Organizer Javi Suárez and photographer Karen Arango discuss the inspiration behind Nuestro Vaivén.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: October 1, 2025
Host: Immigrants have been the target of a lot of negative attention lately. That said—it’s Hispanic Heritage Month, and this weekend, The Ringling Museum of Art is opening an exhibition highlighting the contributions of two dozen Hispanic artists in this region. Nuestro Vaivén is one of the biggest platforms ever for Hispanic artists in this region, and we have the details.
Javi Suarez. Photo by Peter Acker
Johannes Werner: Javi Suárez is an architect with roots in Puerto Rico who has lived in Sarasota most of his life. Ringling Museum of Art put Suárez in a key position to connect the state-run arts institution with Hispanic artists and community leaders in this region, and put together a group exhibition called Nuestro Vaivén—our sway. If this sounds a lot like dance, music and spirit—that’s the intention.
Javi Suarez: Our focus is to highlight the community and all the beautiful things that we bring. That’s our focus—and make this event a very exciting and successful event for our community. There has, in my mind, always been this need to see an event such as what we’re going to have, where we are going to be able to celebrate not only the community, but the art that was produced in conjunction with conversations with the community. This show in itself is representing 11 counties in Florida, all the way from Orlando to Sarasota, all the way to Miami. It’s also representing artists from 11 different Latin American countries. It’s safe to say that it’s very important to show for the Latin American community and for the Latin American artists.
JW: Suárez has been serving as the local liaison for New York-based curator Amy Rosenblum-Martín. He helped mobilize local community leaders such as Dr. Manuel Gordillo, a Peruvian epidemiologist who works at Doctors Hospital, Mexican radio host Diana González, and Ada Toledo from the Dominican Republic, who runs a hair salon.
JS: Ada Toledo has done my family’s hair—my grandmother’s, my aunt, my mother, my sister, my daughter. She is an established and recognized community leader here.
JW: These personalities teamed up with local artists in a dialogue about the concerns, joys, challenges, achievements and dreams of their communities. Based on these conversations, the artists then created four installations at The Ringling.
Karen Arango. Photo by Peter Acker
Karen Arango is one of these artists. The Colombia-born photographer graduated from Ringling College of Art a couple of years ago. Suárez paired her with fellow artist Rigoberto Torres and Ada Toledo, who was a key person in the life of Karen’s hairdresser.
When Arango got the call from Rosenblum to interview her as a candidate to feature in Nuestro Vaivén, she did not believe she would be picked.
KA: When Amy interviewed me, I honestly didn’t think I was going to make it or be part of it, because she was interviewing so many people, and there’s so many talented artists in this area, and there’s people from Miami, from Orlando, from different other cities, so I’m really honored to be part of it. Being a local artist, showing in the Ringling Museum—a museum that I looked up to and that I saw when I first arrived to Sarasota, and I was at the college—it’s an amazing museum, and showing my work there is a huge honor.
One of the ‘Miss Behaves’: Xiomara, 9. Photo by Karen Arango
JW: Arango’s work ranges from everyday portraits of immigrants living in a Sarasota trailer park, to portraits of a fishing camp in Colombia, to a documentary film about girl soccer players in Uganda. Nuestro Vaivén will feature her photography of young immigrant girls. She called that series—tongue in cheek—Miss Behave. As in “miss” with two S’s. It shows not only the pictures of the girls Karen took a decade ago, when she was an art student, compared with pictures of the young women now, 10 years later. It also includes in-depth conversations she had with the girls.
Alondra, 10. Photo by Karen Arango
KA: They are first generation girls in the United States—their parents are from Latin America—and I just photographed them, and I wanted to tell this story of being a first generation girl in this country, which was kind-of how I was when I arrived here when I was nine. It was just showing who they were. That work is part of it. I actually photographed four of the girls who were part of the project again—they’re still here in Sarasota—and it’s ten years later. They’re older. I also interviewed them, and we talked about being Hispanic in this area and being Hispanic at all—having Hispanic heritage, but also being American, so having that combination of cultures.
JW: Nuestro Vaivén opens this Saturday, October 4, with a free day. From 10 to 5 at the Ringling Museum of Art, you will be able to see the work of two dozen artists from this region and beyond.
Reporting for WSLR News, Johannes Werner.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.
