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OVER 1.5 million people have been deported by the Obama administration. As an artist I am using my voice to take a stand and call for an end to the criminalization of migrant( and people of color and working class) communities. #Not1More
Justice for Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez
Solidarity with the family of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez who was brutally shot down and killed by Border Patrol. Art collaboration by Pablo Paredes and Melanie Cervantes.
Somos de Maiz
Melanie Cervantes
13 x 19 inches, 5 - Color, Handmade Screenprint on Heavyweight White Archival Paper, Printed in San Leandro, 2013
In 2003 during my final year studying at UC Berkeley a Professor in the Microbial Ecology in the Department of Environmental Science, Ignacio Chapela, was denied tenure. David Quist, a graduate student at the time and Chapela had co-authored an article, two years earlier, about how genetically modified corn from the U.S. was being dumped into the Mexican market and contaminating native maíz crops. During the “final” days of his contract he held office hours, day and night, outside the doors of California Hall (which houses the university administration’s offices). My roommate cooked Chapela dinner and we came out to support his struggle.
Chapela talked about how the contamination of the maíz would impact indigenous peoples, Mayas, because maíz is not only a staple food but a fundamental physical and spiritual aspect of Mayan culture and of the Mayan people themselves. Maya cosmology holds that the Creator made the first humans from an ear of maíz. The other negative impact of the GMO corn is that it makes all other species of corn it comes into contact with sterile. The contagion spreads, like a virus around the country and the world. Corporations like Monsanto do this so that the only corn available is that which the company owns the patent on.
In 2005 Chapela sued the university because he strongly opposed a $25 million campus deal with the giant Novartis drug and agri-business corporation. Shortly after the suit was filed Chapela's tenure denial was reversed by UC Berkeley. He dropped the suit and said "I look forward to continue challenging, in the best forums that I can find, what I believe is a corrupt and illegitimate takeover of the public university away from its public mandate."
In 2012 Monsanto wins California and defeats the ballot initiative which would require GMOs to be labeled. Indigenous and other peoples throughout Mexico and the Americas continue to battle against the devestating effects GMOS have on current and future generations.
19" x 13" with a .5" white border around the edges, Digital Art Print, 2012
Dreams Are Stronger Than Fear is a poster I designed for Forward Together. It is meant to elevate the collective power migrant communities and their families hold in their vision for a better world.
Forward Together leads grassroots actions and trains community leaders to transform policy and culture in ways that support individuals, families, and communities in reaching our full potential. In the world we envision, all people will have the economic, social, and political power and resources to make decisions about our gender, our bodies, and our sexuality. We are developing leaders with vision, building networks across communities, and implementing innovative campaigns to make our vision a reality.
Melanie Cervantes
21.25" x 27.5"
Full Color Dignital Print, Printed in San Leandro, 2012
Despite 520 years of colonialism, capitalism and imperialism we are still here. We have survived because we have resisted through our struggle with deep wells of love for our people. I give thanks to the ongoing resistance and today I particularly thank all the women whose names may never be elevated or recorded in books but who have made so much possible!
Melanie Cervantes
26" x 20"
5 - Color, Hand made Screenprint, Heavyweight Archival Art Paper,Printed in Oakland, 2012
Mad Vision is a recreation of a stencil painting I made in 2005. It is inspired by all the young filmmakers who bring us great visions which they translate into their work.
Melanie Cervantes
16" x 20"
5 - Color, Hand made Screenprint, Heavyweight Archival Art Paper,Printed in Oakland, 2012
During our last visit to Tucson, Arizona we had the opportunity to spend time with an amazing leader in the fight for human rights, Isabel Garcia. Isabel has been at the forefront of immigrant and refugee rights since 1976. Isabel’s analysis is clear “Immigration policy has been a total failure and needs to be changed. It has not prevented people from attempting to cross the border but has put the lives of thousands of men, women, and children in serious danger. Their deaths are the direct result of U.S. policy.” Isabel serves as the co-chair Coalición de Derechos Humanos.
Coalición de Derechos Humanos ("The Human Rights Coalition") is a grassroots organization which promotes respect for human/civil rights and fights the militarization of the Southern Border region, discrimination, and human rights abuses by federal, state, and local law enforcement officials affecting U.S. and non-U.S. citizens alike.
I am honored to have designed the cover for Derechos Humanos Ninth Annual Corazón de Justicia Awards. In addition Jesus Barraza printed a limited edition of hand made screen prints that will be sold as a fundraiser to benefit the organization. Jesus and I want to congratulate all the award recipients many of whom we are lucky to call friends.
Melanie Cervantes
24" x 18"
5 - Color, Hand made Screenprint, Heavyweight Archival Art Paper,Printed in Oakland, 2012
When I was asked to design the awards for the National Domestic Worker's Alliance I was so honored. I was in Atlanta, at the first US Social Forum when the Alliance was formed and have believed deeply in their work since day one.
Founded in 2007, the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) is the nation’s leading voice for the millions of domestic workers in the United States, most of whom are women. NDWA is powered by 35 local, membership-based affiliate organizations of over 10,000 nannies, housekeepers and caregivers for the elderly located in 19 cities and 11 states around the country. NDWA is supported by domestic workers, employers, supporters and allies.
This was a collaborative effort. I designed the awards with lots of feedback from the NDWA team and Jesus printed them. Awardees include actresses Viola Davis and Cicley Tyson, organizer Linda Oalican, Guillermina Castellanos and the organizations Casa Latina, Mujeres Unidas y Activas and Domestic Workers United.
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17"
Full Color Offset Poster, 2012
Dia de los Muertos poster commissioned by the California Institute of Integral Studies. It was really important to me to center a danzante in the composition because I feel that Dia de los Muertos is about a world view that understands a duality between life and death. These understandings are rooted in indigenous cosmologies and worldviews from peoples across the Americas. I didn't want the image to flatten, what started as, over a month long ceremony about remembering the ancestors to a kitchy image of a skull out of context or some sexualized woman with her face half painted as a skull and half painted with make up that has no connection to traditional practices or content that helps the viewer understand the importance of the day. I shot a photo of Lazaro Arvizu (central figure here), a danzante from Xipe Totec, who used to come to my community college to teach the third and fourth graders, our student organization brought in from local schools, about the traditions of Dia de los Muertos. This during was the last year I helped organize the event, in 2001, before I moved to the Bay. Mark you calendar for CIIS' event.
Melanie Cervantes
22" x 30"
5 - Color, Hand made Screenprint, Coventry Rag Archival Paper, Printed at the Serie Project, Coronado Studios, 2012
This print was produced at the Serie Project and is a portrait of Tejana extraordinaire Gloria Anzaldua. I choose to include this portrait of Gloria because she was a groundbreaking thinker of Chicana/lesbian/feminist theory.
She helped make visible the literature and writing of women of color and the US. She was the co-editor of the book This Bridge Called my Back and is best known for her book Borderlands/La Frontera. She made major contributions to Chicana feminist and queer theory and was a huge inspiration to me. She died in the summer 2004 at her home in Santa Cruz and I wanted to do something to honor all she contributed to the world during her life.
The piece honors her legacy by juxtaposing her portrait with Coatlicue the Mexica representation of mother earth. In Borderlands, Anzaldua writes about ‘the Coatilcue State as a type of “internal whirlwind” which “gives and takes away life”, “invoking art,” and that it is “alive, infused with spirit” ‘(Anzaldúa 68, 88-89).
I included a quote from Gloria that I really love:
“Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having always to translate, while I still have to speak English or Spanish when I would rather speak Spanglish, and as long as I have to accommodate the English speakers rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate. I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent’s tongue - my woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence.”
Melanie Cervantes
12” x 18”
2-Color Screen Print on Blue Neenah Paper, Printed in Oakland, 2012
"Reproductive Justice =People Power to End Gender Oppression". This is print designed in partnership with the Groundswell Fund for the "This is an Emergency" portfolio which focuses on reproductive rights, gender justice and reproductive justice. The portfolio was organized In response to all the bullying, the legislative measures, and the horrifying statements filling the media. This project brings together over a dozen voices from people most affected by these issues- self identified women/transgendered and queer artists.
Melanie Cervantes
20” x 26”
1-layer screen print,split fountain, Chipboard, Printed at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, 2012
Print for Undocunation event at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF. I did live printing at the event. A limited edition of 55 were printed and given away there.
