Modesto “Flako” Jimenez, a name synonymous with impactful and community-driven art, presents his latest multimedia installation, Mercedes, Part 1. This deeply personal and evocative production is a tribute to his grandmother, Mercedes Viñales, and her profound influence on the Bushwick, Brooklyn community she nurtured. Premiering at the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) from December 3rd to 8th, Mercedes, Part 1 is not just an art piece; it’s an experience encompassing a documentary, a gallery reminiscent of Mercedes’s home, and a healing room designed for reflection and processing.
Mercedes, Part 1 Installation
Jimenez’s Mercedes project is the result of three years of dedicated research, extensive community engagement, and innovative exploration of storytelling mediums. This journey included the development of a stage play and a virtual reality experience, each contributing to the rich tapestry of the Mercedes narrative. In a revealing interview, Modesto “Flako” Jimenez underscored the central theme of community that permeates the entire Mercedes undertaking. This emphasis on community is evident in their partnership with Citymeals on Wheels, an organization that provided the Mercedes team with invaluable insights into the lives of elderly individuals beyond the realm of art. Jimenez and his team actively engaged with seniors receiving meals from Citymeals, sharing his art and fostering meaningful connections.
A Multi-Sensory Journey Through Memory and Community
The design team for the BAM premiere, deeply committed to the Mercedes vision for three years, has meticulously crafted an immersive experience. Jimenez lauded the artistry of each designer, highlighting their dedication to bringing Mercedes’s world to life. The gallery space is ingeniously modeled after Mercedes’s own apartment, complete with a bedroom, kitchen, and foyer, inviting audiences to step directly into her lived environment. Complementing the gallery is a thoughtfully designed healing room, offering art supplies and a safe space for visitors to contemplate their experience of the installation. Crucially, a social worker and art therapist will be present in the healing room, providing support and guidance for those seeking deeper engagement with the themes explored in Mercedes of Modesto. The evocative set design for both the gallery and healing room is the work of Michael Minaham, with Megan Lang’s lighting design and Drew Weinstein’s sound design further enhancing the atmosphere. Cricket Brown served as the curator for this deeply personal installation.
Weaving Video Narratives: Layers of Dementia and Family
The video design component of Mercedes, Part 1 is helmed by two talented designers, Victor Morales and Juan “Wamoo” Álvarez, each contributing unique perspectives. Wamoo, in a separate interview, detailed his creation of three distinct television feeds within the gallery, each strategically placed in a different room. These feeds visually represent the progression of dementia as experienced by Mercedes, offering a poignant and intimate glimpse into her journey. Adding another layer of personal narrative, Wamoo also crafted a video composed of heartfelt letters written to Mercedes by her family members. Victor Morales focused on the documentary aspect, creating AI-generated imagery that adds a surreal and dreamlike quality, including images of flowers and of Flako’s father reading a letter to his mother. The documentary itself is directed by Brisa Areli Muñoz, who captures the heart of Flako’s story. Jimenez eloquently summarized the documentary’s intention: “Let me not tell you about the story, let me show you the story that is my grandmother and me. And that taps into family and community, and not just art.”
Celebrating Life, Not Trauma: Reframing the Narrative
Jimenez actively challenges the conventional narratives often imposed on stories of loss and remembrance. He resists the tendency to frame the death of a loved one solely through the lens of trauma. “If I’m sharing a moment of a celebration of a person who passed, some people might consider that trauma, and I’m constantly reminding an article or a person who wants to write about it, like, ‘Hey, hey, hey, hey, stop projecting.’ I’m here to celebrate my family and the legacy of Jimenezes who now are all over different states. … People die, yes—let’s celebrate their life. That lady brought a lot of us and gave us space to be able to gather our thoughts. Why wouldn’t I want to celebrate that?” This powerful statement encapsulates the core ethos of Mercedes of Modesto – a celebration of life and legacy.
Extending Community Outreach: Resources for Seniors
Reflecting the ongoing community engagement efforts of the Mercedes team, which includes ¡Oye! Group, BAM, Citymeals, and other partner organizations, the BAM production incorporates dedicated resources for elderly attendees. Jimenez described their initiative: “on December 4th and 5th, we’re bussing six different senior groups to give private shows in the mornings, and then feed them in the healing room with Citymeals on Wheels, and then be able to give them a to-go plate. So this is what we’ve been doing in the boroughs with Citymeals on Wheels. We give them a pop-up of Mercedes: we show them the documentary you’ll be seeing, then we bring in a dance instructor, then we bring in the live band that composed the music,” alongside the provision of healing rooms staffed with social workers and art therapists. Prior to the BAM premiere, the Mercedes team conducted senior center and home visits across New York City boroughs as part of a musical tour, further extending their outreach. These longer-term healing room programs, lasting two months at various senior centers, have also resulted in a collaborative coloring book project with elderly participants, which will be distributed at the BAM installation.
