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Art Project Puts Brighter Futures In Bloom
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Published: June 22, 2008
GIBSONTON - When artist Ernesto Cuevas Jr. first asked children at the Gardenville Recreation Center to draw what was near and dear to them, he got a surprise.
Instead of the guns, gold and cash depicted by other kids participating in the countywide anti-gang project, the children of this rural east Hillsborough County community sketched the Earth.
Many of the kids walk by graffiti every day. They know friends involved in gangs. Some were born into the life; their mothers and fathers gang members. Others have lost relatives to gang violence.
Cuevas encouraged them to dig deeper with portraits of what affected their world. Putting those experiences on paper is always illuminating, Cuevas said.
"They start to see visually, 'You had an experience I had,'" he said. "A paradigm starts to shift."
The pictures were a brainstorming of sorts for four murals in progress this week and set to be unveiled next month as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods. The federal anti-gang program is administered by Hillsborough County and Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services.
Hillsborough won the two-year, $977,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to create anti-gang programs in nine "hot spots" from Plant City to Riverview to east Tampa.
"We're not as big as a Chicago or New York or Los Angeles," said Clarence "CJ" James, the county's anti-gang prevention coordinator. "And we don't want to be."
With about 120 confirmed gangs and membership approaching 2,000-strong, Hillsborough has the second-fastest growing gang population behind Los Angeles, said James, a Tampa native and former New Orleans police officer.
The project focuses on 1,274 children between 7 and 14 - the age when gang recruitment typically begins - with programs that include sports, field trips, mentoring, tutoring, dance, drama and art.
Some are children of migrant workers who see gang life as a way to have the things they can't afford. Others come from broken homes and look to gangs for stability.
"We give them projects and discuss what's happening in their life," said Jonathan Miller, a program director at Gulf Coast Community Care, which is administering the grant. "We talk to them about how to make better decisions. We're planting seeds in youths' minds: What else can be done besides being in a gang?"
Miller, a retired police officer who spent eight years with the L.A. Police Department, said Hillsborough has become such a hot spot for gangs because of its steady growth.
"The gangs here are an extension of L.A.," he said. "They're an extension of Chicago, an extension of New York. Parents are moving from those cities to Florida thinking they are getting away from it, when they're coming right into it."
Gulf Coast has spent about $769,000 so far on the initiative, said Rochelle Tatrai, the agency's chief operating officer. The grant ends next year, but county officials hope to obtain more funding to continue the project.
The county used a portion of the grant to commission Cuevas, an Atlanta artist who grew up in Plant City and Dover and who operates RedCielo. The company oversees murals and community art projects as a form of outreach.
Cuevas, his staff and park employees work with the children to sketch designs on the walls before painting begins. The project will take four to five weeks to complete.
Cuevas, 34, is a local success story; the son of migrant workers could have been destined for the fields and lost to gangs.
His parents left farm-working behind, though, for more stable jobs. They signed up Cuevas with his local Boys & Girls Club at age 4. He attended after-school programs at county recreation centers in Dover and Plant City throughout childhood.
Through his participation and strong academics, Cuevas won a scholarship to Tampa Preparatory High School, which paved the way for an art degree from Dartmouth College.
He now works with other artists and program facilitators, who help draw out ideas from the children. For this mural panel, the kids were asked to combine their interest in the environment with their everyday decisions.
The result was two hands on opposite corners of the panel pulling at a vine. Behind them are houses, a horse, musical notes and an airplane on its way to London.
"It represents the internal struggle a child has to go through," Cuevas said.
It's a daily struggle for 11-year-old Luis Arzola and Juan Martinez, 14. The boys see the gang tags, they watch the fighting. Luis lost a grandfather in Texas to gang violence.
For his picture, he drew the scales of justice. Juan drew the world "with my family on top of it."
Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144 or sackerman@tampatrib.com.
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