Tuesday, March 11, 2014

"PURPOSE PITCH" 5 & 6: THE SCRIBES OF BEN (CHORIZEROS BRAND, CARMELITA BRAND)

Deeply affected by the narratives produced by the Latino Baseball History Project, Ben Sakoguchi created an "orange crate art triptych" honoring the communitarian exploits of the Carmelita Chorizeros, East Los Angeles' baseball dynasty.

Chorizeros Brand and Carmelita Brand round out the trilogy; each painting partakes in closely related design patterns--the color-varied border striping, the mascot logo, the absence of the otherwise ubiquitous orange groves.

What's clear is that these people, these stories, this history simply but profoundly resonates for Ben, who is drawn to what's special in the everyday, in the community created by otherness. (And you will be reminded, perhaps, that this is one of the key themes or forces informing how the voters in the Baseball Reliquary determine who belongs--and who doesn't--in their Shrine of the Eternals.)

A terrific overview of the Carmelita Chorizo company and its long legacy in East Los Angeles can be found in Kamren Curiel's feature from the now-defunct Los Angeles Times Magazine.