by Beth Dedman

Sept. 27, 2019

SPRINGDALE — “Hey, chief, how much for the gun belt?”

He called everyone chief. Samuel Rivera Lopez looked much different from the rest of the vendors and shoppers at the Rodeo of the Ozarks antique car part show. Among all of the elderly white men, the 22-year-old Mexican artist sticks out. He plays with an antique leather gun belt for sale beneath a plastic tent, momentarily taking shelter from the rain that poured on the antique hubcaps, metal Jagermeister signs, and has turned his powder blue shirt dark.

Every object he picked up could be a potential prop, with a potential use in a potential project. But every item would cost money, and money was tight. Every dollar Lopez earned from his three jobs: one at UPS, one at the Grove as a line cook, and another at Sidewalk as a line cook, was never just for his own use, but also for his family.

But all of Lopez’s free time and energy goes to his other family: the entire community of Springdale, specifically, the nearly 30,000 Hispanic residents that make up 36.5% of the city’s population.

Lopez is a producer— providing spaces and opportunities for other artists to create and present their own work, whether that be in visual art, music, fashion or theatre.

Lopez eventually left the antique show empty handed, deciding his money would serve him better if he saved it for later. He is curating props for a future film project, and wants his props to match the aesthetic and vibrancy of the film he will create.

“I want to produce a documentary on what it means to be American and incorporate music and fashion design and incorporate as much locally produced material as possible,” Lopez said. “With this film, I want to say that it doesn’t matter where you are at or where you are from. Everything is possible if you believe that it is.”

For his efforts in supporting his community through art, Lopez was listed as the youngest person on Time Magazine‘s list of people changing the South in July 2018. While he was excited to be listed among so many great people, Lopez felt the pressure of such an accolade.

“To be on a magazine at that level, with those people, put a little bit of—not doubt, but like I was being pushed into something,” Lopez said.

Lopez’s mission behind creating these art spaces is to mend the cultural divide between the diverse communities of Northwest Arkansas.

“How do you get the ball rolling when you speak two different languages and have two different cultures?” Samuel said. “And that’s why I feel like my work is about, like, I got a bridge. It’s not just one bridge. I’m trying to build bridges across all cultures.”

On Sept. 10, Artist 360, a program that is providing grant funding and professional development to artists, awarded Lopez a student artist grant for $1,500. Lopez plans to use the money for the documentary and also for a future collaborative project with the Arkansas Arts & Fashion Forum.

Robin Atkinson, the CEO of the Arkansas Arts & Fashion Forum, met Lopez during the Spring 2019 Northwest Arkansas Fashion Week, when an artistic group Samuel helped co-found, called “Stitches” set up workshops to teach attendees how to sew, create a collection and work with an apparel merchandiser.

“Sam is incredibly passionate about what he does,” Atkinson said. “He believes in the ability of art to build community. I have been working in the art community for a long time. People with his passion and dedication and energy is pretty rare. He has true belief in what he does, and it isn’t about him. It’s about an entire network, and lifting up an entire community of people. I hope we can continue to work with him. A little mentorship and he could go all the way to the top.”

Lopez co-founded “Stitches” when he was 17 in response to a shooting in Springdale involving high school students, which caused outsiders to grow a negative perception of Springdale as what he calls “the ghetto of Northwest Arkansas.”

“It was up to us to change the perception of who we were,” Lopez said. “The only way I saw that was to do it artistically.”

Following the success of Stitches, Lopez helped start the LatinX Theatre Project, which was designed to tell the stories of the LatinX community and give them a platform to advocate for themselves. For two years, Lopez wrote, starred in and produced theatrical performances like “Follow Me, @TioSam” and “ScratchThat”, both of which focused heavily on the difficulties of being a Mexican immigrant in the United States.

Immigration rights are very close to Lopez’s heart. Lopez thinks that all of the existing tensions between ethnic communities have only been exacerbated by the controversy surrounding programs like 287g, which gives police officers the ability to act as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and pull over people they suspect to be in violation of immigration laws.

“Stop toxic deportation,” Lopez said. “Because the splitting of families in America is traumatizing the youth and the future, but also our parents. It is creating a lot of toxic environments for people and the fear of that and when it happens. there needs to be more light shed on 287G. While that law may be keeping people safe, it does also alienate a large demographic of our area that feel unsafe. It says, ‘Though you live here you are not welcome.’”

Lopez has always wanted his art to “stitch” his community back together. Ultimately, he says everything he has done has been in an effort to secure a bright future for his hometown.

“The city has given us a lot and it’d be wrong of us not to give back, not to think of the children that we were just like five years ago,” Vladimir Rivera Lopez, Samuel’s brother, said. “There’s opportunities that we want to present those children with because they should have their horizons expanded.”

Vladimir, 18, has been working with his brother on his various projects since the summer, but has been with him since the beginning.

“I want Springdale as a space, as a whole, to feel more like it’s somewhere where you can grow, you can go and you can grow your identity,” Vladimir said. “I don’t ever want to feel like a place where you have to go to abandon your identity.”

Vladimir has his eyes set on a business degree from the University of Arkansas, and Samuel has his eyes set on maybe one day holding city and, maybe one day, national office.

“It’s important because there needs to be representation of the demographics of a city, especially when it comes to decisions that affect people economically, culturally, and politically,” Lopez said.

Lopez intends to keep creating platforms for artists to vocalize their stories and their beliefs. He thinks that it is more important than ever for there to be active communication about policy and he thinks that these platforms are the pathway to a brighter future for all of us.

He wants to remind people that the cultural blending caused by immigration is what makes American society unique. Art is the ultimate platform to remind people— politicians, voters, candidates— that attacking immigrants is attacking what makes America truly great.

“There is no divide between arts and politics.”

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