This new artist talk series features artists from Xicanx: Dreamers + Changemakers / Soñadores + creadores del cambio speaking about their works. The roundtable dialogues will be moderated by exhibition co-curators Jill Baird and Greta de León. Xicanx Speaks! is an opportunity to learn more from these artists who are confronting the critical issues of our time such as racism, diversity, and identity.

The October 15 edition of Xicanx Speaks! will feature Celia Álvarez Muñozs, Linda Vallejo and Debora Kuetzpal Vasquez.

Join us for the full series of Xicanx Speaks!:
September 24: Judith F. Baca, Sarah Castillo + Kathy Vargas
October 15: Celia Álvarez Muñozs, Linda Vallejo + Debora Kuetzpal Vasquez
October 22: Delilah Montoya, Oree Original + Alfred J. Quiroz
November 12: Alejandro Diaz, Carlos Frésquez + Ana Lilia Salinas
November 19: Julio César Morales, Celeste de Luna + Luis Valderas

This event is part of Latin Expressions: A Celebration of Latin American Heritage Month, hosted by the Vancouver Latin American Cultural Centre (VLACC).

This is a hybrid event that will take place in-person (drop-in) and online (registration required, link below).

Bios

Celia Álvarez Muñoz is a conceptual artist from Texas known for her diverse multimedia works, including artist’s books, photography, installation, and public art. The book Celia Álvarez Muñoz by writer/poet Roberto Tejada surveys her career. Álvarez Muñoz’s work has been nationally and internationally exhibited, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art 1991 Biennial; her latest cataloged exhibition is Radical Women: Latin American Art 1960-1985, which toured in the US and Brazil (2017 – 2018).

Linda Vallejo consolidates multiple, international influences gained from a life of study and travel throughout Europe, the United States, and Mexico to create works that investigate contemporary cultural and political issues, and that visualize what it means to be a person of colour in the United States. She states that these works reflect her “brown intellectual property”: the experiences, knowledge, and feelings gathered over more than four decades of study of Latino, Chicana/o, and American Indigenous culture and communities.

Debora Kuetzpal Vasquez describes herself as a “home girl” from San Antonio. Vasquez works as a multimedia artivist (artist/activist), educator, and business owner. She comes from a long line of curanderas (Indigenous healers), but her method of healing is through her art. Currently she is re-imagining and re-imaging through a Xicanx feminist lens the patriarchal cultural myths that position womxn as unscrupulous characters. She also addresses the lack of representation of Xicanx and womxn of colour in the arts and education. Vasquez states that she makes art because she possesses no better method to open minds and hearts. Vasquez was shaped by El Movimiento, the Chicano/a civil rights movement. Her creation Citlali: La Chicana Super Hero links her ancestral past with her activist present.

THIS EVENT WAS FUNDED IN PART BY A GRANT FROM THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE. THE OPINIONS, FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS STATED HEREIN ARE THOSE OF THE ORGANIZERS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE.