ENVOY USES ART IN HIS DIPLOMACY

For four decades, Javier Escobar has labored for the foreign service of Mexico’s government. And never has he seen a “border relationship” as peculiar as the one shared by San Diego and Tijuana.

Border areas such as those shared by El Paso and Juarez, Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, Brownsville and Matamoros, have much more in common, Escobar said--especially awareness of each other’s culture. Cross-cultural exchanges in such environments tend to flourish rather than wilt, he said.

As a consul general of Mexico and head of the local Mexican consulate, Escobar is concerned about what he sees as a lack of understanding between the two countries and the two cities, San Diego and Tijuana.

He thinks art--painting, sculpture, music, drama--can serve as a valuable tool for fostering understanding and linking different peoples through a common bridge. Everyone can enjoy art, he reasons, but art has a more valuable power: It carries the gift of insight; it enhances awareness and builds understanding. So, Escobar and his staff have begun a campaign to enhance awareness and build understanding, using art as a primary agent.

Already, the local consulate has brought to San Diego artist Raul Anguiano, who came from Mexico City to display his work at the Museum of Man in Balboa Park. The consulate, the San Diego Public Library and the Tijuana Cultural Center are co-sponsoring an exhibit of the work of Jose Luis Cuevas beginning Saturday at the Tasende Gallery in La Jolla.

Next on the consulate’s agenda is a Mexican film festival, and beyond that, Escobar said, who knows? What he does know, he says, is that the process will continue--Mexican artists will make their presence felt in San Diego, largely through sponsorship of the consulate.

“There seems to be almost no awareness here of what’s going on on the other side of the border,” he said. “We hope to change that, as much as we can.”

Escobar believes Mexicans are unfairly stereotyped by Americans. He believes art is capable of changing that.

“Some people seem to think that the sum total of Mexican culture is doing hat dances,” he said with a laugh. “Mariachis are an important part of our history and culture, but Mexican art is hardly limited to that! Please. We have terrific artists in film, theater, painting, sculpture . . . I just don’t believe we’ve gotten the recognition we completely deserve.”

Escobar sees projecting a truer image of Mexico as a high priority, a function of his office and rank. He has served in Mexican consulate offices in other cities, most notably Los Angeles. He has seen the brilliance of art in projecting that image and in “establishing lasting friendships between countries.” He believes cultural exchanges between countries--such as those shared between the United States and Soviet Union--are some of the most positive contributions diplomacy offers to a warring world.

“It’s not that we’ve neglected this sort of thing in the past,” he said. “It’s just that now we’re giving it new impetus. This has been made possible through the extreme cooperation we’ve received from the city of San Diego, particularly the Museum of Man (which hosted the Anguiano exhibit).

“No particular circumstance or plan caused us to do more. We just came to the realization that we weren’t doing enough.”

With illegal immigration being an increasingly important issue, with relations between the two countries growing rockier in recent years, Escobar sees the art of his country as playing a vital role in building a bridge.

He only hopes it can play a role in a dramatic way, soon.