‘Creative energy’: a guide to Santa Ana’s sixth annual Boca de Oro Festival

Art, said Pablo Picasso, “washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” If you’re in need of creative catharsis (and let’s be real: after two years of pandemic, we all are), Santa Ana has a solution.

Head to the city’s historic downtown on March 5 for the sixth annual Boca de Oro Festival, back in person this year after an online event in 2021.

Initially founded as a literary festival in 2016, Boca de Oro (“mouth of gold” in Spanish) is a vibrant array of free creative and cultural events: live performances, interactive workshops, author talks, readings and poetry from a diverse lineup of artists and authors.

Among the prominent presenters are internationally acclaimed mixed-media artist Lezley Saar, bestselling author Victor Villaseñor, and award-winning author Marytza Rubio, a Santa Ana native and this year’s keynote speaker.

“I was born and raised here, and I can’t shake how Santa Ana has influenced my fiction,” Rubio said. “I would say that [the city] is very conducive to creative energy and to imagination. I grew up in a family and actually in an environment where that was really valued.”

A few of the short stories in Rubio’s forthcoming collection, “Maria, Maria,” are set in the city, albeit an imagined version with elements of magical realism. “There’s a lot of supernatural elements and [the book] is very grounded in, like, this world that I was really lucky to live in, and I kind of build it off of that.”

In addition to promoting Santa Ana’s culture, Rubio sees the festival as a chance for creative people to recharge. “Now that it’s returning after being on hiatus for some time, I think that having this in-person event is just an opportunity for people to be in the same room or be in the same space [and] have a shared experience that can be really restorative.”

She echoes the theme for this year’s festival, “Together We Rise,” symbolized by a phoenix illustration from local artist Romina Ramirez. It’s a poignant reminder of the healing power of art, which festival co-founder Madeleine Spencer hopes can foster some much-needed connection.

“The pandemic has taught us about how much we desire the interactivity of social life, and there is no better way to do this than celebrating the arts as a community,” Spencer said. “The festival is organized by the community for the community — it is a public expression of creativity that brings us together and continues to breathe life into our city.”

Sheila J. Sadr, 23, from Irvine reads a poem during the Boca de Oro Festival of Literary Arts & Culture in Santa Ana in 2019.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Here are some of Boca de Oro’s author and artist presentations not to miss:

Local:

Marytza Rubio, keynote speaker. A 2008 Pen Emerging Voices Fellow and Pushcart Prize nominee, Rubio’s short story collection “Maria, Maria” will be published in April.

Namrata Poddar. A fiction and nonfiction writer and instructor of creative writing and literature at UCLA, Poddar’s recent book, “Border Less” was a finalist for the Feminist Press’ Louise Meriwether Prize.

Ernesto Cisneros. A Santa Ana resident and teacher, Cisneros has won numerous awards for his young adult literature, including the 2021 Pura Belpré Medal for “Efrén Divided.” His next book, “Falling Short” will be published March 15.

Greta Boris. The USA Today bestselling author of the “7 Deadly Sins,” a series of psychological suspense novels, Boris sets each of her thrillers in the cities and communities of Orange County.

National:

Victor Villaseñor. The bestselling author of the “Rain of Gold” trilogy, Villaseñor’s work has been taught in schools across the country and nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Lezley Saar. A nationally and internationally exhibited mixed media artist, Saar’s art explores the notions of race, gender, beauty, normalcy, escapism and sanity. Her work is displayed in museum collections such as CAAM and MOCA.

Jim Suero. The son of renowned photographer Orlando Suero and co-editor of the book Orlando Photography, Suero will discuss his father’s work: a world-famous collection of celebrity portraits that include images of Natalie Wood, Brigitte Bardot, Michael Caine, Paul Newman and Jack Nicholson.

For more information on the Festival’s events, including dance performances, poetry slams and workshops, please visit: bocadeoro.org, facebook.com/bocadeorofest or @bocadeoro on Instagram.

Aliese Willard Muhonen is a contributor to TimesOC.

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