“Writing and storytelling were a kind of escape from the violence and poverty I saw and experienced around me growing up. They were an opportunity for me to step out of my environment and create alternate worlds.”

-Alex Espinoza

“When someone pays attention to you, you feel like you have an identity, and you have meaning. I want them to have the same feeling. I want them to know that they are someone, that they are important.”

-Narsiso Martinez

Artist Narsiso Martinez and writer Alex Espinoza share their intersecting stories of family, place, identity, escape, and witness. In equally powerful narrative drawings and narrated words, these two artists create connections in situations and generations where disconnections often speak louder than truth or tenderness.

Martinez and Espinosa are interviewed by Melinda Gandara, who teaches literature, art, and culture in the American Ethnic Studies, Chicano Studies, and Art History Departments at Santa Barbara City College. She also serves as an adjunct professor at the Institute of American Indian Art teaching the Arts of Central and South America and Native American Art History.

Book signing to follow.

Parallel Stories is a literary and performing arts series that pairs art and artists with award-winning authors and performers of regional, national, and international acclaim. This series functions as a multidisciplinary lens through which to view the Museum's collection and special exhibitions.