Artist Andie Arana Gomez thinks the cultures of the Central American region need a little more appreciation, so she organized an art show.
She invited Henry A. Garcia, Leyda Melgar and Oscar Toloza to show their paintings, drawings and mixed-media works for “Cuentos del Centro,” an art exhibition at the Indianapolis Public Library’s Central Library.
The public is invited to meet the artists during the opening reception from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, May 9. The free event will kick off with music performances by El Marimbaso, a Nicaraguan marimba group, and by the Costa Rican performer David Avila.
The show is on display through May 30.
Central American countries are the small but mighty nations between Mexico and Colombia: Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Panama.
“Central America gets lost in technicalities. People assume that all Latinos share Mexican culture because Mexicans are the largest Latino immigrant group,” said Arana Gomez. She is from Guatemala and immigrated to Indiana when she was 12 years old.
Arana Gomez graduated with a bachelor of fine arts in painting from Ball State University in 2025. She first learned about art curation in school but got to hone her skills after joining the Minority Artist Program for Success (MAPS) cohort led by curator Daniel del Real.
When asked what to expect from this show, Arana Gomez said the art will not focus on their Latino heritage; you won’t see flags or traditional artifacts at the forefront of the art. “You can tell by the subjects and the colors that the culture informs the artistic choices,” she said.
And, because Central America is part of Latin America, there will also be performances at the opening reception by the local Mexican dance troupe Ballet Folklorico Mosaicos and the Colombian musical duo Maconda.
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Jennifer Delgadillo is Mirror Indy’s arts and culture editor. You can reach her at jennifer.delgadillo@mirrorindy.org.
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