Santa Fe New Mexican: Moving Arts Española director honored by Univision

By Marianne Todd For The New Mexican

Than Povi Martinez spends her days practicing and perfecting her art as a dance major at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

The San Ildefonso Pueblo member dreams of one day dancing with the prestigious Alonzo Kings LINES Ballet in San Francisco.

Martinez, now 20, said she got her start in dance at age 5 at Moving Arts Española, a nearly 15-year-old organization that has grown to serve about 450 kids from the Española Valley each week in a range of visual, performance and culinary arts programs. The nonprofit also provides behavioral health services to teens and young adults.

Martinez’s longtime mentor and teacher, Moving Arts co-founder and Executive Director Salvador Ruiz Esquivel, recently returned to Española from Washington, D.C., where he was honored in a televised event as a top 10 finalist for Univision’s UniVisionarios initiative, which recognizes some of the nation’s most influential Hispanics.

UniVisionarios is the first Spanish-language platform to recognize the achievements of Hispanics who are committed to improving and advancing Hispanic communities in the U.S.

While the Washington gala was an honor for Ruiz Esquivel, he said his real success stories are found in the lives of Moving Arts students.

He founded the organization in 2008 with his partner, Democratic state Rep. Roger Montoya of Velarde, a former painter, professional dancer and gymnast who served as artistic director until earlier this year.

Ruiz Esquivel, a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, spoke during a rehearsal break for UniVisionarios and said despite his experiences, the national stage made him jittery.

“I am a nervous wreck,” he said. “I’ve been running an arts program, and I still have stage fright.”

Montoya, who had started an integrated arts program at Española Public Schools, invited Ruiz Esquivel to teach Folklorico dance and visual arts, he said. “A year later, we founded the program, and we did it because there was nothing in Española.”

The pair began by approaching the district’s superintendent with the idea and were provided with a small classroom at its central office. “Then we moved to an abandoned school, and then to our present location at Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo,” Ruiz Esquivel said.

The site holds 16,000 square feet of learning space where instruction is offered in dance, gymnastics, drama, music, visual arts and culinary arts. Students come to learn how to sew or play guitar, sing or dance hip-hop, ballet or Ruiz Esquivel’s favorite, Folklorico.

The organization has created a commercial kitchen and serves meals to students and their families. “They were coming in tired, sleepy and hungry,” Ruiz Esquivel said. “… We procure vegetables from farmers with the help of interns who are in high school.”

The recent opening of the organization’s 2,400-square-foot Digital Media Lab also provides kids with after-school and summer classes in video and cinema production, editing and music production, along with counseling.

“Because of so much trauma that we have in the community, drug use, alcoholism, parents separated and children being raised by grandparents, the kids have introverted personalities,” Ruiz Esquivel said. “They’re shy and fearful, so we teach them self-esteem. To be themselves is very important, and we do that through the arts.”

About 60 percent of the program’s students are raised by grandparents. Others have parents who are incarcerated or who are suffering from the effects of drug and alcohol addiction. Some suffer from the effects of verbal or physical abuse.

Moving Arts of Española embraces the motto “Arts is medicine” to help heal a population that largely carries the weight of ancestral trauma, substance abuse and poverty.

“I remember loving all the classes that were there,” Martinez said, “and I wanted to take every single one. This was before I understood what the concept of money was about.”

No child is turned away at Moving Arts. With the help of grant funding, classes are $5, and many kids receive scholarships.

More than 60 Moving Arts graduates have enrolled in New Mexico School for the Arts, a state-chartered high school in Santa Fe. Others, like Martinez, are graduating from leading high schools and colleges and are building careers in the arts and becoming community leaders, Ruiz Esquivel said.

Martinez described Ruiz Esquivel as a “busy bee, running around and making sure everything is in order. Whatever was in need, Sal knew where it was or how to fix it. They took me under both their wings in the sense of being of artistic and moral character and living life in a beautiful way.”

The patience has proven a virtue, Ruiz Esquivel said.

“Sometimes I’m in therapy with a child because mama isn’t there,” he said. “Sometimes I’m the referee because Maria and Lucy don’t like each other. Depending on the day, I need different hats.

“I always tell the children, ‘There are no mistakes in art.’ We all have our own identities, and we have our own speed to learn. This is why we have children for nine and 10 years. Because they see Moving Arts as their second home, their safe place.”