Text: Denise Nelson Prieto | Photos: Alex Durán

At any given time you’ll find Valentin Sandoval involved in some manner of artistic endeavor. Whether he’s working on promotional material to market a friend’s art work, helping a colleague write dialog for a feature film or working on a follow-up to his award-winning literary debut, South Sun Rises, Sandoval is a creative lightning rod.

Sandoval was recently in Albuquerque doing some marketing and multimedia videos for an artist’s friend.

“What I’m doing with my friend in Albuquerque is directly related to policy making and bringing awareness,” he said. “I do think it is an artist’s responsibility to do that; the artists that leave an impression on us, on culture and society, [have] an intuitive awareness of what a cultural ethic is and what role art plays in forming culture and forming policy.”

In a brilliant display of a product of his environment, Sandoval has no glut of experiences to draw from when creating a particular character for a film or literary work, or endowing existing characters with a specific voice. Bouncing from to school to school during his formative years, hanging out on the streets of South El Paso, imbibing all the raucousness and vibrancy of Juarez and being absorbed into the Latino and Puerto Rican fabric of New York City—collectively these scenarios have imbued Sandoval with a rich, diverse matrix of perspectives and provided a wellspring of stories…

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