ustxtxb_obs_1982_12_24_50_00020-00000_000.pdf

HOY .”00.* The folks that Rios is really hoping to reach are children the MexicanAmerican children living in the barrio. “I began the exhibit with pictures of kids and I ended it with a child wandering through Moody Park, barefoot, in jeans, without a shirt. He was a little bitty kid charging off without a worry in the world. I hope the kids will see his freedom see that freedom is taking chances and that life is a chance and that you have to take it one step at a time. I hope the kids look at that.” The exhibit includes pictures of businessmen, old people. rebellious teenagers. drug addicts, young marrieds. Rios tried to convince the doctors in the 20 DECEMBER 24, 1982 neighborhood to be photographed, too, but they refused. “I wanted the kids to see the pictures and say, ‘Hey, this guy is a doctor and I can do that, too.’ I wanted them to say, `I want to be like this and dream,’ ” Rios says. “It’s hard to dream about tomorrow when the reality of what’s happening today is staring you in the face.” Rios took over 1,000 pictures of the neighborhood before he cut all but fifty for the show. “I’m not trying to pass it off as great journalism,” he says. “What I have is a bunch of informal portraits. I tried to show personalities. I tried to show that you can find everything on Fulton Street everything you’d need from the cradle to the grave. “In a way, I tried to run away from all this,” Carlos Rios says. “And when talk of the photo essay came about, it was frightening. It was the very first time I’d ever considered a photo essay of the Mexican-American community. As a journalist, I had been told there were other things to do besides taking pictures of ethnics. I didn’t want people to think I was pushing my culture down their throats. So I played by the rules. Even up to the time the project came about, I said I’d play by the rules and be objective. But instead, it became very personal. It took on a life of its own, and I just tried to catch up.” 4