E-Card, 2012
Forward Together recently invited me and over half a dozen other artist to create e-cards for Mama's Day. The goal was to create cards that addressed that gap that the greeting-card-industrial-complex left many of the people who have mothered us in. The project allowed me to reach deep into my heart and create pieces that honor the love and caregiving that don't feel appropriately addresssed through frilly laced declarations that are doused with flowers and cheesy stock sentiments.
The Strong Families Initiative is celebrating "Mama's Day" with a custom e-card tool that gives all mothers and families a chance to be visible. The site provides eighteen templates by artists likeKirby Platero, Nikki McClure, Micah Bizant, Veronica Bayetti Flores and myself that feature motherhood in all its diversity, with space for you to write a personalized message and email it to the mother of your choice.
E-Card, 2012
Forward Together recently invited me and over half a dozen other artist to create e-cards for Mama's Day. The goal was to create cards that addressed that gap that the greeting-card-industrial-complex left many of the people who have mothered us in. The project allowed me to reach deep into my heart and create pieces that honor the love and caregiving that don't feel appropriately addresssed through frilly laced declarations that are doused with flowers and cheesy stock sentiments.
The Strong Families Initiative is celebrating "Mama's Day" with a custom e-card tool that gives all mothers and families a chance to be visible. The site provides eighteen templates by artists likeKirby Platero, Nikki McClure, Micah Bizant, Veronica Bayetti Flores and myself that feature motherhood in all its diversity, with space for you to write a personalized message and email it to the mother of your choice.
E-Card and 18x 24" Poster, 2012
Forward Together recently invited me and over half a dozen other artist to create e-cards for Mama's Day. The goal was to create cards that addressed that gap that the greeting-card-industrial-complex left many of the people who have mothered us in. The project allowed me to reach deep into my heart and create pieces that honor the love and caregiving that don't feel appropriately addresssed through frilly laced declarations that are doused with flowers and cheesy stock sentiments.
The Strong Families Initiative is celebrating "Mama's Day" with a custom e-card tool that gives all mothers and families a chance to be visible. The site provides eighteen templates by artists likeKirby Platero, Nikki McClure, Micah Bizant, Veronica Bayetti Flores and myself that feature motherhood in all its diversity, with space for you to write a personalized message and email it to the mother of your choice.
Melanie Cervantes
Web Graphic and Logo 2010
In 2008 I traveled to Ecatepec, Mexico to participate in the Festival in New Winds. A contingency of about 15 U.S based artists journeyed to the municipality to conduct skill shares, create street installations, exhibits and artists talks. During our time there we met many talented local artists and media makers. I was particularly impressed by the work and political analysis of a pair of comrades:Ricardo Aguilar and Edgar Guzman Cortes who we spent a considerable amount of time with. We discussed the impacts of Neoliberal policies and repression in Mexico, we visited the commemorative Tlatelolco the site of two major massacres, our mutural alignement with the Zapatistas’ Otra Campaña and spent many of our meals discussing resistance together. We have kept in touch since our travels there and I was honored when I was commissioned to create a logo for their collective Otras Voces, Otra Historia
Born in 2003, as the Collective Slekilalik: Ricardo Flores Magon and composed of six activists of a student movement. They decided to go a step further and formally integrate the work of the communication and dissemination in their work; previously they helped promote conferences, discussion forums, consultations and cultural activities associated with the university and student population, but they realized the need to disseminate the information generated and that the university should have a space to give voice to the student they decided to start work in Internet radio production in order to have more coverage to the general public and beyond the an audience of students.
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17" Full Color Poster, New Leaf Archival and Ancient Forest Friendly Paper, Printed at Inkworks Press, Berkeley, CA
Poster designed as an incentive for attending the event "DRAWING INSPIRATION 40 YEARS & COUNTING: Living the Legacy of Attica and George Jackson" at EastSide Arts Alliance on September 16th, 2011. Everyone who attended received one of these posters with their $15 entrance fee. The event is a fundraiser for Critical Resistance.
“Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done; discover your humanity and your love in revolution.”--George Jackson
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17"
3-color, Handmade Screen Print
Signed and numbered edition of:40
Cougar Double Thick Archival Art Paper
Printed in San Leandro, 2011
Mi Semillita is a portrait of a mother in the late stages of her pregnancy. This piece is based on a piece I painted in 2005 when I just getting started as a practicing artist. I only have one snapshot of the painting (that I no longer have access to) and I really wanted to revisit and recreate the piece. This time I translated the piece using more bold, flat color and I create a new palate of colors for it.
I really enjoyed creating this piece. I reflecting on all the friends who are having babies and the joy that emanates from them and tried to capture that in this piece.
Melanie Cervantes
8.5” x 11” Digital Download PDF, 2011
This piece is called "We Are Still Here" and honors a group of warrior friends who I give thanks to.I release the design on what is traditionally celebrated as "Thanksgiving". I wanted to celebrate warriors for Mother Earth instead of celebrating invasion and colonization. This will be the first in a series on Indigenous people's who fight to maintain traditional lands, sacred lands and Indigenous people ways of life on our own terms.
To learn about what they have done visit http://protectglencove.org/
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17"
1-Color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Printed in San Leandro, CA 2011
This poster was created for an action targeting the predatory banks in San Francisco through the "Foreclose on Wall Street West" action. Thanks Chris Crass for the idea. End Imperialism! End the Occupations!
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17" Digital Download, PDF
This poster was created in collaboration with POOR News Network.
POOR Magazine is a poor people led/indigenous people led, grassroots non-profit,arts organization dedicated to providing revolutionary media access, art, education and advocacy to silenced youth, adults and elders in poverty across the globe.
All of POOR's programs are focused on providing non-colonizing, community-based and community-led media, art and education with the goals of creating access for silenced voices, preserving and degentrifying rooted communities of color and re-framing the debate on poverty, landlessness, indigenous resistance, disability and race locally and globally.
Download the poster here.
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17" Full Color Poster
I teamed up with Chinese Progressive Association, San Francisco to produced a new poster for the 99% fighting for dignity and better working and living conditions. Founded in 1972, the Chinese Progressive Association educates, organizes and empowers the low income and working class immigrant Chinese community in San Francisco to build collective power with other oppressed communities to demand better living and working conditions and justice for all people.
Download the newest poster 11 X17 here.
Melanie Cervantes
8.5” x 11” Digital Download PDF, 2011
(Chinese Version) A downloadable poster for th 99%. This poster helps to lift up the story of a Chinese mother who faces the harsh reality that the "American Dream" is a myth and who demands that the richest 1 % and corporations pay their fair share in taxes.
Melanie Cervantes
8.5” x 11” Digital Download PDF, 2011
A downloadable poster for th 99%. This poster helps to lift up the story of a Chinese mother who faces the harsh reality that the "American Dream" is a myth and who demands that the richest 1 % and corporations pay their fair share in taxes.
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17" Full Color Poster, New Leaf Archival and Ancient Forest Friendly Paper, Printed at Inkworks Press, Berkeley, CA
(Spanish Version)This poster was collaboratively developed by anti-racist organizer Chris Crass and myself.
Chris Crass is a father and longtime organizer working to build powerful working class based, multiracial movements for collective liberation. As part of the global justice movement he helped start the Catalyst Project in 2000, which develops and supports anti-racist politics, leadership, and organization in white communities. Catalyst also works to build up working class and multiracial organizing efforts nationally. He has written widely on anti-authoritarian leadership, movement strategy, and organizing white people against racism and for collective liberation.
Chris' Statement about "United for Justice, Not Divided By Racism
"When Melanie Cervantes approached me about making a poster based on a picture of my family at Occupy Knoxville, I jumped at the opportunity. The Occupy movement has opened space for all of our justice movements to step forward and provide leadership on the most critical issues we face as a people. Melanie's "We are the 99%" posters are giving shape to the movement by bringing struggles in communities of color into the center. I wanted to do this poster with Melanie, as a way of helping unite the Occupy movement to the struggle for immigrant rights. White supremacy pits white communities struggles for justice against communities of color struggles for justice. This poster represents the vision of anti-racist leadership in white communities joining with liberation struggles in communities of color, with the goal of collective liberation. When I look at my 4 month old baby, I think about how powerful this movement moment is for the future of our society and the world. We can do this. Thank you Melanie for all you are doing to help us see ourselves as a movement through your visionary art."
