The “Semanariocultural” [Cultural Weekly], a supplement of the newspaper El Pueblo de Cali, (1975–86) published the article, “No salgas de tu barrio. Entrevista a Ever Astudillo” [Do Not Leave Your Neighborhood: An Interview with Ever Astudillo], written by Hernando Guerrero, the photographer, editor, and coordinator of the Cali weekly, on the occasion of the exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno [Museum of Modern Art] La Tertulia in Cali: Ever Astudillo dibujos, Fernell Franco fotografías y Óscar Muñoz dibujos [Ever Astudillo Drawings, Fernell Franco Photographs, and Óscar Muñoz Drawings] (1979). Guerrero divides the interview with Ever Astudillo into two parts. In the first part, Astudillo recalls the early days of his career, mentioning the major prizes he was awarded, such as the Bienal Americana de Artes Gráficas [American Biennial of Graphic Arts] (1973) and the XXIV Salón Nacional de Artistas [XXIV National Artists’ Exhibition] (1973). He highlights his academic stint at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) [National Autonomous University of Mexico], and concludes by discussing the goals and cultural references of his work. In the second, more analytical part of the interview, Astudillo reflects on the thematic similarities between his work and the works of the artists Fernell Franco and Óscar Muñoz, underscoring the role that photography plays in his creative expression.

“There is always a police car roaming around somewhere beyond the immediate vicinity of the places I show in my paintings; by that I mean that I illustrate illegal, dangerous environments, which is how it was when I was a kid in Cali. The architecture is from the 1930s, with arabesque motifs, and balconies adorned with stiff, austere openwork diamond-shaped features.” This is how Hernando Guerrero (b. 1948) begins his article, evoking the themes that the Colombian artist Ever Astudillo (b. 1948) explains were inspired by his childhood in Saavedra Galindo, a working class neighborhood in the eastern part of Cali. Guerrero was the coordinator of the Semanario [Weekly] supplement of the liberal newspaper El Pueblo de Cali when this interview was published. He was also well-known in Cali as the founder of the Corporación Ciudad Solar [Solar City Corporation] (1971–73): an independent cultural space for meetings, creative endeavors, and exhibitions that influenced several young artists in the 1970s. This is one of the very few interviews with Astudillo that were published in the local press on the occasion of one of the most important exhibitions of the period at the Museo de Arte Moderno [Museum of Modern Art] La Tertulia, an event that brought together the three most outstanding local artists in Cali for the first time, each with his own particular view of the city. In Astudillo’s case, he was fascinated by the neighborhood movie theaters in the eastern sector. He had always loved the movies, especially the ones from the Golden Age of Mexican film that he used to see at theaters like the Belalcázar, Avenida, Sucre, and Imperio. Those theaters and the surrounding neighborhoods during the 1940s and 1950s became the subject matter for his drawings. He defined his urban perspective as a “previous experience”; that is, a link to the deep bonds created by his memories of Cali in the 1950s.