Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Invisible Immigrants
WORK NOTES: with James D. Fernandez
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1975
WEBSITE:
CITY: Gijon, Asturias
STATE:
COUNTRY: Spain
NATIONALITY: Spanish
https://tracesofspainintheus.org/2014/11/13/a-legacy-of-smoke-a-documentary-film-by-luis-argeo-and-james-d-fernandez/ * http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4105530/ * https://voicesofny.org/2014/10/looking-invisible-immigrant-community/ * http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org/en/recursos/personas/luis-argeo
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1975, in Asturias, Spain.
EDUCATION:Universidad Pontificia, Salamanca, Spain, B.Sc IT.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Documentary writer, producer, and director.
WRITINGS
Writer, producer, and director of the documentary AsturianUS, 2006, and writer and director of Corsino by Cole Kivlin, 2010.
SIDELIGHTS
Luis Argeo studied computer science in Spain and has gone on to become a documentary writer, director, and producer. He is also an author of travel guidebooks. Among his documentaries are AsturianUS, which he wrote, directed and produced. He also wrote and directed Corsino by Cole Kivlin, which tells the story of 70-year-old Corsino Fernandez returning to his birthplace in Asturias, Spain, which he left in 1937 at the height of the Spanish Civil War. The story is told by Corsino, who became Cole Kivlin in the United States, at a Thanksgiving dinner with his children and grandchildren. Argeo is also coauthor with James D. Fernández, a university Spanish professor, of Invisible Immigrants: Spaniards in the US (1868-1945), a book of photographs from family albums of the descendants of Spanish immigrants to the United States at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century.
Argeo and Fernández traveled throughout the United States and Spain over a five-year period beginning in 2010 with cameras and scanners in order to compile their graphic archive focusing on a little known part of the shared history between the United States and Spain. Argeo was born in Spain and Fernández is the grandson of Spaniard who immigrated to the United States from the section of Asturias, where Argeo was born. “They realized early on that because many descendants had lost contact with their Spanish origin, valuable photos and documents could also be lost,” noted NBC News Web site contributor Arturo Conde. The authors set out to correct this potential catastrophe via a Kickstarter program seeking funds for the production of their book and ongoing efforts to save photographs. Overall, they raised nearly $45,000 from 360 people with donations ranging from $1 to $5,000.
Along with the photographs, Argeo and Fernández tell the stories of many of the immigrants pictured. For example, they tell the tale of how a poor immigrant family’s son, Albert, became the mayor of Monterey, California, which has a rich history of Spanish and Mexican rule prior to becoming part of the United States. Overall, Argeo and Fernández collected 324 photos from 80 sources. The photos primarily focus on everyday life, from family gatherings and functions to where the immigrants worked.
In an interview with New York Times Online contributor Francis Lam, Fernández noted that much of this Spanish-American connection in history has been lost because Spaniards were identified as Mexicans in California and as other nationalities in places such as New York City, where they were often assumed to be Puerto Rican. Fernández told Lam: “But you hear a field-labor story about people with Hispanic surnames in California, and by default they become ‘Mexican.’ In our country, the Spanish are so often invisible that way.” On their Kickstarter funding page for the book, Argeo and Fernández pointed out that the surviving children of the Spanish immigrants from the period the book covers are now in their eighties. However, these descendants have largely been dedicated to preserving their family photographs and have real concerns about the fate of their archives since subsequent generations are completely Americanized and see little value in preserving the past. Argeo and Fernández also noted that they decided a book of photographs was an ideal way to preserve this history. Their goal was not only to provide historical value to the photographs but also to entice others to preserve and document various aspects of the shared history between the Unite States and Spain. The authors, who have an archive of approximately 7,000 photos, have also reached out to descendants of immigrants via Facebook to help delineate family stories both in the United States an in other countries such as Cuba and Argentina, which share a history with Spain.
Invisible Immigrants “is a tribute to the solidarity that kept these early immigrant communities together,” wrote Conde in his article for the NBC News Web site. New York Times Online contributor Francis Lam called Invisible Immigrants “a beautiful, haunting historical photo album of the Spanish in America.”
BIOCRIT
ONLINE
Invisible Immigrants Web site, http://invisibleimmigrants.com (March 13, 2017).
Laboral Centro de Arte y Creacion Industrial Web site, http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org/en/ (March 13, 2017), author profile.
NBC News Web site,http://www.nbcnews.com/ (February 25, 2015), Arturo Conde, “Invisible Immigrants: Migration from Spain through Family Photos.”
New York Times Online,https://www.nytimes.com/ (June 17, 2015), Francis Lam, “The King of Tapas.”