Read more about the poster here
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17" Full Color Poster, New Leaf Archival and Ancient Forest Friendly Paper, Printed at Inkworks Press, Berkeley, CA
This poster was collaboratively developed by anti-racist organizer Chris Crass and myself.
Chris Crass is a father and longtime organizer working to build powerful working class based, multiracial movements for collective liberation. As part of the global justice movement he helped start the Catalyst Project in 2000, which develops and supports anti-racist politics, leadership, and organization in white communities. Catalyst also works to build up working class and multiracial organizing efforts nationally. He has written widely on anti-authoritarian leadership, movement strategy, and organizing white people against racism and for collective liberation.
Chris' Statement about "United for Justice, Not Divided By Racism
"When Melanie Cervantes approached me about making a poster based on a picture of my family at Occupy Knoxville, I jumped at the opportunity. The Occupy movement has opened space for all of our justice movements to step forward and provide leadership on the most critical issues we face as a people. Melanie's "We are the 99%" posters are giving shape to the movement by bringing struggles in communities of color into the center. I wanted to do this poster with Melanie, as a way of helping unite the Occupy movement to the struggle for immigrant rights. White supremacy pits white communities struggles for justice against communities of color struggles for justice. This poster represents the vision of anti-racist leadership in white communities joining with liberation struggles in communities of color, with the goal of collective liberation. When I look at my 4 month old baby, I think about how powerful this movement moment is for the future of our society and the world. We can do this. Thank you Melanie for all you are doing to help us see ourselves as a movement through your visionary art."
Read more about the poster here
Melanie Cervantes
8.5” x 11” Digital Download PDF
12" x 18" Full Color Poster, New Leaf Archival and Ancient Forest Friendly Paper, Printed at Inkworks Press, Berkeley, CA
SPANISH VERSION. This poster was inspired by stories I had been hearing about banks targeting Black home owners who were re-financing their homes. I heard about these stories as early as 2007 from local advocates who were starting to map these occurances in Oakland. They talked about elderly Black women being the primary target of bad loans.
In order to elevate this story and show how community organizers were coming together to respond to these banks I collaborated with a local Bay Area based organizations Causa Justa: Just Cause. Members and organizers from the organization allowed me to conduct a photography shoot so I could use their portaits as reference for the art. At the time I didn't know the person who I used as the primary "character" of the poster would later be leading a intervention into the attempt at forclosure on her own home. Nell Myhand fought the banks with the support of Causa Justa: Just Cause. Read more about it HERE.
Melanie Cervantes
8.5” x 11” Digital Download PDF
12" x 18" Full Color Poster, New Leaf Archival and Ancient Forest Friendly Paper, Printed at Inkworks Press, Berkeley, CA
This poster was inspired by stories I had been hearing about banks targeting Black home owners who were re-financing their homes. I heard about these stories as early as 2007 from local advocates who were starting to map these occurances in Oakland. They talked about elderly Black women being the primary target of bad loans.
In order to elevate this story and show how community organizers were coming together to respond to these banks I collaborated with a local Bay Area based organizations Causa Justa: Just Cause. Members and organizers from the organization allowed me to conduct a photography shoot so I could use their portaits as reference for the art. At the time I didn't know the person who I used as the primary "character" of the poster would later be leading a intervention into the attempt at forclosure on her own home. Nell Myhand fought the banks with the support of Causa Justa: Just Cause. Read more about it HERE.
Melanie Cervantes
20” x 26”
2-color screen print, Archival Paper, Printed in Oakland, 2011
This design was created for the launch of Occupy Oakland and Indigenous People's Resistance Day.
I was really excited about these local efforts popping up all over the country. I believe in our insurgent energy and know it will take a massive movement to defeat imperialism, corporate colonialism, and racism here in the belly of the beast as well as throughout the world.
I also thought Occupy" actions needed to center a racial justice analysis into their process and demands if they want to truly reach transformational outcomes.Let's grow and be clear about who we are focusing on (imperialism/capitalism/financial sector) but let's decolonize ourselves along the way.
In that spirit I supported the launch of Occupy Oakland and commend its first steps in asking Ohlone's people for their blessing in starting this work.
As a brilliant friend suggests-Occupy Oakland know the traditional territorial boundaries of the lands you are occupying! Together, recognize the histories and present day struggles of the indigenous peoples whose traditional lands you are occupying!Santa Cruz: Awaswas Ohlone
San Francisco: Ramaytush Ohlone
East Bay: Chochenyo Ohlone
Melanie Cervantes
18” x 24”
Full color offset poster, Printed in New York , 2012
I was invited by the collective members of Indig-nación; a Spanish language newspaper for the Occupy Wall St. movement, written and edited by Latin@s to create a poster for the the print and online editions of the publication.
I was tasked with creating a poster that would inspire people to mobilize and get out into the streets on May 1st 2012. Occupy Wall Street is urging people around the world to join in on the day of action:
Worldwide, May 1st is traditionally a ‘Workers’ day – a day of Labor Solidarity, and a public holiday. It’s a day to celebrate and march in support of im/migrant rights. In protest against the corruption of the worldwide marketplace, which has led to illegal foreclosures, mass unemployment, low wages, high taxes and a penalization of all those who do not own the ‘99%’ of the world’s resources, and in solidarity with the im/migrant movements of May 1st, we decided to declare May 1st, 2012 a People’s General Strike. Instead of calling upon unionized Labor to make a specific demand (illegal under Taft-Hartley), we are calling upon the people of the world to take this day away from school and the workplace, so that their absence makes their displeasure with this corrupt system be known.
As I reflected on how to best create an image that might galvanize people to action I began to "arm myself with knowledge of the past" by studying historic May Day posters. I finally found one that really caught my attention that was designed by Nikolai Kochergin. Kochergin was among the first artists to start to design Soviet political posters. The poster "I-oe maia goda" (May 1, 1920) has three central figures striding over the symbols of the old regime.
I mirrored the composition but aimed to portray contemporary figures, in a multi-racial, multi-generational, working-class led movement. Instead of having the three central figures moving they are looking into the distance (the future) and "stand" firmly connected to a large group marching forward together.
Melanie Cervantes
11x 17" , Digital Poster, Printed at Inkworks Press, Berkeley, CA 2010
This print was my first response the the call for art from Alto Arizona. My friend and fellow artist urged Jesus and I to design a print for the campaign and this piece was a call to action to ask Jan Brewer to Veto SB1070. Of course, she signed the bill into law and as the organizing continued, we continued to support the movement with political graphics and posters.
This is the layout for the Brown and Proud digital poster.
The Brown and Proud poster was created in reponse to Arizona passing SB 1070 into law. The law will allow local "law enforcement" legally use racial profiling to harrass anyone they respect "who is an alien and who is unlawfully present in the U.S."
In order to create a message of cultural affirmation and pride, in a climate where being brown means you are a target of suspicion and abuse, I created this design using the slogan Brown and Proud. The illustration I created of my the main character in my posteris a portrait of a young Xicana from Oakland named Leslie. I also wanted to use a stylized butterfly that is based on glyphs found in Azcapotzalco an area of what is now Mexico City. I used the butterflies to symbolize how migration is reflected in the natural world. The "Todos Somos Arizona" sub-slogan was influenced by the collectively focused Zapatista slogans such as Todos Somos Ramona. Our worldview is heavily influenced by the uprising of the Zapatistas social movement against the rise of Neo-liberal politics.
Melanie Cervantes
Fabric Banner , Dye Sublimation Printing, 2010
This design was commissioned by the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance in the anticipation of 2010's U.S. Social Forum.Grassroots Global Justice is a national alliance of grassroots organizations building a popular movement for peace, democracy and a sustainable world. They support each other's local struggles and collaborate with international allies who share their vision and commitment to building a transformative social justice movement beyond borders. They connect as grassroots leaders by creating spaces for dialogue and strategic thinking, and by sharpening their understanding of global political and economic forces that cause poverty, conflict and environmental destruction in our communities. They 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.s.
Melanie Cervantes
Fabric Patches , Screen Printed, 2010
This design was commissioned by the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance in the anticipation of 2010's U.S. Social Forum.Grassroots Global Justice is a national alliance of grassroots organizations building a popular movement for peace, democracy and a sustainable world. They support each other's local struggles and collaborate with international allies who share their vision and commitment to building a transformative social justice movement beyond borders. They connect as grassroots leaders by creating spaces for dialogue and strategic thinking, and by sharpening their understanding of global political and economic forces that cause poverty, conflict and environmental destruction in our communities. They 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.s.
