I consider myself a genuine citizen of the Americas, a hybrid offspring of cultures clashing on an experimental stage called El Nuevo Mundo (The New World). I was born in Ecuador, one of the smallest countries in South america, named after the imaginary Equatorial line that passes through it. My early childhood memories are of big torrential rains, giant pyramids of mangos at the market, and petite Indian women selling ripe halves of avocados at traffic lights.

Like most South Americans, I am a Mestizo, the term used to describe the post-Colombian race created by the Spanish Conquistadors’ violent fusion with the indigenous people of the Americas. Thus, I am walking cultural mosaic with Spanish, German, and Quicha native blood coursing through my veins.

In 1968 at the tender age of seven, I arrived in the United States with my mother, and just as many immigrants before us, we made the journey from Third World to First World in search of a better life--in search of a dream. We migrated to the New York City area, where my rather harsh and dramatic rites of passage through urban American culture began. I passed from South America to North America, from a metaphoric reality to one where function dictates form, and from romantic Spanish to business English.

Since 1984, I have lived in New Orleans. It is the only place in the U.S. where I feel at peace with my Latino identity. Its Caribbean sensibility feeds my cultural heritage, and my creative work has been nurtured by this profound sense of belonging. Above all, I hold steadfast to a romantic notion that as an artist I can initiate dialogue with my work and be instrumental in raising consciousness for social change.

Jose Torres Tama