This image is part of the ‘Ojos’ bi-weekly series. Ojos is a photoletter that tributes people, their merits, the environment and connects our human experience to community with the use of a camera—here in the Bay Area.
“I was Chilean in Chile, and in the United States I learned that I was Latin American,” Gonzalo Hidalgo said during our interview from his Fruitvale studio loft that he built himself more than one decade ago. The 63-year-old was barely a teenager when the 1973 coup d’etat occurred, and moved to Miami, Florida seven years later where he socialized with other Latin American groups and cultures. But when he relocated to the Bay Area in 1982, Hidalgo became inspired by the art scene and its radical political landscape and history. “I felt like I could exist here,” he said, referencing his early years in Berkley. Hidalgo is an artisan and artist who has been constructing altars and a large Cempasuchil Altar Arc for Oakland’s Día de los Muertos Festival that happens in the Fruitvale Plaza across the street from where he lives. He credits Mexico’s robust and vibrant culture, which has inspired him to create altars for the past 25 years. “Color doesn’t exist in Chile, our culture is very grey,” he remarked. “This time of the year means a lot to me because I have the possibility to connect with my ancestors.”