Lila Quintero Weaver is a Buenos Aires, Argentina-born graphic artist and writer. At the age of 5 she moved to Marion, Alabama. Artworks from her graphic novel “Darkroom: Memoirs in Black and White” are on display at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts until March 30th.
The museum displays 25 works of art and personal items from the graphic novel set during the civil rights era, which includes Weaver’s experiences as an immigrant in the south.
Weaver said the title of the novel “Darkroom” was significant as it linked the civil rights movement to its own upbringing.
“It’s called the ‘darkroom’ because there is that connection to photography at the most concrete level, because my father was doing photography as a sideline, so to speak,” said Weaver. “He had a makeshift darkroom in the house. I was intrigued by the whole process of how photos are taken, how to take a picture and then run it through the enlarger, the role of light and the chemical baths you put in all of that , was really fascinating for me as a child because you have to see this picture on the page, almost as if by magic. “
Her father’s interest in photography also played a role in the graphic novel, she said. Although her father was not a photojournalist, she associated his photography with the historical significance that photographs had during the civil rights movement.
The subtitle of the novel “Memoirs in Black and White” represents the main color scheme of the book, but also the political environment of the book. Weaver stated that her family felt they did not fit into the current conversation on racial issues.
“They have a play on words too, with that race being very, very central,” said Weaver. “And as Latinos, we entered a demographic that was either black or white, and then we got in, kind of not very well defined. Do you know what we are Who are we? Which box do we check? So that’s how it all comes together. “
According to Weaver, her childhood was not like that of her friends, and growing up in America, especially Alabama, influenced her own connection with her Argentine heritage.
“I would say my upbringing was very different from my colleagues in Alabama,” said Weaver. “I think it’s more difficult when the family immigrates to a part of the US that isn’t very diverse. If there had been a lot of Latinas or people from different cultures, that might have softened the feeling of being weird and curious. “
Weaver immigrated to the United States and only spoke Spanish, she said. Shortly after learning English, she was no longer interested in speaking her native language in her bilingual household.
While Weaver felt like an outsider, she now realizes that in similar situations she had a lot in common with other children.
“I’ve found this happens to a lot of immigrant children when they go to another culture,” said Weaver. “I would say I grew up like many immigrant children grew up. This is kind of a push-pull between the culture that the parents adopt and that they may wish to continue to honor and celebrate. While the children often don’t want that. They resist for several reasons. That was an important factor in my growing up. “
As a child, Weaver had very traditional parents who feared certain forms of Americanism such as consumer culture.
“We grew up without TV because they didn’t like TV,” said Weaver. “They thought it was a waste of time [it] would make you mentally lazy somehow. And maybe, maybe they even thought it would expose us to bad moral influences. It was just one of those things that we hated because everyone around us had a TV and was watching the great shows. ”
In retrospect, this gave her the opportunity to pursue more creative endeavors like reading and writing, she said. Her parents never thought that their daughter would one day grow up and write a story about her life, but she credits her parents’ focus on education and the arts for her interest in creating.
Weaver is also a children’s author and wrote a book called My Year In The Middle, a semi-autobiographical book about a young immigrant in Alabama and her racial and middle school pressures.
After writing both a traditional book and a graphic novel, Weaver described the differences in the construction of the two forms of media.
“Putting together a graphic novel, writing, and illustrating is a tremendous job,” said Weaver. “I’m not saying that writing a novel isn’t a big job either, but after doing it first in the order of writing the graphic memoir and then the traditional model, it really felt a lot easier. Of course there are all the usual challenges and problems with writing, but creating around 500 drawings, which I had to do for Darkroom, took me years. As for work, there is no comparison. But it seems like it’s almost sitting in a different part of the brain. “
Because of the pandemic and her distance from Auburn, Weaver has not yet seen her exhibit in person, but she hopes to see it soon.
“It was great to work with me [the museum]. They are very impressive, ”said Weaver. “We have now talked about this exhibition [what] feels like a couple of years and maybe that’s not an exaggeration. So it took a long time. I can’t wait to see it and it’s a great honor to be invited. “
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