Presentation: Amalia Mesa-Bains

Amalia Mesa-Bains is an artist, activist, educator, and scholar. She was born in Santa Clarita, California in 1943. Her parents were born in Mexico and came to the United States as children after 1917. She earned her B.A. in painting from San Jose State University in 1966. It was during this time that she began to come to terms with her identity as a Mexican American woman. At a young age, she learned to suppress her cultural heritage in favor of assimilation. While in college, Mesa-Bains met fellow Chicano student, Luis Valdez who inspired her to reconcile her Mexican and American identities. Shortly after graduating, she exhibited work at San Francisco Legion of Honor and sold her first work. Despite this early success, Mesa-Bains felt as though her artwork lacked conviction and purpose. To sustain an income, she joined the California Teacher Corps and started working for the San Francisco School District, focusing on bilingual and multicultural education. She became interested in exploring how her art intersected with her work in the school district. 

In 1992 she won the MacArthur "Genius" grant. She remains the only Chicana to have won the prize, and one of only three Chinanx artists to have ever been nominated. Through her artwork and writing, Mesa-Bains sought to redefine the way Chicanx art was thought of from the outside by defining it from within.