A Gathering of Worlds: Bringing Communities Together at BAM
The BAM premiere serves as a culmination of these diverse community engagements, bringing together the various groups and individuals the Mercedes team has connected with. Jimenez explained, “And now at BAM, we’re kind of bringing all those worlds together and then asking those people we had been visiting to come and see the final product of a moment of healing, and a migrant story that forgot themselves, and her son, or grandson, documenting that story so it’s not forgotten for the family.” This gathering underscores the unifying power of art and shared experiences, central to the message of Mercedes of Modesto.
More Than an Activist: Mercedes’s Quiet Community Care
Jimenez clarified the nature of his grandmother’s community impact, emphasizing her quiet acts of care: “Mercedes was not ‘a community activist or a community caregiver.’ She was a home attendant, so she worked…she was herself a caregiver her whole life, and she also took care of a tribe in an apartment. You could be family or not, you still could stay in this apartment. So it wasn’t about her making community activities, no. She just took care of a whole community in a third floor apartment, railroad apartment, in New York City. There was always space for you to come and process, whether it was just for one day, whether it was for three years.” This nuanced portrayal of Mercedes highlights the profound impact of everyday caregiving and the creation of safe spaces.
Art as a Tool for Community: Jimenez’s Philosophy
Jimenez and the interviewer discussed the multifaceted community outreach approaches employed by the Mercedes team, culminating in a collection of “research tools that have come by community, for community, that can be shared.” This collaborative methodology allowed the team to directly engage with communities, asking, “Does this make sense for your community?” and receiving invaluable feedback “from the people actually going through it, and not just what books we’re reading about it,” prioritizing real-time needs and experiences. This emphasis on community need is a driving force behind Jimenez’s artistic and educational endeavors.
¡Oye! Group: Fostering Spaces of Care and Process
Modesto “Flako” Jimenez is the artistic director of ¡Oye! Group, an organization he co-founded in 2012 with his cousin Kevin Torres, who serves as producing director and producer of the Mercedes documentary. Jimenez spoke about ¡Oye! Group’s mission of “creating those spaces of caring, of care, for your community or for the people that look like you, because that’s the one radical thing about ¡Oye! Group: that we know we’re doing it for our people.” He emphasized ¡Oye! Group’s commitment to ensuring “that other Latinos are being heard, that all people of color have the space to be able to process, because that’s our key in that company, the word ‘process.’”
¡Oye! Group offers a range of free monthly and seasonal educational workshop programs for all ages, led by local artists. These workshops utilize art as a tool for self-discovery and community building. One notable program, Fresh Start, provides art education for incarcerated youth, offering them “sneakers and a bookbag full of supplies” upon release as “pay” for their engagement, providing tangible support as they re-enter society. Jimenez’s approach to art education is deeply responsive to the needs of his students: “the curriculum always ‘changes by the second day—what do the kids in here need?’”
Art for Connection, Not World Change: A Humble Vision
Jimenez maintains a grounded perspective on the impact of his art. “My art is not going to change the world. At all. I hope my art is going to bring a little smile somewhere for a couple of minutes and make you forget we’re all fucked in this climate change, damaged-as-fuck world. That’s all. If I did that, I could die happy. I’m not here to change the world. I am here to provide some tools that I learned. If people need them, grab them. If you don’t, thank you for coming. Take care of yourself.” This humble yet powerful vision underscores his focus on human connection and providing solace through art.
In closing, Jimenez emphasized the crucial role of community and the unique ability of theater to foster connection. This philosophy is evident in Mercedes of Modesto and his broader work. When asked about his motivations as an artist and educator, he responded, “I don’t know. That’s the shit that’s always been in my head. … It’s in my heart, it’s in my brain, it’s in my life. It’s everything to me. I don’t know how to not operate as a person who likes learning and a person who likes teaching what he learned.” He emphasized that his work is driven by community contribution, not ego. “I believe in the gray, whatever the time and moment need. I will look into the toolbox that I created in my life and see if I have any tools I can share. And if I don’t find any, I’ll say I don’t. You want to talk about it and see if we can come up with a tool together?”
Reflecting on his early artistic recognition, Jimenez shared a poignant story from his high school performance as Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet. “I remember a bunch of gang members that stole a van to come see me do a show. They risked their life to come and see a friend do a theatre show. … There’s that reminder of the essence of what a show can do to people that are not from that world of theatre. It’s beautiful. That was that moment for me. It’s, ‘Oh shit, look at my people engage with theatre … and we’re all gang members … but they came to support me in this.’ And now we have ¡Oye! Group.” This story beautifully illustrates the power of art to transcend boundaries and connect with diverse communities, a principle at the heart of Mercedes of Modesto.
