The Latino Professionals Association Celebrates Yo Soy: Over 40 Years of Latin Arts (Part 2 of 2)
Oscar Mireles, founder of LOUD — Latinos Organizing for Understanding and Development — cut his teeth on the Latino arts scene in Milwaukee during the 1980s.
by Jonathan Gramling
Until recently, Oscar Mireles had been primarily known in the Madison area as the executive director of Omega School, where he helped people, especially youth, get their second chance by getting their GED or HSED. He did that for 30 years, beginning in 1994 and retiring last year.
And last year, Mireles transitioned to a new role in the community as the founder of LOUD, Latinos Organizing for Understanding and Development. LOUD produces several Latin-oriented arts performances or exhibits throughout the year.
Mireles isn’t a “johnny come lately” to the Latin Arts scene. His involvement began in Milwaukee in the 1980s and eventually continued when he moved to Madison after making the adjustment to a new job and city.
“When I got to Madison — I arrived in 1994 — I had four kids under the age of seven,” Mireles said. “We bought a home on Wheeler Road. So the only arts you do is you pick up the crayons that are on the floor. The first couple of weeks we got here, I was instructed by my then wife to go to a PTO meeting. I did that. The second thing I did was I opened up my mouth. And the third thing I was elected vice-president of the PTO.”
And it was on the PTO that Mireles reignited his arts career.
“Low and behold, a year or two later, we had Ballet Folklorico de Jesus Avila come to the school,” Mireles recalled. “We raised a couple of grand and they did a month long residency with the school.”
In essence, Mireles took advantage of the opportunities as they presented themselves
We had the Wisconsin Sesquicentennial,” Mireles said. “So we got some money to do the second edition of the anthology. So I would still do things back then that I do now. But they were more like one off. I did poetry and I did publish.”
And Mireles continued to network.
“The Civic Center had a foundation board,” Mireles said of the institution that made way for the Overture Center. “And I was on the foundation board when the Civic Center was part of the city. That was in the 1990s. My kids started finishing high school and going on to college after 2005. I could had a little more time to spend on the arts. I became Madison Poet Laureate. And I was on the MMoCA board and the Overture board. And I also became involved in Central Park Sessions. This allowed me to be involved in the arts but not be solely in charge. I learned from other people like Bob Queen.”
In addition to furthering the mission of the arts organizations that he joined, Mireles joined the boards because they allowed him to develop relationships that would allow him to fulfill his mission of promoting Latin arts.
“It’s important to sit at the table in order to be able to raise issues that the majority of the people on the committee aren’t aware of,” Mireles said. “It’s important to have a voice. It doesn’t mean that I speak every moment to argue a point. It’s important to be aware of where things are heading. Sometimes I’ve learned that in between meetings, you can educate people through conversations and make them aware of things that sometimes don’t happen. Sometimes when it doesn’t happen at the meeting, there are some things outside of the meeting that can happen. Usually I go early to meetings and then you can have a talk with and meet other people. It’s kind of small talk. Even with Zoom, I go early because sometimes, you can have conversation. A lot of it is about relationships. If you know someone, they are probably going to take your call. They are probably going to figure out a way to help you. And they probably are going to support what you do. Being at the table does make a difference.”
Mireles got involved with the Madison Symphony Orchestra by joining its diversity committee and recently became a member of their board.
“The first thing I saw in going to the meetings was that there wasn’t a lot of traffic going on,” Mireles said. “In 2019, they had these Christmas concerts. I thought that was pretty good. The Mt. Zion Gospel Choir is part of that Christmas concert, which I didn’t know. I said, ‘If I don’t know about it, maybe a lot of other people don’t know about it.’ They said, ‘We can give you 40 tickets to the Friday night show to give to people who can’t afford them.’ I said, ‘No, I want to get people who have the resources to go to the symphony.’ For 25 years, I’ve never gone to the symphony and no one ever asked me to go. This would be my first concert. I think there are people, given the opportunity, would attend. My goal is either to give people tickets who might buy tickets to next year’s concert or be a potential symphony subscriber or place their own order with the symphony.”
Real diversity in Mireles’ view involved not just the programming, but the audience as well.
“To encourage diversity, I would organize a luncheon,” Mireles said. “We would bring a lot of people in and do a lot other programs. When I am on the boards, part of it is to help them raise money. But it is also to do something about diversity in their programming as a value added. We would bring people in about six weeks to learn about things. When we had Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Dawn Crim did a talk on body image and then we did some poetry based on the art exhibit. And we also did a workshop on concept culture. We are always looking to create additional programming to bring in the local culture and a diverse audience. It’s good to get diverse artists, but the full circle is having a diverse audience come to see the diverse artists. Diverse artists with the same audience is no value added.”
Mireles founded LOUD to continue and strengthen Latin Arts programming in Madison. It started with the Latino Arts Fair, which had been founded by the Latino Chamber of Commerce. As the Chamber pursued a more statewide focus, Mireles took the art fair on.
“I was able to create a platform where we could do things with local Latino artists in the proper venue,” Mireles said. “When we took over the Latino Art Fair, it was good that it was at Overture. But at one point it was in the lobby, which is not a great place to display art. There’s almost too much light. And when we would be upstairs in the Promenade Hall, it would be too dark. In talking to the artists and looking to the artists, we moved the Latino Art Fair to the Common Wealth Gallery. That’s a proper gallery to exhibit art. The proper space and lighting really makes a difference with the visual arts.”
LOUD has since taken on the production of two more Latin Arts events.
“Because of my record and us doing the Latino Art Fair, Professor Carolyn Smythe Kallenborn asked me if I would take over the Day of the Dead altar boxes,” Mireles said. “And Ricardo at The Cardinal Bar asked me to take over Latin Music Fest on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Part of having those kind of already established events, it makes it easier for someone to continue it. It has a history and you’re not just starting from scratch. Starting from scratch is a lot more challenging.”
As the Latine community continues to grow, the Latin Arts scene will also continue to grow. LOUD under Oscar Mireles’ direction has preserved three Latin Arts mainstays while also assisting other organizations become diverse in their boards, offerings and audiences. Through these efforts, Mireles will help keep the Latin Arts scene flourish for years to come.