Melanie Cervantes
Fabric Bandana , Screen Printed , 2010
This design was commissioned by the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance in the anticipation of 2010's U.S. Social Forum.Grassroots Global Justice is a national alliance of grassroots organizations building a popular movement for peace, democracy and a sustainable world. They support each other's local struggles and collaborate with international allies who share their vision and commitment to building a transformative social justice movement beyond borders. They connect as grassroots leaders by creating spaces for dialogue and strategic thinking, and by sharpening their understanding of global political and economic forces that cause poverty, conflict and environmental destruction in our communities. They 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.s.
Melanie Cervantes
18x 24" , Spraypainted Stencil, Archival Paper, Printed in San Leandro, CA 2007
Melanie Cervantes
18" x 24" , 1-color poster, Newsprint, Printed in San Francisco, CA 2008
This print was printed as a live-screenprinting demonstration at the opening of Yo! What Happened to Peace? at the Punch Gallery in San Francisco.This poster makes the connection of racist motivations underlying the U.S. government war in Iraq and the failed U.S. government response to communities of color in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina. Drawing these connections remidnded me of Muhammed Ali 'refused to step forward for induction into the army during the Vietnam War, claiming conscientious objector status. “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong,” he said, adding, “No Viet Cong ever called me nigger.” Condemned as unpatriotic and cowardly, Ali was stripped of his title and his boxing license. He was tried, found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. Released on appeal, he waited three years for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the verdict.'
Melanie Cervantes
T-Shirt Design, 2010
This print was my first response the the call for art from Alto Arizona. My friend and fellow artist urged Jesus and I to design a print for the campaign and this piece was a call to action to ask Jan Brewer to Veto SB1070. Of course, she signed the bill into law and as the organizing continued, we continued to support the movement with political graphics and posters.
This is the layout for the t-shirt version of my Brown and Proud Design. T-shirts were printed by Libertion Ink. 50 % of the proceeds went to local organizations organizing in Arizona against the anti-migrant hate and criminizalization and 50% went to local Bay Area organizations.
You can order a shirt here :LIBERATION INK
Melanie Cervantes
8.5 x 11" , Digital Layout
This print was my first response the the call for art from Alto Arizona. My friend and fellow artist urged Jesus and I to design a print for the campaign and this piece was a call to action to ask Jan Brewer to Veto SB1070. Of course, she signed the bill into law and as the organizing continued, we continued to support the movement with political graphics and posters.
Melanie Cervantes
T-Shirt Design, 2009
This print was my first response the the call for art from Alto Arizona. My friend and fellow artist urged Jesus and I to design a print for the campaign and this piece was a call to action to ask Jan Brewer to Veto SB1070. Of course, she signed the bill into law and as the organizing continued, we continued to support the movement with political graphics and posters.
Melanie Cervantes
8.5 x 11" , Digital Download, PDF
This poster was adapted from a piece that was originally created for the Alto Arizona Campaign and asking to veto SB1070. Since HB87 is Georgia's copycat law I just adapted the imagery to focus on Georgia and it's governor and sent the image as a tool for organizing there.
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17", 1-layer screeprint, Chipboard, Printed in Chicago, IL
This is a print that I designed for the annual Facing Race Conference that the Applied Research Center organizes bi-annually. Jesus and I were invited to do live printing during their cultural event as well as present a workshop on cultural work. This conference was held in 2010 in Chicago, Illinois. For more info visit here
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26",3-color Screenprint, Heavyweight Archival Paper, Printed in Oakland, CA 2011
Glen Cove is a sacred gathering place and burial ground that has been utilized by numerous Native American tribes since at least 1,500 BC. Today, Glen Cove continues to be spiritually important to local Native communities. It is located just south of Vallejo, California along the Carquinez Strait, a natural channel that connects the Sacramento River Delta to the San Francisco Bay. Glen Cove is known as Sogorea Te in Karkin Ohlone language.
I created this graphic as a humble attempt to create a visual that captured the stories being told by organizers and elders. I wanted to depict ancestors presence on this sacred shellmound and did so by depicting Miwok and Ohlone men and women reflected in the clouds and in on the land. Many other California peoples have been present on this sacred land I want to acknowledge that as well. Ideally this could be a much larger piece that could reflect how important this site is to many, many, many peoples.
Read more about the process here
Vilma Espin Guillois Presente!
Most people know the names and faces Cuban revolutionaries Ernesto “Che”Guevara and Fidel Castro but I would bet if you ask these same people about the women who were instrumental in the Cuban Revolution they would respond with a blank stare. The leadership women provide to revolutionary movements is often invisiblized so I wanted to bring it to the surface. This portrait of Vilma Espin is the first, in what I hope are many, portraits of revolutionary women.
Read more here
Design by Melanie Cervantes, drawings by Rini Templeton
11" x 17", Digital Download, PDF
"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."-Martin Luther King, Jr., April 16, 1963, Letter From Birmingham City Jail
In a more recent communication a good friend, a freedom fighter wrote, via email, another poignant message:
"I stand with all my brothers still on hunger strike inside the SHUs at Pelican Bay, Corcoran, and all the mainlines in Centinela, Folsom, and all other prisoners throughout California and the nation in solidarity with the hunger strike. Imagine being caged up alone for 23 hours a day in a 6x10 concrete chamber….Imagine that the only human contact in the last 10, 15 years is that of guards putting shackles on you, or a vague recollection of someone who told you she was from the medical field…Imagine if you have not seen, or talked to another African-American person in months, years, or even decades. These brothers are not asking to be released. They are demanding their human rights. They are demanding an end to torture."
He asked that I help spread the word about the indefinate hunger strike that started at Pelican Bay but which has spread to other prisons and folks inside and outside standing in solidarity with those in Pelican Bay. He inspired me to create a downloadable poster to spread the word.
Read more here
Melanie Cervantes
As of May 23, 2011, the U.S. government, during the Barak Obama administration, has deported 1,026,517 immigrants since the beginning of fiscal year 2009.
http://www.ice.gov/doclib/about/offices/ero/pdf/ero-removals.pdf
President Obama wants to force police officers in every state to act like immigration officers.
"After hitting a record 1 MILLION deportations, the Obama administration just did the unthinkable: Forcing states and police departments to comply with a controversial program called Secure Communities or S-Comm – a move guaranteed to deport many more millions of people.
S-Comm is a highly criticized federal program that is deporting immigrants who have done nothing wrong, encouraging racial profiling, devastating communities around the country, and making us all less safe. In fact, under S-Comm authorities can deport a woman reporting domestic violence, instead of protecting her.2 Huge immigrant states like Illinois and New York opted out of the program because it breeds distrust of the police – and now President Obama is forcing them to comply."
This piece was created with the specific purpose of being a part of a traveling exhibit on the border and immigration. I was invited to submit anything I wanted-with any content to be part of the exhibit. Due to my use of the expletive "Fuck" it was rejected and I was asked to remove myself from the exhibit.I stood by the piece and lost relationships over it but felt that the great sense of anger and indignation were conveyed in the original design and that changing it would change the piece. I stood by it-right or wrong.
I felt that if people were more caught up with the use of the word "fuck" than the outrageous numbers of deportations, the amount of brutality inflicted on communities by vigilantes, police, and ICE, then it was more a matter of moral priorities. This is why I choose to name the piece "The Real Obscenity."
References:
1.
President Obama: End S-Comm Now
http://presente.org/campaign/president-obama-end-s-comm-now/original_email/
2. “Domestic Violence Survivor Confronts Secure Communities Director, Deport Nation, 11/08/2010
http://www.deportationnation.org/2010/11/domestic-violence-survivor-confronts-secure-communities-director/
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17", Digital Download, PDF
My good friend, Daniel Carrillo, was visiting the Bay Area in March when we started to discuss a campaign that the organization he works with Enlace would be launching this May. I was commissioned to create a poster for the national campaign that would help move people.
Enlace, in partnership with community groups and unions across the US, is calling on all public and private institutions to divest their holdings in Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group, America’s largest private prison corporations which have profited from billions in taxpayer money.
The major investors in the private prison industry include Pershing Square Capital Management, Wellington Management Company, Wells Fargo Bank, General Electric and others
At the time of this writing hedge fund manager, Bill Ackman, announced the divestment of Pershing Square Capital Management’s holdings in Corrections Corporation (CCA) of America, the nation’s largest private prison company. Mr. Ackman and CCA filed a joint statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 16, 2011 confirming that Pershing Square no longer holds stock in CCA. Pershing Square Capital Management divested over 7 million shares in CCA.
