Artists in the Struggle- Presentation by Melanie Cervantes & Jesus Barraza at UC Berkeley
By Melanie
Jesus and I have been invited to speak at UC Berkeley working as movement artists, working in collaboration with other community and artist activists as well as working in collaboration with grassroots organizing groups. We are both very excited about having the opportunity to do this presentation and talk as part of a Chicana/o Studies class MeXicana/o Art Thought and (Art)Practice. Jesus is excited about presenting at UC Berkeley because he emerged as a graphic designer/artist-activist during the 1999 twLF (third world Liberation Front) hunger strike and actions. I am particularly excited because my art practice also grew out of my experiences at Cal
Celia Herrera Rodriguez an incredibly talented and sage Xicana artist and bad ass professora encouraged and pushed me to create art even when I was afraid of the process of creating art because it told me so much about myself. Because Celia helped me become more grounded in my worldview my politics became that more clear.She brought in amazing artists to our classes in my eyes were celebrities because of their profund and prolific work. I had the luck of meeting amazing artists like Cherrie Moraga, Juana Alicia, Yolanda Lopez, Emmanuel Montoya and Consuelo Underwood Jimenez in her classes. And now...I am both proud of and humbled by what her mentorship has helped me to achieve and am happy to be invited to her classroom to share my practice and art.
