This summer we had the opportunity to work with Ester Hernandez to print her Virgen de Guadalupe Wanted poster, and we had a lot of fun having her in the studio with us. Lezlie Lopes helped mixing ink for the print working with Ester, who wanted the mugshots to look like it was an old hand painted photo. I really loved Ester's concept, her prints always have great concepts making her one of the best graphic artists out there. 

 In this interview Ester talks about the inspiration for the concept of the poster and the May 1st rally in San Francisco. If any one is interested in purchasing a print contact her here.

These are a few posters we want to share, please feel free to download and print your own copy.

Download We Will Not Comply

Color | Black and White

Color | Black and White 

Download We Will Not Be Intimidated

Color

July 19, 2010

As the battle against Arizona's SB 1070 and similar egregious enforcement policies  rages on people all across the country (and beyond) are taking a stand on the side of justice. Artists have been inspired to use their talent to support the movement for human rights and have self organized wonderful actions to express their solidarity.

After the May 29 mass mobilization in Phoenix that acted as a kick off for Alto Arizona's Human Right Summer I reached out to my compañero Ernesto Yerena who was a key leader in developing the Artists for Arizona viral art campaign. I wanted to continue to plan collaborative art sessions that could bring multiple artists into one space to produced hand made prints to send to Arizona. Joel "Rage.One" Garcia had also been doing alot of solidarity art work and had been doing skill shares and training with young folks in Tucson who were fighting the legislative removal of Ethnic Studies for Arizona schools. We decided to put our heads together and collaborate in the production of another run of prints and stickers. 

Joel reached out to Dewey Tafoya who was able to arrange for space at Self Help Graphics to print posters in the gallery in performance space upstairs. We loaded up the car with screens, squeegees, about 1000 sheets of paper, gallons of ink and our designs and drove down to L.A. We were ready to go!

Our 12 hour Print-A-Thon answered the call from the Alto Arizona! to plan an event as a part of their 30 Actions in 30 Days of Human Rights Campaign. The primary artists and community members who helped out through out the day were:

Dignidad Rebelde (Melanie Cervantes & Jesus Barraza), Dewey Tafoya, Vyal, Felicia Montes, Nico of Los Poets del Norte, Ernesto Yerena, Ernesto Vazquez of Solidarity Ink, John Carlos de Luna of Corazon del Pueblo, Erick Huerta,  Wenceslao Quiroz, Stephanie Zendejas, Janie and of course, Leo Cervantes- my dad!

Unlike our Northern California sessions the Los Angeles session was dominated by men. I kept thinking about how great it would be to have all Xicana from te Northern Califas session and the Xicanos from the Southern Califas session have one big, gender balanced print-a-thon!

The day was great we devoted the first hours for artists and in the evening invited the community to come participate as well.  We cracked jokes, people screen printed for the first time in life, we had hand made poster challenges, we ate vegan tacos, we printed shirts, we burned screens in the sun and we made friends. The day started at about 10:30 am and we got out of there close to 1 am, I think. We were able to pint approximately 1200 posters that were driven to Arizona that very night.

 You shoud also check out the amazing photography from the day by Rafael Cardenas  and this awesome blog by Erick Huerta.

A few weeks back at the La Peña block party celebration I had the chance to run into Dolores Huerta. We were tabling  that day and we had one of the prints I had made of her, Dolores was flipping through the stack of prints and found her image.  I was super shy but Melanie convinced me to go up to her and give her the print. I was happy she liked the image and wanted to take a picture with me, it took me four years but I finally gave her a copy.

As the city of Oakland waits with anxiety about the decision the jury will come to and the final outcome of the Johannes Mehserle trail verdict artists are busy at work paying tribute honoring Oscar's memory.

My friend Paul Barron has created an amazing installation of his posters of Oscar Grant using blow ups of the details and figures in his prints. I am a huge fan of his work and recommend checking out his website: http://mediadissent.com

Paul Barron is an Artist and an Activist. Those two things often overlap.

To sustain his projects he does freelance Web and Graphic Design. Barron did a video installation at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York with Roberto Miguel in July of 2009.

Barron does a lot of Anti-Authoritarian themed print making, most often Woodcuts and Serigraphs. He also does custom screen printing if you need work done. He has a six color t-shirt press and is set up to print with Plastisols.

Barron loves doing mural work when he gets a little creative freedom. The largest one he has done was 60 feet by 15 feet. Barron is always looking for walls and paint if you would like to commission him.

I have recently returned from a week long visit to Detroit. I was there to participate in the US Social Forum. The US Social Forum (USSF) is a movement building process. It is not a
 conference but it is a space to come up with the peoples’ solutions to the 
economic and ecological crisis. The USSF is the next most important step in our
 struggle to build a powerful multi-racial, multi-sectoral, inter-generational,
 diverse, inclusive, internationalist movement that transforms this country and
 changes history.

Leading up to the USSF Jesus and I had the pleasure of working with a few organizations to create promotion and recruitment  materials. One of the organizations that I was able work with was Grassroots Global Justice.

