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The assimilation of Gustavo Dudamel is playing well on the red carpet. Walking into Disney Hall Thursday night, Quincy Jones told me Dudamel reminds him of a young Leonard Bernstein. Andy Garcia said he's proud Dudamel's Hispanic but loves him for being a great conductor. Angela Bassett said she admires his humility and "of the earth" background. And Eli Broad gushed, "He's brought young people together, he's brought the Latino community together, he's brought us all together." And you know that Broad with his billions in philanthropy has as much power to anoint and legitimize as anyone in Los Angeles.
Gustavo Dudamel's Simon Bolivar- tinged declaration on Saturday opened the door even wider. Several on the red carpet repeated his words. Remember Dudamel said he's proud to be Venezuelan, Latino and American. And the echo of those words appears to be in a pinball machine bounce off the Hollywood Hills, the San Gabriel Mountains down to the Anaheim Hills.
But can we consider this list: Salma Hayek, Robert Graham, Gustavo Dudamel, Lupillo Rivera, George Lopez, Julieta Venegas. All are accomplished artists or performers, all either Latin American-born or Mexican American, and all at various stages of personal assimilation and mainstream acceptance. I suppose Lupillo Rivera is the one who sticks out the most. Is it because banda music remains on the fringes of American mainstream culture? When will it join zydeco? When do we wear our foreign nationalism proudly and when do we couch it in larger multi-ethnic terms? When is it OK to be Mexican first? How do the doors of mainstream acceptance open and close depending on how you express your national identity?
Millions of first and second generation immigrant students are grappling with that question right now. You're likely to get one answer from students attending Santee Learning Complex south of downtown L.A. Some of their teachers - members of the militant Association of Raza Educators - are trying out carve out a safe space for a Mexican identity in an American context. And how does this compare to the identity dilemma of immigrant students who attend schools in well off suburban schools?
On Thursday night Dudamel conducted a symphony by a European composer who likely grappled with similar issues but who's now in the mainstream classical music canon. Gustav Mahler was born Jewish in Bohemia, performed in Prague, and other European cities and at one point converted to Catholicism to get a plum conducting position in Vienna. In 1909 he became the New York Philharmonic's conductor. Talk about fluid ethnic identity!
