Galvez brings Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs to Vegas

Friday, Oct. 5, 2001 | 7:54 a.m.

The guys standing around in the middle of a joke could be at any street fair in Barranquilla, Colombia, or Mexico City. Or East Los Angeles. Or North Las Vegas.

Jose Galvez has been taking photos of guys such as the ones in his photo called "Street Scene, Late 80s" for 30 years. And they're mostly guys, or "vatos," as in the street slang of Mexicans living north of the border.

"Vatos" is the name both of the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer's book published last year, and his exhibition in Las Vegas through Oct. 12.

Hispanic men, mostly of Mexican background, have been the main subject of Galvez' photos for more than three decades.

"Men in our culture are so out there," Galvez said. "They come here to work in great numbers, hoping to send for their families.

"But at the same time, they're so invisible. There are stereotypes which portray them as brutes without passports. But they're also caring fathers, teachers, kids who want to be somebody.

"So I try to combat the stereotypes with my photos."

Galvez did that with the Los Angeles Times for 12 years, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 as part of a team that covered the Mexican Americans in Southern California.

His work is also in the group exhibition "Americanos," which began touring the nation in 1999 at the National Museum of American History in Washington and is at the McAllen International Museum in McAllen, Texas.

He has seen certain patterns traveling around the nation.

"People in Santa Monica (Calif.) don't tend to go to East Los Angeles, just like people in Summerlin don't get over to North Las Vegas much. This segregation worries me, since it keeps people from understanding one another.

"And what happens is that the Hispanics will go to the Strip or Henderson to work in a restaurant or to cut lawns, but the reverse isn't true."

The photographer commented on recent events during an interview eight days after the terrorist attacks.

"Of course, you'll be seeing more raza, or Hispanics, on the street here in Las Vegas in the weeks to come. The hotels and casinos will be laying people off, and they're the ones in many of these jobs.

"I just hope that people's sensibility prevails around the nation and that there's no backlash against immigrants in general."

He also said he hopes his work helps develop this sensibility, and says he believes more in people making changes in their communities than in politicians.

"I visited a small town called Nashville, North Carolina, where the Latino population has grown tremendously in the last few years," Galvez said. "And though there was tension between the old and the new communities at first, somehow the Latinos were able to get the tobacco farmers and factory workers to go to their soccer games.

"The two groups got to see through a lot of the false images they had of each other."

Galvez' photos are similar to soccer matches in the North Carolina town -- they bring people together.

"A lot of people who are not Hispanic come up to me after seeing my work and tell me they feel like they got to know the culture a little better. I tell them to get out to fiestas, go to the neighborhoods, get to know as many different kinds of people as possible."