Volunteer Online, http://www.albavolunteer.org/ (December 8, 2015), “Book Note Spanish Immigrants in the US (1868-1945.”*
LC control no.: no2014071614
Descriptive conventions:
rda
Personal name heading:
Argeo, Luis, 1975-
Birth date: 1975
Place of birth: Asturias (Spain)
Profession or occupation:
Motion picture producers and directors
Found in: Dan Albert's paella, 2013: title frame (Luis Argeo;
director)
BAFICI WWW site, viewed May 23, 2014 (Luis Argeo; b. 1975,
Asturias, Spain; degree in computer science from
Universidad Pontificia in Salamanca; documentary writer,
producer and director)
http://festivalesanteriores.buenosaires.gob.ar/bafici/ho
me11/web/en/biographies/show/v/director/322.html
================================================================================
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AUTHORITIES
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540
Questions? Contact: ils@loc.gov
Luis Argeo
Piedras Blancas, 1975
Luis Argeo
Bachelor of Information Sciences by the UPSA in Salamanca, he combines writing books and travel reports with the creation of videos and documentary films.He has more than a dozen guidebooks published with the publisher Anaya Touring. AsturianUS (2006) was his first documentary project as writer, producer and director, which has been followed by small audiovisual pieces as Balta (2008) and La casa de la abuela Marina (2008). His second documentary, Corsino, by Cole Kivlin (2010) participated in independent film festivals like FICXixón (Spain) or BAFICI (Argentina). In 2011 he performed the set of Ocho vídeo-retratos for the collective exhibition Retrato de Familia (Valey Centro Cultural de Castrillón).
No bio
NEWS
FEB 28 2015, 7:12 AM ET
‘Invisible Immigrants:’ Migration From Spain, Through Family Photos
by ARTURO CONDE
Photos have the power to capture a moment forever, but sometimes, the more you look at a portrait, the less you know about the people in them. This is the case with many family photos that have been forgotten over time. You may recognize your parents and grandparents, but not know who is standing next to them. And if you go back even more generations, the distance between your family and those people gets even bigger.
This distance has created invisible barriers between the children and grandchildren of many immigrants, who don't know of the bonds created by their family members - even a century before - in neighborhoods across the U.S.
Wedding in front of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe on 14th street in Manhattan, NYC, in the heart of one of the “Little Spains.” Castaños family/Invisible Immigrants
"I am the grandson of Asturianos (Spaniards from the section of Asturias) who immigrated to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century," said New York University professor James Fernández Wednesday at the presentation of his new book "Invisible Immigrants" in Washington D.C. And like the descendants of many immigrants, Fernández kept his family story separate from the stories of other Spanish-Americans.
Even though the NYU professor had taught Federico García Lorca's poetry for years, it took him a long time to come to terms with the idea that the acclaimed Spanish poet and his grandfather José could have lived in New York during the same period, much less share anything in common as expats in the city.
Fernández and his "Invisible Immigrants" co-editor, Spanish journalist Luis Argeo, have been documenting the history of different Spanish immigrants in the United States since 2010. They realized early on that because many descendants had lost contact with their Spanish origin, valuable photos and documents could also be lost.
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"These documents are in danger... because many of their owners, including myself in the past, don't recognize the historic value that their personal archives have for society," said Fernández.
One such story describes how the son of a poor immigrant family became the mayor of Monterey, a city that had been the capital of California during Spanish and Mexican rule. Fernández pointed out that Albert's story helped him connect with the descendants of other Spanish immigrants who had similarly immigrated to Hawaii before settling in California. And now, with the success of a documentary produced and directed by Fernández and Argeo about Albert's life, the Monterey Public Library started a digital campaign to preserve the photos and documents of Spanish immigrants.
Front counter and back store for Las Musas cigar shop in Brooklyn, NY c. 1915 Alonso-Sanchez family/Invisible Immigrants
"It took [two] curious visitors from outside to help people in Monterey realize how valuable their archives are," said Fernández.
"Invisible Immigrants" collected 324 photos from 80 different sources; it offers snapshots of everyday life, including immigrant shops and factories, family reunions, weddings and picnics.
The book itself is a tribute to the solidarity that kept these early immigrant communities together. And it inspired Fernández and Argeo to publish "Invisible Immigrants" as part of a larger community effort on Kickstarter.
"Immigrants didn't invent crowd funding but they raised money to support each other in many ways," Fernández told NBC News. "You can find [newspaper] listings with the names of supporters who raised money to help immigrants recover from injuries, return to Spain, and other [causes]."
Fernández and Argeo were able to raise almost $45,000 from 360 people, ranging from $1-$5,000. The majority of the photos are from the descendants of immigrants who have also literally bought into the publication of the book.
In the last 7 years, Fernández and Argeo have built an archive of almost 7,000 photos. And they have successfully used Facebook to connect with other descendants to map out family stories in the United States and other countries that share a history with Spanish immigration like Cuba and Argentina.
Fernández and Argeo stress that "Invisible Immigrants" is a community-owned project. In this case, they see themselves as "curators" of the immigrant story.
Book Note Spanish Immigrants in the US (1868-1945)
December 8, 2015
By The editors
In a time of great upheavals, among millions of other European immigrants, they were but a drop in the bucket. They arrived and spread out all over the country in search of opportunities.
Together they laughed and cried; together they lived and loved
They got organized. And rallied behind a cause that lost. They were here to stay.
