La Distancia | Sculpture Center
La Distancia is permanently placed in front of the MetroHealth Glick Entrance.
Courtesy of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority.
The repeating four-pointed star seen on La Distancia mimics the West African symbol representing love, safety, and protection. Courtesy of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority.
Courtesy of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority.
In this multifaceted exhibition, Edra Soto invites us to celebrate the experience of finding and creating home. Channeling her own migratory experience, Soto weaves together personal and collective stories of migration and honors the deep and growing roots of Cleveland’s Latinx community.
Learn more about the accompanying print and digital journal:
Edra Soto, La Casa de Todos | Everyone’s Home
Edra Soto, La Distancia | The Distance
In front of the MetroHealth Glick Center
Intersection of Scranton Road and Southpointe Drive, Cleveland, OH 44109 [map]
Addressing the complex intersectionality of migration and diasporic identity, La Distancia is permanently placed just off of West 25th Street, the main roadway through Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood, which is home to the city’s highest concentration of Puerto Rican and Latinx residents. Taking the form of a sculptural outdoor bus shelter, La Distancia serves as a functioning RTA public transportation stop and a repository of stories from the neighborhood’s residents.
La Distancia is a functional sculpture that weaves together cultural memory, identity, and everyday life. Constructed of decorative concrete blocks, similar to ones found in working-class homes across Puerto Rico, the work features a repeating four-pointed star pattern. This motif is known in West African Adinkra symbology as the Eban, a symbol of love, safety, and protection. By incorporating this design, Edra Soto honors Afro-diasporic culture as a foundational part of Puerto Rican identity, while drawing from her own history of migration in hopes of connecting with others who may recognize a piece of home in the sculpture.
An accompanying journal, La Casa De Todos | Everyone’s Home, available by QR code and the button below, features sixteen Cleveland-based artists who weave together their personal and collective stories of migration to honor the deep and growing roots of Cleveland’s Latinx community.