By Jeannie Kever
November 26, 1982
reprinted from El Paso Times, 1982
The El Paso artist is noted for his late-into-the-night parties, but this one has a special purpose.
With the money he hopes to raise from a small-scale Mexican bazaar Saturday, Acosta wants to make art a portable commodity, available to people in all of El Paso's neighborhoods.
The idea of a traveling exhibit taking art and artist into the city's different communities has been one of Acosta's favorite dreams for a long time.
But he had no money for the lumber to build a portable show.
"We artists have been in such dire straits lately, we've been having to go on a diet," he says, laughing but with serious overtones. "Sales of paintings are almost nil now."
But - money or not - Acosta has always done what he could to support favored causes in El Paso.
And the Ladies LULAC Council No. 4329 decided to repay him.
He refused to take money, council member Josie Saldana says. But they finally decided on a compromise.
"I said, 'No, no, I couldn't accept money,'" Acosta says. "But they were insistent. So this evolved."
"This" is a festival of food, drinks, music dancing and art sprawling from Acosta's front yard gazebo, through his home-studio at 366 Buena Vista and into his back patio.
People who pay the $3 admission charge can eat, drink, get a mock marriage, divorce or jail stay, listen to music and watch a variety of dancers.
There will be performances by mariachis, opera singer Manuela Dominguez, Juarez musician Juan Manuel Carreon, the Gilbert and Sullivan troupe, dances by the Rosa Guerrero folklorico group and the Susan Francis Dancers.
All this, Acosta says, "to relieve people of the heavy burden of carrying money."
The festival opens at 1 p.m. and will move indoors at 8 p.m. until it winds down.
Once it's over, he'll go to work building the portable stands for his traveling exhibit.
Initially, Acosta will take his own work into the neighborhoods and talk to the people about art. But eventually he hopes to have other artists volunteer their time and their personal opinions about art.
"It will be a friendly exposition, not something they'll be afraid of," he says of his plans. "It's important for art to be there. I'll encourage people to enjoy what is there. They don't have to like it. They can have their own opinions. But I'll encourage them to start buying small inexpensive items," replacing the funeral-home calendars he remembers from his own childhood with pieces of original art.
The first neighborhood Acosta plans to visit is Val Verde in the Lower Valley, only blocks from where he lives now.
Acosta moved to the Val Verde area as an elementary-school student with his family, and his memories of playing in the sewer plant and around the canals are still vivid.
"They're very dear to me, these neighborhoods," he says, "because I remember how it looked, how it smelled."
Second on his list is Chihuahuita, the barrio his family first moved to when, with Acosta still an infant, they crossed the Rio Grande fleeing the Mexican Revolution.
He hopes the chance to see art, and artists, up close will make a difference to people.
"When I was young and just beginning to feel the inclination to be an artist, I would trace newspaper advertisements," he says. "Until high school, I had no exposure to any art or artist. . . . Now, as I look back, I could have benefited tremendously with some contact with another artist."