This simple six-sentence story is a composite thumbnail sketch of the lives of tens of thousands of Spanish immigrants who settled in the United States in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. The fable structures this book of photographs, co-curated by ALBA board member James D. Fernández, and Spanish journalist and film-maker, Luis Argeo. Each of the six sentences serves as the heading of a chapter, in what Professor José Moya of Columbia and Barnard has called …a veritable kaleidoscope of immigrant lives and memories,” and Francis Lam in the Sunday magazine of the New York Times “a beautiful haunting historical photo album of the Spanish in America.”
Of particular interest are the photos that Fernández and Argeo have rescued from family albums for Chapter V, which documents the intense pro-Republican mobilization of Spanish American communities all over the country.
The book can be ordered at invisibleimmigrants.com
The King of Tapas
Eat
By FRANCIS LAM JUNE 17, 2015
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It’s the house that jamón built, the castle of chorizo, the mansion of manchego. The Spanish food mecca Despaña, in SoHo, is a landmark shop for food lovers, its dark wood finishes and white subway-tile walls bringing together the sights of Spain and New York. When I arrived to meet its owners, Marcos and Angélica Intriago, they welcomed me with tortilla española: potatoes and onions fat with olive oil and bound with egg into a neat little cake — the king of tapas. “But the problem with tortilla,” Angélica said to me, “is that Americans don’t want to pay for it because it’s just potatoes and eggs, and Spaniards don’t want to pay for it because it doesn’t taste like their mother’s.”
Still, tortilla was, in a sense, the soul of the business when it was just a tiny box of a chorizo factory in Queens. “One day, maybe 25 years ago, my old business partner was making a tortilla for lunch,” Marcos explained. “And of course we had a glass of wine. A customer came in as he was cutting the tortilla and asked for a slice. So, O.K. And of course, a glass of wine. So then we started putting out tapas for our customers.” Angélica laughed. “When I came to Despaña in 2000, it was so old-school,” she said. “They had no website, but Spanish people would come in, and we poured drinks for them — it was really a gathering place as much as it was a business. Even now, they still come in just to talk. And eat some tortilla!”
Just to be clear, the Spanish tortilla doesn’t come in corn or flour, and it isn’t something you’d want to fold into a taco. But the confusion is sort of apt. “I once read a history text about a Mexican fieldworker strike in California, in 1932,” James D. Fernández, a professor of Spanish at New York University, told me. “Well, it turns out none of the workers were Mexican — they were Spaniards! But you hear a field-labor story about people with Hispanic surnames in California, and by default they become ‘Mexican.’ ” He continued, “In our country, the Spanish are so often invisible that way.”
Fernández is the co-editor of “Invisible Immigrants,” a beautiful, haunting historical photo album of the Spanish in America. He noted that if the Spaniards in California were assumed to be Mexicans, in New York they were often mistaken for Puerto Ricans. (Two iconic tastes of Latino New York — Goya Foods and Café Bustelo, the ubiquitous bodega caffeinator — were in fact started by immigrants who originally came from Spain.)
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In the early 1900s, the Spanish community in New York concentrated around 14th Street and Eighth Avenue. There, “Little Spain” centered on the Spanish Benevolent Society, which took in newcomers and helped them find work, a place to stay, people to talk to and a meal: everything you need to start to feel a sense of home. (There’s still a pretty good restaurant on the ground floor. Get the fideuà.) But that neighborhood faded as immigration from Spain slowed to a trickle, and Spaniards living in New York City have had to find camaraderie wherever they can get it, like striking up conversation over tapas at a food shop you just stumbled into.
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As I took another bite of tortilla, shamefully eyeing a third slice, Angélica said: “You should taste the one Marcos’s brother Manolo makes. Everyone cuts the potatoes a different way, cooks them a different way, and it all makes a difference. But his is just like their mother’s.”
And so I found myself beside Manolo as he simmered onions and potatoes in a truly carefree quantity of olive oil; they emerged so soft, so rich, you might think they were made with cheese. We were at the home of the Intriagos’ friends Jorge, dressed patriotically in a white linen shirt with red pants, and Maria, who plied us all night with jamón-baked scallops and garlicky shrimp and a salt-cod empanada from her home region, Galicia. But even among all these delicacies, Manolo’s simple tortilla took pride of place at the table. His other brother, Candido, explained: “In the north of Spain, you have fabada; in the south, paella. But tortilla is everywhere. The tortilla is 150 percent Spain.” Then he confided: “Actually, I hate onions. But I love my mother’s tortilla.”
We ate and drank, and Antonio Banderas sang passionately over the speakers. Jorge and Candido talked about Broadway shows, settling on “Man of La Mancha” as their favorite. Later, more friends arrived: the chef at the Spanish Embassy and his Dominican wife — an honorary Spaniard in this crowd. Galician bagpipe music came on, and Maria danced, her arms in the air, a militant swing in her hips. It was late, and I called a car to go. They all stayed, anything but invisible to one another.