Art at San Francisco State University, Leaños became involved in the Mission District through the Galeria de la Raza’s “Regeneración Project,” an incubator for emerging Latino artists.
There, Leaños found his bearing as an artist/educator and began to analyze the connection between mass media and public education. “The pedagogy of how we learn to speak, to learn and to live and what our desires are, is kind of framed within the media and sometimes determined by what we watch on TV, what we read and the films we see. And for less educated people it’s even a more determining fact.”
Politics and social engagement became the signature of his work. As a result, he began to provoke responses.
In 2000, he did a series of art posters with Rene Garcia called “The San Francisco Historical Circle of the Displaced” and fashioned along the lines of historical markers that highlight events and civic leaders. But instead of celebrating noble acts the posters, displayed along Market Street, served as anti-monuments spotlighting incidents of displacement. “It was a re-visioning of San Francisco history told from the perspective of the displaced. We got mail from people who were upset by our perspective.”
It wouldn’t be long before Leaños would face bigger controversy.
In early 2004 solider Pat Tillman was killed by enemy fire while serving in Afghanistan. Tillman had a thriving pro football career with the Arizona Cardinals when he joined the Army Rangers in 2002 as a personal response to the 9-11 attacks. In death Tillman was held up by conservatives as the All-American hero celebrated for his combat bravery and used to gain public support for the War on Terror.
However, a month later the true facts emerged that Tillman had, in fact, been killed by friendly fire from his own troops.
Leaños was teaching in the Chicano Studies Department at Arizona State University and where Tillman had attended college.
Leaños decided to use Tillman’s death to examine issues of heroism and war by creating a poster featuring a uniformed Tillman with a statement questioning war. It created a backlash storm. At a public ASU forum Leaños spoke about the controversy and explained that framing Tillman’s “image as an untouchable American hero raises critical questions about militarism, truth and America’s declared infinite War on Terror, questions that in a democracy we should not be afraid to ask.”
The Tillman incident was a learning experience. “When you do political work and you are out in the public realm there is always an openness to be criticized, to push buttons,” said Leaños, who received hate mail and death threats.
Leano’s newest project, “Frontera! Animated Histories of the Southwest Borderlands,” continues his efforts to question, educate and create public dialogue.
With “Frontera!,” Leaños and colleagues are taking on the development of the U.S. Southwest by examining 500 years of colonial border history from a Chicano/Indio perspective through a series of animated episodes. “What we are doing with the Frontera piece is looking at the past and trying to tap into an alternative historical narrative, to talk about a place that has been mired by political violence and bloodshed and controversy.”
The idea of using animation as a tool for public education has its roots in Leaños’ childhood. “Growing up with Schoolhouse Rocks (an animated educational musical on network television until 1985) and learning my verbs and nouns and numbers I was really kind of inspired about using the format of the Saturday morning cartoons to teach history and knowledge.”
Documentary animation is an emerging film genre that has been successfully used in films such as Waltz with Bashir.
Leaños is collaborating with Bay Area writer/artist Sean Levon Nash, a Chockaw-Comanche urban Indian; Chilean-American Pablo Christie from East Los Angeles and Crystal Gonzalez, a Chicana animator from Reno. Leaños will also bring Los Cuatro Vientes, a Tucson mariachi, and a New Mexico composer Cristóbal Martínez on board.
The group is focusing on three 8-minute chapters.
The first is “The Making of the Southwest Borderlands,” a whirlwind remapping of five centuries of migration, settlement and conflict. “We will probably overwhelm people a but that’s the idea we want to get through that history is complex and that what we’ve been taught is a watered down version.”
The “Black Legend” explores two indigenous uprisings in New Mexico – the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and the assassination of the first American governor, Charles Bent, in 1847. Leaños sees these rebellions, which are missing from history books, as the first real American revolutions.
The third chapter, “Gold Green,” will examine the California Gold Rush from environmental and native perspectives.
Leaños is working with US Artists (USA), a grant-making organization that invests in artists and highlights their value to society.
Through the USA website they have a fundraising commitment to raise $6,000. They currently need $2,000 to reach their goal by Feb. 18 or be denied funds.
A glimpse of Leaños work at www.leanos.net is proof enough that this prolific artist/educator will continue his conscious disruptive activity using media to make us think about the world and the daily messages we receive.
“For me it really about engaging people, bearing witness and using my skills, my talent and my privilege as an educated person within the walls of empire and the little resources that I have to tell these stories. To use art and culture to raise questions, and to inspire people as well,” said Leaños.