Read more about the campaign and how to get involved here: http://prisondivestment.wordpress.com/)
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17", Digital Download, PDF
My good friend, Daniel Carrillo, was visiting the Bay Area in March when we started to discuss a campaign that the organization he works with Enlace would be launching this May. I was commissioned to create a poster for the national campaign that would help move people.
Enlace, in partnership with community groups and unions across the US, is calling on all public and private institutions to divest their holdings in Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group, America’s largest private prison corporations which have profited from billions in taxpayer money.
The major investors in the private prison industry include Pershing Square Capital Management, Wellington Management Company, Wells Fargo Bank, General Electric and others
At the time of this writing hedge fund manager, Bill Ackman, announced the divestment of Pershing Square Capital Management’s holdings in Corrections Corporation (CCA) of America, the nation’s largest private prison company. Mr. Ackman and CCA filed a joint statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 16, 2011 confirming that Pershing Square no longer holds stock in CCA. Pershing Square Capital Management divested over 7 million shares in CCA.
Read more about the campaign and how to get involved here: http://prisondivestment.wordpress.com/)
Julieta’s voice first made it into my ears when she was a vocalist for Tijuana No!, a Mexican political punk-ska-rock band. Later in 1998 my sister enlisted the help of relatives in Mexico to get a copy of her first CD Aqui which hadn't yet been distributed in the U.S. I loved her rock sound and would steal away with the CD, listening to her songs on repeat during my four mile walks to and from community college.
I continued to love her sound as it transformed from rock to pop because I could always listen to her previous albums and still enjoy the new music. The best memory I have of seeing Julieta play live was at an opening of the exhibit Lines of Sight: Views of the U.S./ Mexican Border at UC Riverside. Her twin sister Yvonne, who is a photographer, had work in the exhibit along with other phenomenal artists like Ricardo Duffy and Ruben Ortiz Torres. The event combined On a couple of songs her cousin played flute while she changed between acoustic guitar and accordion while her sister and mother sang along softly with her songs. It was fantastic.
The first time I saw Julieta play the accordion I was electrified. I had seen norteño-bands like Los Tigres Del Norte play before but this was the first time I witnessed a woman master the squeezebox and make it look like the coolest instrument in the world.
This piece joins the series of portraits of women musicians whose music moves me. The other prints feature Martha Gonzalez of Quetzal and Lila Downs.
Order print here
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
1-Color, Handmade, Screen Print , Neenah Archival Paper, Printed in Oakland, CA 2011
A design I originally created as a downloadable poster. This print is designed in the tradition of OSPAAAL (Organization of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa & Latin America) a Cuban political movement with the stated purpose of fighting globalization, imperialism, neoliberalism and defending human rights. The have created a vault of political posters to support freedom fighting world wide and promoted Third World solidarity. I have a wonderful book called "the solidarity poster" that catalouges all of their works. I found a poster in that book from 1969 with the slogan "Victory Will Be Attained by the Peoples Who Struggle for their Liberation" in four languages. I decided to use the slogan verbatim and thought it worked well.
We printed about 120 posters and gave almost all of them away at a march in San Francisco. We kept a small stack to sell to help recooperate the cost of materials.We only have very limited quantities about 20 left!
Order a print here
Chavela Vargas is a Mexican legend of rancheras and for my abuelita she was her siren of choice. Born in Costa Rica but claimed by most Mexicans she has been openly lesbian and is even known to have had a relationship with artist Frida Kahlo. Chavela once said: “I didn't attend lesbian classes. No one taught me to be this way. I was born this way, from the moment I opened my eyes in this world. I've never been to bed with a man. Never. That's how pure I am; I have nothing to be ashamed of. My gods made me the way I am.” She appears in Salma Hayek’s Frida film as a singer in a cantina and accompanies another favorite singer of mine, Lila Downs, who also appears and sings in the film.
Though my abuela and I both love Chavela belting out with passion songs of love and pain, I don’t remember hearing the music when I visited. I came to be a fan much later in life when I was in college. I remember being so excited when Chavela performed at Carnegie Hall in 2003. The recognition and platform was long overdue.
This is the fourth in a series of women singers who inspire me.
Order a print here
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17"
1-Color, Digital Print , Matte Cover Paper, Printed by Inkworks Press in Berkeley, CA 2011
Though many of the "show me your papers" bills, emulating Arizona's SB 1070, that have popped up in states all over the country are being killed before they make it to law there are still several states that could pass laws before the legislative sessions are over.
Despite the fact that some states have defeated these proposals there are still states facing climates of hate and racism. This design is one I created with the input of leaders from a grassroots organization that works in Tucson, Arizona where their members are taking a stand and rejecting racist, unjust policies like SB1070 as well as HB2281 which bans ethnic studies being taught in public schools.
There was such a positive response to this graphic that I decided to create a digital print of it and make the art available to more people. My hope is that it reflects a position that rejects all forms of racism and affirms the people who are racially profiled and who are the targets of these policies that are intent on dehumanizing us.
Order a print here
Melanie Cervantes
28" x 36", 5 - color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Art Paper, Printed in Oakland, 2010
This is a large format art print version of the Brown and Proud poster that I created in reponse to Arizona passing SB 1070 into law. The law will allow local "law enforcement" legally use racial profiling to harrass anyone they respect "who is an alien and who is unlawfully present in the U.S."
In order to create a message of cultural affirmation and pride, in a climate where being brown means you are a target of suspicion and abuse, I created this design using the slogan Brown and Proud. The illustration I created of my the main character in my posteris a portrait of a young Xicana from Oakland named Leslie. I also wanted to use a stylized butterfly that is based on glyphs found in Azcapotzalco an area of what is now Mexico City. I used the butterflies to symbolize how migration is reflected in the natural world. The "Todos Somos Arizona" sub-slogan was influenced by the collectively focused Zapatista slogans such as Todos Somos Ramona. Our worldview is heavily influenced by the uprising of the Zapatistas social movement against the rise of Neo-liberal politics.
Order a print here
Melanie Cervantes
,White Paper, Printed at TANA in Woodland, CA 2011,
This poster was developed as part of a workshop led by Malaquias Montoya at the Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer in Woodland, CA.
Each student was asked to create a simple two-color design using all hand done methods. I used Rubylith (red in color) which is masking films that is cut with an Exacto or similar knife to create an image on a clear backing sheet.I cut two films one for the orange and one for the brown.
The content reflected my feelings toward the never ending occupation of countries in the Global South. War, what is it good for?
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17" poster
I was commissioned by the International Indian Treaty Council to design the poster for the reportback 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!
Melanie Cervantes
Digital Banner
This design was developed for a student group at UC Berkeley called Xinaxtli.
This is how they describe themselves:
"We are a community organization composed of mostly students from UC Berkeley. We serve our people through solidarity work and organizing both on and off campus. As students we seek to not only develop and strengthen our consciousness but to organize, take action and build real changes with our peers, youngsters and elders."
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17" Digital Print
I donated this design to Mujeres Unidas y Activas for their 20th Anniversary Celebration.Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA) is a grassroots organization of Latina immigrant women with a dual mission of promoting personal transformation and building community power for social and economic justice.
Melanie Cervantes
11” x 17”
2010
I orginall created created this piece as a fundraiser for La RED Xicana Indígena.I adapted it for another performance in Los Angeles.
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
5 - Color, Handmade, Screen print, Crane and Co. Cover Rag Paper, 365gsm, Printed in Oakland, 2010
This print is based on my first linocut. Niño zapatista. Inspired by the Taller de Grafica Popular.
The late Howard Zinn once said that the "Zapatista uprising in Chiapas was certainly one of the most dramatic and imporatant instances in our time of a genuine grassroots movement against oppression." For me the uprising of the EZLN (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional/ Zapatista Army of National Liberation) in 1994 was the first movement in opposition to neoliberalism, genocide and greed that I was able to watch unfold in my lifetime. They continue to inspire me as their steadfast commitment to creating a movement for self-deterimination and automony for the Indigenous people of Mexico pushes against a variety of forces. This is a portrait of a young boy with an EZLN ski mask.
The face that hides itself to be seen....
