Aqui Estamos, Y No Nos Vamos: Luchando por Gente, Tierra y Libertad!

"The message for this year's Xicana Moratorium Day is to remind  people that Raza youth and families are here to stay, not just in Oakland and through out the southwest, but on this land.  Raza have witnessed first hand the criminalization of our families, the degradation of our right to eat, to culture, to shelter, to education and to healthly living. Local, national, and international politics continue to repress our communities from speaking these realities and from living free. Our community have been under attack for over 500 years , and more recently we have seen how local policies like Gang Injunctions and federal programs like "Secure Communities" not only criminalize our gente for being brown but are also used as tool to displace our families and communities and tear our families apart. Our families and our children continue to be victims of repression and intimidation in our own homes by police forces. Despite the attacks, our people have never stopped resisting. The battle is not over and it is our duty and our need to fight back, resist and win."

Here are a few moments that I managed to capture from Xicana Moratorium Day last Sunday.

This is the trumpet player from Tamborazo Costa Alegre. They marched off the stage and played on the grass. It was awesome.

There was a dance contest. People really had some moves. Check out these two whose outfits and moves are coordinated.

Xicanas in the park.

A group picture of some of the crew from the Xicana Moratorium Coalition (XMC). XMC organizes the event every year.If you would like to see more pictures from the Xicana Moratorium Day and other community and political events visit our flickr site: www.flickr.com/DignidadRebelde

Order these three prints by clicking here.

This triptych of small prints is called Zapatistas and features portraits of Emiliano Zapata and two modern Zapatistas. I wanted to juxtapose the Zapata with the warriors that carry on his struggle for land and liberty today.

A triptych is an artwork comprised of three pieces that are meant to go together. These three pieces are on printed on individual sheets of paper but are meant to be seen as a set. 

This is a great exhibit I am part of, I was really happy to have them include the "Indian Land" poster. The museum also produced 1,000 offest copies to place by my piece for visitors to take with them. 

Counting Coup is a form of prestige, pride and power. “Counting coup” is an expression originating from Plains Indian tactics of intimidation, and an act of bravery that accounts for survival originating from personal victories in non-violent battle exploits. The evidence of confrontation, interaction, and risk encountered through incessant forms of colonization are recorded as experiences and achievements etched in memory, heart and spirit.

Counting Coup considers the maker’s mark as a means of action and recognition through the guise of an exhibition of contemporary constructions that considers honoring, naming and claiming past accomplishments and victories. By keeping score, we are able to identify, witness and memorialize the greater narrative of our presence as a coup to who and where Native peoples are today.

Counting Coup is a stylized divergence from social conventions, expectations and an opportunity to recall interaction with others by shifting energy and summoning a capacity for appreciation and fearlessness. Counting Coup takes into account and unleashes the burden of memory and becomes a bold declaration of indigeneity and assertion of sovereignty.

Counting Coup will include works by artists from the United States, Canada and Australia and range in media; sculpture, paintings, ceramics, textiles, photography, installation, film and video, and poetry.

We had the opportunity to work with a group of Indigenous artists who were visiting the Bay Area, participating in the Emerging Indigenous Voices program. We were introduced to the group by our friend Dylan Miner who told us about the program and invited us to see work they were producing. We were really excited by the work they were doing and when we were hanging out with Kewana, he described an image he wanted to carve in linoleum and we had the idea to make it into a print.

From the artist Kewana Duncan:
"The image represents moving forward now, in this generation, on the Tino Rangatiratanga [Maroi Independence] Movement. The woman is leading, the man is fully supporting her, and their child will grow up in an independent Indigenous community."

To purchase a print, click here.

This is a poster we printed a couple weeks ago for the Multicultural Community Center (MCC) at UC Berkeley. This is part of a project we have been working with the MCC since last year, first we created the Logo on the poster with Nancy Ledezma and then we designed a banner and lastly adapted that design for the poster. This has been a real fun project and was a great opportunity to collaborate with the MCC.