2022-2023 Full Archive List
Fall 2022
September 2, 2022 - October 15, 2022
Teo(tl)ría Xicana: A Solo Exhibition of the Work of Celia Herrera Rodríguez at El Centro Cultural de La Raza, San Diego
This project was presented by María Esther Fernández & Centro Cultural de la Raza with support from Las Maestras Center for Xicana[X] indigenous Thought, Art and Social Praxis
This solo exhibition, curated by María Esther Fernández, will highlight the spiritual and political nature of Maestra Celia’s work.
August 30 - September 1, 2022
Community installation offering. LMC invited folks to join to the exhibition artist,
Celia Herrera Rodriguez, in a collective prayer/work in community to
assemble various installations that holded the Teo(tl)ría Xicana exhibition.
October 7, 2022
Xicana[x] Indigenous Values: Convenings, Encuentros and Conversation
Stan Rodríguez in Conversation with Celia Herrera Rodríguez
Xicana[x] Indigenous Values Series Programming*
Co-Sponsored by California Humanities and Centro Cultural de la Raza
In October of 2022, we continued our conversations with elders through livestreamed conversations that included a live in person audience and a virtual audience via YouTube. Celia Herrera Rodriguez held a conversation with Kumeyaay elder Uncle Stan Rodriguez at Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego. This conversation centered around the bridging of Xicana[x] daily life and Indigenous knowledge by highlighting and mapping our daily practices prior to colonization and uncovering ways in which these values have been passed down from generation to generation. In this conversation, Celia Herrera Rodriguez highlighted how she and Uncle Stan Rodriguez met around a ceremonial fire at DQ University as youth in their 20s. The importance of this conversation was to tell the history of the historical relationship between Chicanos and Native Americans. The conversation also included a discussion of Uncle Stan Rodriguez’s work as a Kumeyaay language teacher, the effects of colonialism on Indigenous people, and community dialogue with the audience.
October 9, 2022
Xicana[x] Indigenous Values: Convenings, Encuentros and Conversation
Yreina D. Cervantez in Conversation with Cherríe Moraga
Xicana[x] Indigenous Values Series Programming*
Co-Sponsored by California Humanities and Centro Cultural de la Raza
During the same weekend, the conversation continued through another live streamed conversation with a live in person audience and a virtual audience via YouTube. A dialogue between Xicana writer Cherríe Moraga and Xicana visual artist Yreina Cervantes was held about the Indigenous aesthetics of Xicana[x] art. The discussion took place at Centro Cultural de la Raza, which was housing Celia Herrera Rodriguez’s solo exhibition, Teo(tl)ría Xicana. Cherrie Moraga and Yreina Cervantez focused their discussion on the Indigenous and queer elements of Celia Herrera Rodriguez’s artwork. Yreina Cervantez comes from a generation of Xicana artists that began to look at Indigenous symbolism more intently and through a feminist lens. Her discussion on Celia Herrera Rodriguez’s artwork provided a generative discussion about the trajectory of Xicana[x] Indigenous art aesthetics
October 19
Writer-in-Residence: Manuel Muñoz
Co-Sponsored by The "Reimaginings" RFG; The Hemispheric South/s Research Initiative; American Cultures and Global Contexts Center
Reading and Conversation on his new collection of short stories, The Consequences - A Portrait of Our Central Valley.
October 16, 2022 - November 2, 2022
¡Ánimas que vuelvan! Día de Muertos Vigil
animArte Programming
Co-Sponsored by California Arts Council
Día de Muertos - ¡Ánimas que vuelvan! paid tribute to and remembers the numerous individuals who in the past two years have died from COVID-19. As we were able to gather, LMC wanted to offer a space and ways to heal from the tremendous loss of life and support the revitalization of their ánima (soul/energy). For this reason, in preparation for our annual Día de Muertos, Las Maestras Center brought together arts, culture and ceremony in a series of “animArte” workshops, altar building and a vigil as a collective act to support our communities as we worked to reconnect ourselves, our spirit and one another. We collaborated with local artists, Chicana/o Studies undergraduate students and local K-12 schools to learn about Día de Muertos and how to build an altar by making some of its essential elements, like papel picado and calaveritas de azúcar and calaveritas literarias.
October 16, 2022
Papel Picado Workshop with John Jairo Valencia at the Community Arts
Workshop in Santa Barbara
October 23, 2022
Calaveritas de Azúcar Workshops with Dora Pérez at the Community Arts
Workshop in Santa Barbara
October 29, 2022 - November 1, 2022
Altar Building at the Community Arts Workshop in Santa Barbara
November 10, 2022
Foro Urgente: Criminalization and Repression against Indigenous Communities in Guatemala
Co-Sponsored by walter capps center, department of anthropology, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Dean's office of the Division of Social Sciences
In this Foro urgent (urgent forum) moderated by Dr. Giovanni Batz from the Department of Chicana/o Studies, Concepción Santay Gómez & Lucía Ixchíu infirmed LMC and UCSB communities about Guatemala’s current political juncture in which there are growing concerns surrounding the increasing human rights abuses, repression and violence against indigenous communities. The event brought together two leaders to provide insights on the lived local realities for Maya peoples in Guatemala. Concepción Santay Gómez, a Maya Ixil ancestral authority from Guatemala and Lucía Ixchíu, a Maya K’iche’ activist and co-founder of Festivales Solidarios (a decolonial collective consisting of journalists and artists). The forum was available via livestream on our youtube channel and in-person.
Winter 2023
January 24, 2023
Book Presentation - La Cuarta Invasión: Historias y resistencia del Pueblo Ixil, y su lucha contra la Hidroeléctrica Palo Viejo en Cotzal, Quiché Guatemala
Co-Sponsored by Las Maestras Center
"La Cuarta Invasión: Historias y resistencia del Pueblo Ixil, y su lucha contra la Hidroeléctrica Palo Viejo en Cotzal, Quiché Guatemala" was a book presentation made by Dr. Giovanni Batz, Professor in the Department of Chicana/o Studies.
March 1, 2023 - March 3, 2023
Bobi Céspedes con Cantos e Historias de Resilencia
Xicana[x] Indigenous Values Series Programming
Co-Sponsored by California Humanities
LMC community spent a night of música y reflexión as Bobi Céspedes & Sigüaraya presented "Songs to the Primordial Sisters," exploring the divine feminine in the Lucumí Afro Cuban tradition. The performance was followed by a plática with Bobi Céspedes, Maestra Celia Herrera Rodríguez, and Prof. Omise'eke Tinsley,facilitated by Prof. Micaela Díaz-Sánchez
March 8-9, 2023
Lata Mani: Writer-in-Residence
In-person convo with graduate students and live-streamed public conversation with UCSB English Professors, Cherríe Moraga and Swati Rana on Lata Mani’s new book of essays, Myriad Intimacies.
Spring 2023
From the Global South Here and There . . .The Critical/Creative Artist-Scholar
In a series of formal and informal conversations with UCSB faculty and LMC staff, Las Maestras Center is taking time to (re)view and (re)envision its programming future in collaboration with on- campus artists and writers whose work reflects a decolonial and feminist perspective.
Foregrounding the Elders - Feminist of Color Writers’ Room.
Bi-weekly presentations of developing podcast projects by Chicana/o Studies and English Department graduate students, facilitated by Maria Carolina Sintura, under Maestra Moraga’s direction.