12x" x 18" Digital Design, Printed on home printers
Esta es una versión digital del primer cartel de colaboración entre Jesús y yo
Melanie Cervantes
12x" x 18" Digital Print, Printed at Inkwork Press, Berkeley, CA 2010
This is a digital version of the first collaborative poster between Jesus and I. It features the EZLN Women's Revolutionary Laws
In the just fight for the liberation of our people, the EZLN incorporates women into the revolutionary struggle, regardless of their race, creed, color or political affiliation, requiring only that they share the demands of the exploited people and that they commit to the laws and regulations of the revolution. In addition, taking into acount the situation of the woman worker in Mexico, the revolution supports their just demands for equality and justice in the following Women's Revolutionary Law.
First: Women, regardless of their race, creed, color or political affiliation, have the right to participate in the revolutionary struggle in a way determined by their desire and capacity.
Second: Women have the right to work and receive a just salary.
Third: Women have the right to decide the number of children they will have and care for.
Fourth: Women have the right to participate in the affairs of the community and hold positions of authority if they are freely and democratically elected.
Fifth: Women and their children have the right to primary attention in matters of health and nutrition.
Sixth: Women have the right to an education.
Seventh: Women have the right to choose their partner, and are not to be forced into marriage.
Eighth: Women shall not be beaten or physically mistreated by their family members or by strangers. Rape and attempted rape will be severely punished.
Ninth: Women will be able to occupy positions of leadership in the organization and hold military ranks in the revolutionary armed forces.
Tenth: Women will have all the rights and obligations elaborated in the Revolutionary Laws and regulations.
Melanie Cervantes
22" X 28""
1-color screen print, White Paper, Printed in Los Angeles, CA 2010
This print was created to send to Arizona for a major action to protest federal and state programs and laws of hate like S-Comm and SB-1070.
Melanie Cervantes
8.5" x 11" Digital Download, PDF
I created a downloadable poster in the tradition of OSPAAAL (Organization of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa & Latin America) a Cuban political movement with the stated purpose of fighting globalization, imperialism, neoliberalism and defending human rights. They have created a vault of political posters to support freedom fighting world wide and promoted Third World solidarity.
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17", Digital Download, PDF
This is the second poster that we designed to support the work of the Stop the Injunctions Coalition in Oakland.
http://stoptheinjunction.wordpress.com/
Melanie Cervantes
8.5 x 11" , Digital Download, PDF
This print was my first response the the call for art from Alto Arizona. My friend and fellow artist urged Jesus and I to design a print for the campaign and this piece was a call to action to ask Jan Brewer to Veto SB1070. Of course, she signed the bill into law and as the organizing continued, we continued to support the movement with political graphics and posters.
DOWNLOAD "Stop Re-Segregating Our Universities" Poster HERE
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17" , Digital Download, PDF
The people of Georgia are facing a flurry of regressive policies and an ever increasing anti-immigrant and racist climate. An organizer who follows Dignidad Rebelde sent me a message asking me if I could create a political graphic to help support some of the organizing students and community based organizations are engaging in.She knew HB 87 and HB 59 would be hitting the floor soon and was hoping we could aide in their efforts to mobilize and raise awareness about the issues. HB 87 is Georgia's version of SB 1070 so I repurposed a graphic I had originally designed for Arizona.Check it out HERE
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26", 6-Color, Hand made, Screen print Heavyweight Archival Art Paper, Printed in Oakland, CA, 2010
When I lived in LA after a my college campus event my friends and I would drive to East L.A. for Self Help Graphics annual celebration of Dia de los Muertos. There were always great musicians and tons of fun to be had. One year in particular, my last year in Los Angeles, the band Quetzal was performing as the headliner for the concert.
The lead singer, Martha Gonzales, was striking. She had half her face painted as a calaca to remind the audience death is the other side of life and that it is something we will all will eventually face.
This print is an homage to Martha. It is part of a series of prints that I am creating to honor the bad ass mujeres whose music consistently inspire me and influences my art.
You can purchase a print by clicking here
Melanie Cervantes
33" x 26"
3-Color, Handmade, Screen print , Archival Bamboo Paper, Printed in San Francisco, CA 2010
A portrait of my friends at one of the annual Xicana Moratorium’s against the war in San Francisco. I wanted to capture the subtleties of each of their personalities as well as the collective beauty of the Baeza sisters. They are emblematic of “the City” to me especially since they and their family showed me so much of San Francisco with so much love and warmth since my arrival to the Bay from Los Angeles. They are my Mission Icons.
Buy a print by clicking here.
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
6 - Color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Heavy Art Paper, Printed in Oakland, 2010
In 1810 Mexico breaks from Spain declaring its Independence.
In 1910 Indigenas play major roles in Revolution against the established order in Mexico.
In 2010 ¡Zapata vive, vive, la lucha sigue, sigue!
Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary and guerrilla leader, has inspired many Xicana/os for taking a stand for land rights and to show how the people could defend themselves from the tyranny corrupt governments. This portrait commemorates the role Zapata and his liberation army played in the revolution and the amazing Plan de Ayala which stated that the goal of the revolution was for land to be redistributed among the poor.
Buy a print by clicking here
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
6 - Color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Heavy Art Paper, Printed in Oakland, 2010
In 1810 Mexico breaks from Spain declaring its Independence.
In 1910 Indigenas play major roles in Revolution against the established order in Mexico.
In 2010 ¡Zapata vive, vive, la lucha sigue, sigue!
Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary and guerrilla leader, has inspired many Xicana/os for taking a stand for land rights and to show how the people could defend themselves from the tyranny of corrupt governments. This portrait commemorates the role Zapata and his liberation army played in the revolution and the amazing Plan de Ayala which stated that the goal of the revolution was for land to be redistributed among the poor.
Buy a print by clicking here
Melanie Cervantes
Full Color Bookmark design, CA 2010
I was commissioned to create this bookmark to help promote a new minor, Race and Resistance Studies, to undergraduate students at San Francisco State University.
Melanie Cervantes
8" x 10" linocut
20" x 26" 1 - Color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Cougar Double Thick, Printed in Oakland, 2010
"El Niño Zapatista" is my first linoleum cut.Reading about Mexico's foremost political printshop, Taller de Grafica Popular (Spanish: "People's Graphic Workshop") was a artist's print collective founded in Mexico in 1937 by artists Leopoldo Méndez, Pablo O'Higgins, and Luis Arenal. The collective was primarily concerned with using art to advance revolutionary social causes. The print shop became a base of political activity and abundant artistic output, and attracted many artists from outside of Mexico as collaborators.
Many of the artists in TGP created political posters and used linocuts as a way to create print multiples. The artist whose skill inspired me most is Leopoldo Mendez. Mendez used tools meant for engraving for linocuts and was a master at his art.
I chose to create a portrait of a young boy from a Zapatisa community.
Melanie Cervantes
11” x 17”
Digital Print, Printed in Oakland, CA 2010
I created this piece as a fundraiser for La RED Xicana Indígena.La RED Xicana Indígena, which originated in 1997, is a network of Xicanas Indígenas who are actively involved in political, educational and cultural work that serves to raise indigenous consciousness among our communities and supports the social justice struggles of people of indigenous origins of this continent North and South, especially the human and civil rights campaign of undocumented migrant peoples and their children in the U.S.
The Night of Queer Women of Color Performance featured my friend Cherrie Moraga, the hilarious Adelina Anthony, the super talented La Bomberas de la Bahia and SoliRose.
Melanie Cervantes
Digital Graphic, 2009
Alex Sanchez is an internationally recognized peacemaker and co-founder of Homies Unidos in Los Angeles where he has developed and implemented innovative violence prevention and intervention programs since 1998 and has also lead the organization as Executive Director since 2006.
On June 24, 2009, internationally recognized community leader, and peacemaker Alex Sanchez was named in a federal indictment, charging him among a group of twenty-three others with being an active member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang.
This is a graphic I created in solidarity with Alex and the We Are Alex Campaign.
Alex has been locked up since June 24th and was denied bail twice. Although the defense and prosecution agreed upon a closed hearing and we do not know who came forward to testify regarding their knowledge of Alex’s character, we do know that the truth prevailed. With this outcome, more people will become aware of Alex’s case and know that Alex is not considered a danger to the community or a flight risk – something we have known all along. Bail has been set at $2 million (1 million in property and 1 million in sureties).
Alex must now face a long trial towards freedom, but the granting of bail is a welcomed step towards the hope of a fairer process. We hope to take the momentum of this small victory to continue to make our neighbors, friends and families aware of Alex's plight for a fair trial.
