alicia María siu:
A Muralist at Work
With support from UC Santa Barbara Summer Sessions, Las Maestras Center for Xicana Indigenous Thought, Art and Social Practice hosted our first inaugural Artist in Residence, Alicia Siu, to create a mural with the UCSB and Santa Barbara communities outside of South Hall 1415. This collaborative project between UCSB students, Santa Barbara youth k-12, and Chumash elders, took place throughout the summer of 2019.
About the artist
Alicia is Nawat-Pipil/Maya from her mother's side, from Siwatewakan, Santa Ana, El Salvador. She is Cantonese from her father's side, who is second generation Nicaraguan born Chinese, from Bluefield's Nicaragua. Alicia was born in El Progreso Yoro. Her mother left El Salvador to Guatemala and later on to Honduras. Alicia was raised in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. She began painting at the age of eight years old. At the age of 15, she and her family migrated north to Turtle Island, California in 1998 after Hurricane Mitch in Honduras. She holds a B.A. in Studio Art and a Masters in Native American Studies. Her thesis focuses on the historical clarification of the 1932 Holocaust of Nahuat-Lenca-Maya in El Salvador. She has painted murals in Autonomous Zapatista Communities in Chiapas, in the community of Cucapa El Mayor, Patwin land in Knights Landing CA, Nahuat Community of Valle de Anton in Panama, Matanzas, Cuba and in Santa Barbara, Honduras. In 2006, she was part of the Zapatista Other Campaign and was encouraged by the Commandantes to spread the vision of a “world where many worlds fit.” Diaspora, de-conditioning from domination and continuation of ancestral knowledge and ceremony integrate her life and art. She currently lives in Southern California with her daughter. In this light she continues her artistic trajectory serving the seven generations before and ahead.
Art Practice
“Somos la continuación de nuestros ancestros, de sus luchas, y su camino por la dignidad. Mi arte demuestra la vitalidad, fuerza, y tenacidad de los pueblos Indígenas; de todos los que comparten la visión de cuidar y defender la salud de nuestra Madre Tierra. Creo en el poder de las representaciones visuales para exponer y denunciar las represiones coloniales. Por medio del arte se afirman y exponen los conocimientos Indígenas. Con mi arte hago reconocible los asaltos a nuestra continuidad como guardianes de nuestra madre tierra. Ofrezco memorias y reflecciones visuales, en este nuestro camino de recuperación y sanamiento de los genocidios, desplazamientos forzados y desbalances, por el amor a la madre tierra y las siete generaciones antes y después de las nuestras. ”
The Mural
