Category: Best Advocate

The Great Tortilla Conspiracy is Rene Yáñez, Rio Yáñez and Jos Sances. The Conspiracy is the world's most dangerous tortilla art collective. Modeling themselves after the Free Masons, these extremely talented artists united in September 2006 to bring the gospel of tortilla art to the masses like no other. They deal with issues of identity, religion, apparitions, post-modern abstractions, globalization and genetically modified food. They use the corn tortilla as a canvas to make art that increases public awareness about the rise of Corporate (Monsanto) Monopolized Transgenic Corn and about the high price of tortillas in Mexico which has all but destroyed the centuries old, sustenance giving culture of corn.

Rene Yáñez and Rio Yáñez are a father and son team who are Curators at SomArts Cultural Center in San Francisco, California USA.

Rene Yáñez is a Chicano artist and curator. He is currently mapping a movement of tortilla art across the United States. He has had a lengthy career in San Francisco as curator, artist, writer, producer, artistic director. He was a founding board member of the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery where he served for eight years and has been on numerous panels both for the California Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts. In 1998, he received the "Special Trustees Award in Cultural Leadership" from the San Francisco Foundation for his long-standing contribution to the cultural life of the Bay Area. http://www.somarts.org

Rio Yáñez son of Rene Yáñez and Yolanda Lopez (a very talented Artist in her own right), is known in some circles as "The Woody Allen of Tortilla Art". http://www.rioyanez.com/ http://www.newinspirationalmovement.org/blog/?author=5#038;paged=1

Jos Sances is founder and the art director of Alliance Graphics located in Berkeley, California USA. It began in 1989 and has grown into a successful, union screenprint and design shop. Mr. Sances has created several public works of art and currently serves as an Art Commissioner for the City of Berkeley.
http://www.josart.net/index.html

Through an ongoing series of interactive appearances in the San Francisco Bay Area, the public is invited to learn about different art techniques such as silk screening, digitally created images used with heat transfer, mono printing and feltpen drawing with which they then create their own pieces of tortilla art.

At The Conspiracy's recent exhibition in SomArts Cultural Center (April 3 through the 23rd), a Special Panel was held on the globalization of Tortillas and transgenic corn. Featuring Jos Sances who discussed activist art while presenting his artwork, Chip Lord of Ant Farm speaking on Tortilla Art & Apparitions, Rene Yáñez who held a lecture on transgenic corn, and Violeta Luna, a transborder performance artist, performed a beautifully executed piece on globalization and corn. The hugely successful Fashion show presented an array of clothing, tote bags and dog wear adorned with heat transfered digital images created by Rio Yáñez. (Please see supporting website addresses under Supporting material.)

By sharing their belief in the purity of the Corn Tortilla they stand in solidarity with the Mexican and Latin American movements against transgenic corn while addressing their concerns through their artwork and mischief.

Supporting material or background info (eg websites/news sources)

The Great Tortilla Conspiracy
Statement by Rene Yáñez

The Great Tortilla Conspiracy is a layered tortilla. It deals with issues of identity, religion, apparitions, post-modern abstractions, and the issue of transgenic corn. Much of my recent artwork addresses apparitions in tortillas. I have completed a series of Virgins on Tortillas; I find Guadalupe, sacred hearts, and other Virgins very beautiful. Their golden rays and pearly back halos give them an otherworldliness that establishes their purity and heavenly features. I can assure you that when I work on apparition tortillas, miracles happen.

There is a large political movement in Mexico against transgenic corn and the U.S. genetically modified agriculture industry. Actions by greedy corporations, endorsed by the current administration, have led to the closing of Mexican corn fields and thus massive unemployment. Yet the Bush administration is in denial of the cause and effect relationship between the economic devastation of an industry in Mexico and illegal immigration into the United States.

To make matters worse, natural corn crops in Mexico are be being contaminated by transgenic seeds from neighboring farms. Not all forms of transgenic corn are meant to be eaten by humans and when crops are contaminated with these seeds they can have dangerous consequences. Recently there was an outbreak of sickness from people eating tortillas at Taco Bells in the Midwest because the tortillas had come from a contaminated corn crop. The impact of transgenic foods is not limited to just humans, transgenic pollen is currently being analyzed as something that could cause the demise of the Monarch Butterfly worldwide.

In Mexico transgenic corn has contributed to the skyrocketing price of tortillas and as usual the poor pay the highest price, hunger. Another cause of the recent rise in prices is the ethanol fuel industry. Since President Bush put forward initiatives to boost the use of ethanol as a fuel, corporations have been buying Mexican corn crops in vast amounts. This has left very few farms that are producing corn for tortillas and thus demand and prices have spiraled out of control. The largest benefactor of this is Walmart, Mexico's biggest retailer and private employer. Walmart has been able to charge less of an inflated price for tortillas and is now the leading retailer of tortillas in Mexico. We must hold the governments of the United States and Mexico accountable for their roles in this.

Included in this exhibit of the Great Tortilla Conspiracy is the Tortilla Hall of Fame. It recognizes various people in different fields for their contributions to our culture and community. They include fine artists, artistas that are fine, cholos doing chuco art, performeros and performance artists, real and not so real Fridas, waiters, rumberos, anarchists, Dadaists, yuppietecas, beatnicks, myspace superstars, border crossers, cross dressers, cybervatos, garavatos, mission vatos, post-modern vatos, and tortilleras. If I have missed anyone please forgive me.

The Great Tortilla Conspiracy's Official Site includes an array of photos taken at most of the events listed above.
URL: www.tortillaconspiracy.com