< Back to front page Text size – +

Profile: Alex Alvear, making Villa Victoria connections through song

E-mail | Print | Comments () Posted by Roy Greene March 4, 2011 06:28 PM

Facebook
E-mail

(Anaridis Rodriguez photo for boston.com)

Alex Alvear sings to a crowd of fans at Oberon, where he recently released his band's CD.

By Anaridis Rodriguez, Globe Correspondent

Alex Alvear’s shoulder-length curls cascade from beneath the black Kangol cap he wears backward as he walks through Villa Victoria’s yard in the South End. He calls out to residents in the planned housing community’s main square as they shovel out from yet another winter storm.

“Hola chiqui,” he says as he helps Villa Victoria resident Reinelda "Chiqui" Rivera walk over a snowbank half her size.

To many here, Alvear is not only the performance and production manager of the community’s Center for the Arts. He is a friend.

On this day, he is organizing the upcoming Chinese New Year celebration, an event of particular interest to the 30 percent of Villa Victoria residents of Chinese descent. He’s also working on the community’s annual concert series, on its third installment of a Latin-American classical music series done in collaboration with New England Conservatory and on the photo exhibit “Foto-tipos,” which pays homage to 19th century innovations.

Alvear, 48, is an accomplished musician in his own right, a bass player and singer who graduated from Berklee College of Music and leads a band, Mango Blue, that recently released its second CD. But, he says, his heart lies in his community work, and this is evident as he walks through the courtyard, stopping to talk with residents.

Alvear's projects range from working with Villa Victoria's youngest residents to its oldest, a Puerto Rican singing and dancing group called “Las Pleneras,” an outgrowth of Villa Victoria’s roots in the mid-1970s as an affordable, overwhelmingly Puerto Rican community in the midst of the South End.

“He’s marvelous,” says Maria Flores Rodriguez, 65, who started the group for residents older than 55. “He understands us, even though he’s much younger than us. He understands like no one else.”

Alvear has helped the group arrange performances, hosted karaoke nights for members, and worked to bring new vibrancy to a generation of community members that is at times forgotten.

The success of their mutual work was demonstrated last month when the group performed for Governor Deval Patrick and other dignitaries at the annual Massachusetts Cultural Council Awards. “Las Pleneras,” which was honored for maintaining their heritage through the arts, received a standing ovation for their vivid rendition of “Preciosa,” a popular Puerto Rican folk song.

Villa Victoria, or Victory Village, was born after a group of Puerto Rican community activists, in the late 1960s, defied the city’s plans to rebuild their South End neighborhood, then known as Parcel 19. Their regular tenants’ council meetings in the basement of St. Stephen’s Church later evolved into the governing body of Villa Victoria, Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion.

Part of IBA’s mission has been to empower residents through the arts, says F. Javier Torres, executive director of Villa Victoria's Center for the Arts. This arts programming reaches some 20,000 people a year, he said.

Alvear’s involvement began in 1986 when, while studying at Berklee, he performed at local schools as part of Villa Victoria’s in-school and afterschool music programs. After graduating, he took at full-time job as program coordinator at Villa Victoria in 1991.

It was a move that catapulted Alvear into a career in civic work and his rise to become one of the city’s leading cultural ambassadors,

At Villa Victoria, the Ecuadorian-born musician has incorporated an annual concert series with music ranging from Colombian vallenato and Andean folk to the ever-popular salsa bands.

And since 2000, when he founded his other band, Manguito, he and his fellow musicians have arranged interactive performances at which they introduce students to the Latino culture by taking them on what Alvear calls “a musical journey through the Caribbean.” (Click here to see a video of Manguito in action.)

The group, which also teaches students how to play the various Latin-American instruments, performs under the direction of Young Audiences of Massachusetts, the local affiliate of the national non-profit Young Audiences Arts for Learning.

“Culture allows us to have our own individual voice, and Alex is a very strong voice,” said Diane Freedland, executive director of the Massachusetts branch. “The duality with these programs from Manguito is really special.”

Manguito visited at 20 area schools and performed in front of 6,000 students in 2010 alone.

Alvear’s commitment to building community through music began even before he moved to Boston from his native Quito at age 24.

As a young man, he recalled, he and other musicians, “used to play at orphanages and the jails and hospitals and we would play in Indian communities.”

These experiences, he says, helped nourish his desire to connect with people and still influenceS his philosophy as Villa Victoria’s performance and production manager.

“There are many aspects,” he said of his job. “But the most important is the need to be close to real people. The urban society tends to create so many codes of conduct and codes of value and, you get away from the realness in the community.”

James McCoy, director of community affairs and campus engagement at Berklee, said he believes Alvear’s appreciation for folkloric culture and community consciousness are central to his character and values.

“Alex is very clear in who he is and what he is here on this Earth to do,” said McCoy, who has known Alvear for more than a decade and worked with him. “And I think that clarity inspires other people to live their own lives and fulfill their own missions.

“Time and time again, I have witnessed or experienced the simplification of very complex challenges due to that clear signal or lack of static that Alex brings with him. Alex reminds us as people that music is very simply a gift and a blessing.”

As he has helped build Villa Victoria’s community through its music programming, Alvear has also made a name for himself. He’s the lead bassist, singer and creator of Mango Blue, an award-winning Afro-Latin band that has performed at national and international venues. He’s collaborated with Grammy award nominee Gonzalo Grau and in 2003, a PBS special profiled Alvear's band.

“He is one of those people who is a natural musician,” said Kevin Gary, Alvear’s sound engineer and friend of 25 years. “He knows how to play just about everything. He’s a great singer, a great arranger a great orchestrator. ... He’s a multi-talented musician.”

Alvear describes his own work, captured last month in the release of his second CD, Mango Blue, as “something very Latin, very Afro-Latin but also bringing in other influences.”

“Whatever I’m feeling I try to share it with the world,” he said.

Judging from his broad smile, what he's feeling is often exhuberance. On this wintry morning, it is centered on “Chiqui” Rivera, who has been a staple in Villa Victoria for more than a decade and is one of the lead volunteers at many community-sponsored events.

“I’m sorry I can’t make it to the Chinese New Year,” she tells him in her signature Spanglish. “I’ll be out of town.”

He gives her a hug, and utters a cliché that in this busy arts community is also very true,

“Don’t worry,” he says. “There’s always next time.”

This article is being published under an arrangement between The Boston Globe and Emerson College.