Thirteenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

Manuela Garcia is arguably the most significant voice of early Los Angeles, yet little is known of her. Prior to COVID-19 we had planned a one day evening programming at the Autry Museum exploring Garcia’s life, art, and hemispheric significance to California and the Americas. Born into a family of musicians, Garcia collaborated with Charles Lummis, former head of the Los Angeles Public Library, to collect and record “Spanish” folk songs. Garcia contributed over 100 songs to Lummis’ project. While the importance of his work has long been recognized, Lummis’ so-called “informants” — culture bearers and artists like Garcia — remain largely unknown. This project amplifies the potential of decolonial museum praxis, digital technology, and performance to reimagine race and gender, critique inequities, and tell untold histories. We are a diverse, interdisciplinary group of mostly women collaborating hemispherically on a series of projects about Garcia including an introductory essay; multilingual poetry exploring Garcia’s life, a bilingual soundscape, an essay on decolonial curatorship and community engagement, a feminist analysis of transnational music copyright, and an interactive map of LA into which will be embedded performances of Garcia’s archive by Garcia herself and contemporary, LA-based, women mariachis.