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
2 - Color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Cougar Double Thick, Printed in Oakland, 2010
I created this print to show my solidarity with the Iranian people in their struggle for freedom and democracy. It features a portrait of a woman juxtaposed against a traditional Persian pattern.
Melanie Cervantes
20x26
5 - Color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Cougar Archival Paper, Printed in Oakland, 2010
This is the first of a series I will be doing about occupied islands.
Melanie Cervantes
26" x 36"
9 - Color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Cougar Archival Paper, Printed in Oakland, 2010
Lesbian, Gay, and Queer familles are impacted not only by racially discriminatory immigration laws but by heterosexist reunification laws that keep bi-national partners and their children from being
together. This print honors those struggling famililies who suffer because of these double oppressions.
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
5-Color, Handprinted, Screenprint Print, Archival Lenox 100 Paper, Printed in Oakland, CA 2008
My last year in college at UC Berkeley I lived with five roomates in a three bedroom apartment. Just about every day and every night I could be sure to come home to hear bass thumping, music vibrating the whole house:
“Cops give a damn about a negro…
give 'em guns step back watch 'em kill each other
It's time to fight back that's what Huey said
2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead
I got love for my brother but we can never go nowhere
unless we share with each other
We gotta start makin' changes”
Two of my roommates-- Victor and Augustin absolutely love Tupac. They were and are fierce community organizers. Working in communities like the Fruitvale in Oakland and in Boston they reach out to young people and help the young people be vibrant and amazing leaders in those communities. Tupac, his ideas, his poetry and his music are an inspiration and continue to be used as tools in this organizing. My roomates helped me realize why young people connect so deeply to Tupac and the stories he tells through his art.
Many times people ask why our studio is called Taller Tupac Amaru. Those unfamiliar with the indigenous leader from Peru, who led an uprising against colonizer Spain, assume we named it after this poet and musician. Many people don’t realize that 2Pac/Tupac Amaru Shakur’s mother, Afeni Shakur, was an active Black Panther in New York for over two decades and that the name she gave her son is no coincidence but an homage to the revolutionary Peruvian. The print includes lyrics from one of 2Pac’s early recorded song’s “Panther Power” which tells the story of the political home his family had with the Black Panthers.
I designed this print to help to tell this story visually. I will distribute some of the prints to the people that see how 2Pac’s lyrics and music reach young people. The will land in the hands of my friends, who teach, who organize and who help young people be our communities’ leaders by being grounded in our peoples histories of struggle.
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 15"
7-Color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Archival Lenox Paper, Printed in Oakland, 2010
This is a print called América Con Acento (inspired by Xerí Moraga and Los Tigres del Norte) for a portfolio on Immigration that the Consejo Grafico is organzing. I wanted to address my position on migration through this print. The popular ways migration is framed in the media and popular discourse contetualizes the movement of people across land in relation to the nation state and people's status. I believe in the human rights and particularly reference the International Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples abd firmly believe that people who are displaced by international policies like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the countries that enter into the agreements fail to take responsibilty for the massive disruption of local economies in places like rural Mexico. I believe that migration is a human right and wanted to use popular artists, Los Tigres, and their lyrics to illustrate this idea. I also name my print after a line from Cherrie (Xeri) Moraga's writings on as a nod to her influence on my thinking.
If you would like to see the entire portfolio of prints check out Consejo Grafico.
The Center For Young Women's Development in San Francisco asked me to partner with them to create a poster and postcards to popularize the Young Mother's Bill of Rights. The Center was integral to creating the Bill of Rights through a campaign they won. San Francisco Juvenile Hall has accepted and agreed to implement the Center’s ten-point Young Mother’s Bill of Rights, which sets forth the rights of pregnant and parenting young woman and young fathers who are locked in juvenile hall. They wanted young men and women to know their rights as parents and felt that a compelling graphic would help grab the attention of the young people in lockup so we made a few hundred posters and thousands of postcards to give out to the young people.
The Center for Young Women's Development was founded in 1993 by a coalition of service providers working with young and adult women in the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The guiding principle then and now for the organization is that young women are the experts on issues impacting their lives and they should be involved in running and directing the programs that serve them. In 1997 their founding director, the brilliant and talented Lateefah Simon, left and young women of color under age 26 assumed all leadership responsibility. Building on a model for self-determination, they began to organize to change the power dynamic in San Francisco itself.
One of a few small format prints celebrating the solidarity between indigenous land-rights struggles throughout the world.
A small form print featuring the portrait of a Chicana Brown Beret. The Brown Berets are a Xicana/o community defense committee for many barrios including East L.A. and Watsonville.
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
5-Color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Archival Coventry Rag Paper, Printed Self Help Graphics 2009
I created this portrait of Rigoberta Menchú Tum, a Quiche-Maya from Guatemala in order to raise awarness of this amazing woman who has helped call attention to the genocidal policies being carried out against indigenous people in her country. In 1991, Menchú participated in the ongoing
preparation by the United Nations of its Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which was recently ratified. Menchu was the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in recognition of her
social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation work based on respect for the rights of indigenous people.This print was created as part of an atelier that Yo! What Happeed to Peace's John Carr coordinated with East L.A. Self-Help Graphics. I was fortunate to be able to work with master printer Jose Alpuche and his assitant and son, Josue. It was a great experience.
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
2-Color, Handprinted, Screenprint,Archival Acid Free New Leaf Heavyweight Matte paper , Printed in Oakland, CA 2009
This is a design created for the 7th Annual Ethnic Studies Conference t-shirt. The major goal of the conference is to promote and introduce high school students to higher education and to the
tools and strategies that have been created to help address rac- ism in higher education such as Ethnic Studies. Students of color access to higher education is diminishing due to the current at-
tacks on public education. The organizers their histories are and what education should really be like. Over the years organizers haven successfully providied such important opportunity for over
6,000 students over the last 7 years.
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
1- Color, Handprinted, Matter Paper, Printed in Oakland CA 2009
"For the first time, the left govern El Salvador. In the March 15, 2009 presidential elections, Mauricio Funes of the former guerrilla movement the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) defeated former police director Rodrigo Ávila of the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) by a thin margin of less than three percentage points.
This victory brings an end to 20 years of ARENA rule, and almost two centuries of right-wing domination of El Salvador. Popular movements entered the elections with high expectations, and ecstatically greeted Funes’ victory with fireworks and dancing in the streets late into the night.
After decades of electoral losses and neoliberal governments, leftist organizations had lost some of the initiative that brought them to the verge in the 1980s of bringing down the conservative regime that ruled this small Central American country."
This print features a Zapastisa woman who is breastfeeding for the well-being of her child, as an exercise of her rights and a demonstration of her rights.
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
10- Color, Handprinted, Archival Lenox Paper, Printed in Oakland CA 2009
As individuals, as organizations, as communities or as a people, indigenous women continually prove their strength in the face of threat and adversity. Our responses show that we are not passive victims of oppression but fierce actors in the indigenous peoples’ struggles for survival. We have formed organizations and networks. They have initiated community-based projects to respond to basic needs of our people.We have been in the forefront of numerous actions of indigenous peoples to defend our land, our lives and our livelihood.
This is a smaller version of a print I designed to connect issues and promote solidarity.
Melanie Cervantes
17" x 22"
Giclee, Matte Heavyweight Paper, Printed in San Leandro, CA 2008
This piece honors our grandmothers' role in our lives as young women. The sacred and the meaningful happen in moments with our grandmothers. This piece was created for Mother’s Day 2008.
This is a small piece based in an illustration I created for a larger screenprint of a three young boys in Palestine with the keys that are symbols of the right to return. The term right of return refers to a principle of international law, codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, giving any person the right to return and re-enter his country of origin.
This is a small piece based in an illustration I created for a larger screenprint of a Palestian family, in the US, marching together.
Melanie Cervantes
10" x 13"
2-color screen print, Brown Craft Paper, Printed in San Leandro, CA 2009
One of a few small format prints celebrating the solidarity between indigenous land-rights struggles throughout the world.
Melanie Cervantes
21.5” x .33.5"
Offset, Printed in Mexico City, CA 2008
Lesbian, Gay, and Queer families are impacted not only by racially discriminatory immigration laws but by heterosexist reunification laws that keep bi-national partners and their children from being together. This print honors those struggling families for whom this is a reality.
