The Buzz: The Other Side of San Diego: An Interview with Armando de la Torre
Vanguard Culture
By JUSTIN DUYAO
Armando de la Torre’s latest site-specific project, On the Blue Line, is a colorful and thought-provoking homage to the San Diego trolley line that stretches as far north as the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), in La Jolla, and as far south as the U.S./Mexico border. On view at the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library from Feb. 11 to May 5, 2023, On the Blue Line incorporates found objects, recycled cardboard and wood, as well as sound and Photography elements to investigate the vast distance between promises of opportunity and the socioeconomic barriers that seem always to stand in the way.
Through rich symbolism and metaphor, de la Torre weaves together fragments and echoes of the largely invisible communities of San Diego, including among them the low-income workers who use the blue line to commute for work, as well as the countless individuals who saw the extension of the blue line into La Jolla as an opportunity to get a degree and make a better life for themselves—only to realize that lasting, structural change doesn’t come about that easily.