"Grassroots Global Justice is an alliance of U.S.-based grassroots groups who are organizing to build an agenda for power for working and poor people. We understand that there are important connections between the local issues we work on and the global context, and we see ourselves as part of an international movement for global justice.

GGJ is a national alliance of grassroots organizations building a popular movement for peace, democracy and a sustainable world. We support each other's local struggles and collaborate with international allies who share our vision and commitment to building a transformative social justice movement beyond borders.
 
We connect as grassroots leaders by creating spaces for dialogue and strategic thinking, and by sharpening our understanding of global political and economic forces that cause poverty, conflict and environmental destruction in our communities.  We work across issues and regions to develop agendas by and for working-class people, poor people, indigenous people and communities of color that can help lead to a good life for all.  And in doing so, GGJ is helping to support a renaissance of U.S. social movements, led by mass-based, economically independent organizations with a global perspective and key international relationships.

Through convergence, education, leadership development and coordinated action, GGJ will continue to connect real people and their local struggles to promote systems change for a peaceful, democratic and sustainable world.  Over the next 20 years, GGJ will work to achieve critical shifts in global issues including climate justice, trade, migration and militarization, because the time is now to make another world possible – a world where everyone matters and everyone can have enough."

You can support this amazing organization by donating here.

This Sunday Jesus and I will be presenting at the Socialism Conference in Oakland. It will be at the Oakland Marriot.Sunday, July 4th at 11:30 am. "Art and Resistance".

The conference describes itself as follows:

With the economy in shambles and with wars and occupations continuing, the challenge to change these conditions confronts us all. More than a year ago, millions placed their hopes in Barack Obama and the Democrats to solve these problems. But after months of broken promises and concessions to conservatives, jobs are scarce, health care reform is on life support, and full equality for LGBT people remains elusive.

Socialism 2010—to be held in both Chicago and Oakland—will provide an unparalleled opportunity for new and veteran activists and scholars to explore questions about how we got into this mess and how we can get out of it.

Last year, more than 1,800 people turned out to explore the history of struggles of ordinary people, to learn about radical figures who led social movements and to debate theoretical questions that can help us change the world.

Don’t miss the chance to meet, talk and socialize with hundreds of others like you who want to build an alternative to a system of greed, racism, war and oppression.

Our Oakland conference is being hosted at the unionized Oakland Marriott in solidarity with Unite-HERE Local 2’s call to boycott major San Francisco hotels until they agree to give their workers a fair contract.

While we were in Detroit for the US Social Forum we were able to connect with our fellow Just Seed artist and rad professor Dylan Miner.

Dylan asked Jesus, Favianna Rodriguez and if we would allow him to interview us. Our discussion addressed such themes as indigeneity, solidarity, the benefit of working in collectives and the notion of Aztlan. 

Thanks to Luis Moreno from the Xicano Development Center who produced the show.

The Xicano Development Center is a political re-education space for an indigenous revival. They seek to continue the political education of the Xicano Nation, which was brutally interrupted by the recent European invasion. They believe in the rights of Indigenous peoples across the world to self-determination. The believe that Xicana/os must free ourselves from cultural colonialism, oppressive capitalism and governmental occupation.

A few months ago one of the most powerful women and organizers I know, MorningStar Gali, told me that the International Indian Treaty Council would be hosting a symposium for Indigenous women working on reproductive and environmental justice issues and community members concerned with and interested in learning more about each other's strategy and implementation. As part of the Symposium, there will be a community event where Symposium participants will present their work in an effort to connect with one another through dialogue, performance and artistic expression.

I was commissioned to create a poster to promote the symposium and was very happy to use a portrait of a young girl and her grandmother to symbolize our sacred relatioship as daughters of Mother Earth. 

Our Lands, Our Rights,Our Future Generations 

Report-back and Sharing from the International Indigenous Women's Symposium on Reproductive Health and Environmental Toxins  

Presentations and updates by dynamic Indigenous women working for the health of Mother Earth and future generations from California and around the US, Canada, Alaska, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands.

Cultural presentations by Hinewirangi Kohu (Maori, Aotearoa/New Zealand), Faith Gemmill (Gwich’in, Alaska and Pit River/Wintu, California) and more

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010, 7-9PM
Eastside Arts Alliance
2277 International Blvd
Oakland CA 94606
www.eastsideartsalliance.org

Admittance free of charge, donations gladly accepted! 

For more information, please contact Morning Star Gali at (415) 641-4482 or (510) 827-671
Sponsored by the International Indian Treaty Council                
www.treatycouncil.org

As Jesus and I started tp gear up to go to Detroit next week to participate in the US Social Forum we decided we wanted to create a special print to take with us. As we talked about what we were excited the Excluded Workers Congress. We talked about racist and classist it was for certain sectors to be exluded from the Depression era-National Labor Relations Act.  These excluded workers have decided that enought is enough and that they should have their right to organize recognized.

We the poster is a composite of portraits that were created for a local affiliate of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and the National Domestic Workers Alliance (both of which were formed at the US Social Forum in Atlanta in 2007.)