Melanie Cervantes
11” x .17"
Offset, Printed in oakland, CA 2009
This is the 2009 San Francisco Dyke march poster design that I created. Since I met Ani Rivera, my contact for the Dyke March committee, a few years ago, I wanted to do the design.She was a pleasure tot work with and I am really happy about being able to visually interpret this year's theme: Dyke Rights = Human Rights, Human Rights = Dyke Rights. The best part of the experience was one day when I sent a version of the poster for feed back and I could hear all the women in the background jubilantly yelling "make her fat, make her old, make her a leather butch!"Never had I heard women embrace aspects of a woman that mainstream society marginalizes so happily. It was the best feedback session I ever had.
The 17th Annual San Francisco Dyke March 2009
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Starting from Dolores Park, at 18th and Dolores
Rally and Stage Begins @ 3:00 p.m.
March Takes Off @ 7:00 p.m.
Dyke Rights = Human Rights
Human Rights = Dyke Rights
"At the San Francisco Dyke March, we gather to experience and celebrate our collected energies, to acknowledge our many communities, to learn from our incredible diversity, to respect each other, and to create new ways to share our resources. We have pride for good reason: Dykes participate in every aspect of political, social and artistic institutions, illuminating issues of social justice wherever we are. . . "
This is one of four posters I created based on illustrations I made for the forthcoming book, from Microcosm Publishing, Firebrands: Portraits from the Americas. This is a project that members, I among them, from Justseeds Cooperative all contributed to.
"We need the strong medicine of our foremothers to make us well again. We need their medicines to give us strength to fight and the drive to win.” –Assata
On May 2 1973, activist Assata Shakur, was pulled over by the New Jersey State Police, shot twice and then unjustly charged with murder of a police officer. Assata spent six and a half years in prison under brutal circumstances before escaping out of the maximum security wing of the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey in 1979 and moving to Cuba in exile.
Assata Shakur has been living in Cuba since 1986, after escaping from prison where she was serving a life sentence imposed in a highly disputed trial. Assata was a Black Panther then a Black Liberation Army (BLA) leader in the early '70s, so she was a target of the FBI's COINTELPRO operation.
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17"
3-Color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Strathmore 300 Series Bristol, Printed in Oakland, CA 2005
This is my very first screen print! After years and years of admiring Chicana/o screen printers like Rupert Garcia and Ester Hernandez I decided I wanted to learn how to screen print. A very good friend of mine and I enrolled in a seven hours long screen printing class at Laney College in Oakland.
I knew i wanted to design a piece that would honor the life of Chicana-Tejana-Lesbian-Dyke extraordinate Gloria Anzaldua for my first piece. She helped make visible the literature and writing of women of color and the US. She was the co-editor of the book This Bridge Called my Back and is best known for her book Borderlands/La Frontera. She made major contributions to Chicana feminist and queer theory and was a huge inspiration to me. She died in the summer 2004 at her home in Santa Cruz and I wanted to do something to honor all she contributed to the world during her life.
NFS
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
5-Color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Archival Fabriano Accademia, Printed in San Leandro, CA 2007
The lead singer of Quetzal has her face painted to reflect the duality of life and death. A lyric from “Limones Agrios”, a song about her grandfather and his relationship to the land is featured.
My grandfather was a farmer and this poster is my way of remembering my own grandfather.
Melanie Cervantes
11" x 17"
Digital Print, Printed at Inkworks Press in Berkeley, CA
As individuals, as organizations, as communities- we indigenous women continually prove our strength in the face of threat and adversity. Our responses show that we are not passive victims of oppression but fierce agents in our peoples struggle for survival. We form organizations and networks and community-based projects to respond to the basic needs of our people. We are at the forefront of the actions of our people to defend our land, our lives and our livelihood.
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 27"
4-Color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Archival Lenox paper, Printed in Oakland, CA 2008
Días de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a holiday that focuses on gatherings of people to remember friends and relatives who have died. The celebration occurs on the 1st and 2nd of November. Scholars trace the origins of the modern holiday to indigenous observances dating back thousands of years to a Mexica (Aztec) festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl (known in English as “The Lady of the Dead”).In 2008 I decided to make an ofrenda (spiritual offering) on Dia de Los Muertos to all the people who have been killed in the recent wars. It is important to me that people realize that not only are women and children are being killed but that the soldiers of war are also dying all for the benifit of a few war profiteers. It saddens me that as the economy worsens, military recruiting strengthens.
Melanie Cervantes
20" X 26"
6-Color, Handprinted, Screenprint,Archival Acid Free New Leaf Heavyweight Matte paper , Printed in Oakland, CA 2009
A solidarity piece with the young Palestinian children who must use slingshots to defend their lives and their from the Israeli tanks, “Apache” helicopters and machine gun toting soliders who
continue to invade, “settle” and colonize Palestine.
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
5-Color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Archival Fabriano Accademia, Printed in Oakland, CA 2008
As a Xicana I understand how settler colonialism plays out in the lives of Indigenous peoples all over the work. So my political solidarity is built on a common experience of displacement and is
accompanied by a true commitment to stand by my Palestinian brothers and sisters. This piece honors the many kinds of resistance to Israeli occupation by the Palestinian people.
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
3-Color, Handprinted, Archival Lenox Paper, Printed in Oakland, CA 2008
The Brown Berets are a Xicana/o community defense committee for many barrios. A portion of the first edition was dontated to Watsonville chapter of the Brown Berets.
This print shows three generations of Brown Berets from Los Angeles and Watsonville. It is meant to reflect the strength and leadership Ch/Xicanas bring to defending their barrios by putting them front and center. Even when they don't get the credit for it.
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
4-Color, Handprinted, Archival Lenox Paper, Printed in Oakland, CA 2008
"San Salvador de Atenco has a long history of resistance to the central government, dating from before Mexico's Revolution of 1910. In 2001, Atenco villagers, mostly small farmers, organized the Peoples' Front for Defense of the Land and stopped former President Vincente Fox from grabbing their farmlands for the construction of a new airport. When they prevailed, a movement was born.
In 2006, this group spearheaded the defense of the flower vendors in nearby Texcoco, who were forcibly removed by police from the streets in order to prepare for the coming Wal-Mart store. Wielding their machetes, the people's resistance became a symbol of popular protest in Mexico."
Melanie Cervantes
12" x 12"
2-Color, Handprinted, Screen print,New Leaf Archival Paper, Printed in Oakland, CA 2008
This print was made for the Justseeds Portfolio Project 2008, "Voices from Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex."
In honor of Critical Resistance's 10 Year Anniversary, Justseeds created a limited edition portfolio of original prints that either critiqued the prison industrial complex or addressed alternatives to incarceration. Twenty one artists from the US, Canada, and Mexico contributed prints.
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
6-Color, Handprinted, Screenprint, Archival Fabriano Accademia, Printed in Oakland, CA 2008
The concept for this piece was to capture movement building and communities living their traditional cultures as a form self-affirmation and resistance to racism. This piece was commissioned by a private patron and donated to the Akonadi Foundation.
Melanie Cervantes
20” x 26”
2-color screen print, New Leaf Archival Paper, Printed in Oakland, 2008
This is one of the pieces that I developed for a trip to Ecatepec, Mexico. Prior to our 15 artist cohort from the U.S. arriving in Ecatepec we talked about the issues that were most pressing in the communities which we would be visiting. The access to water and the threat of privatization of water are huge issues in Ecatepec, as they are increasingly worldwide. The poster was well received and resonated with many of the people we met there. We wheatpasted them in public squares in the streets, put them up in exhibits in community centers and gave them away.
Melanie Cervantes
20” x 26”
2-color screen print, New Leaf Archival Paper, Printed in Oakland, 2010
This is one of the pieces that I developed for a trip to Ecatepec, Mexico in order to connect the struggles of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas who identify politically as Zapatistas with the Indigenous African/Sudanese people who are struggling to survive in Darfur. Global neoliberal policies and practices of predatory planning and development play a role in these genocides ,not only displacement of Indigenous peoples, but perceiv them as less worthy than other human beings, as expendable.
Melanie Cervantes
20" x 26"
2-Color, Handprinted, Screenprint,Archival Acid Free New Leaf Heavyweight Matte paper , Printed in Oakland, CA 2008
A solidarity piece with the young Palestinian children who must use slingshots to defend their lives and their from the Israeli tanks, “Apache” helicopters and machine gun toting soliders who continue to invade, “settle” and colonize Palestine.
Melanie
Cervantes
Jesus
Barraza