Blog Post #8: Printing the Revolution! A Virtual Conversation Series: From Black and Brown Solidarity to Afro-Latinidad

 I would like to preface this by saying that I was unable to register on time for this event, however, thanks to a student who partially recorded the panel event, I was able to gather some information. While watching the recorded version of Printing the Revolution! A Virtual Conversation Series: From Black and Brown Solidarity to Afro-Latinidad, I enjoyed a wonderfully enriching and all encompassing discussion by three Latinx artists regarding different elements of art and how those elements influenced the artist’s identities, practice and message. The panel was led by Kaelyn Rodriguez, and was comprised of artists Malaquis Montoya, Moses Ros Suárez, and Favianna Rodroguez. 

                  The primary focus of the discussion between these artists was how community played an influence on young artists and the desire and empowerment needed to create, promote and continue to build on their artistic sense, especially in times of great social and civil unrest. 

Favianna Rodriguez, an artist from Oakland, pointed out that there is much value in seeing representations of yourself, your culture and your community in the media, whether it be in movies, television shows or on billboards. Here, I resonated with her story about how when she was growing up, she never saw Afro-Latino representation in popular Latino television shows. I remember watching telenovelas with my mom in the afternoons and I too used to wonder why there weren’t tanner-looking Latinos, like my mother, like my father or like me. Rodriguez also grew up during the Great War on Drugs and witnessed the cruel racial bias existing within the justice system as they negatively portrayed black and brown folks as gangsters and junkies. She mentions that this was a key factor that led to the establishment of Mass Incarceration and Prison Privatization. Witnessing this lack of representation and the police violence against her community led to Rodriguez creating art based on indigenous features and iconography and bright beautiful colors that she felt she did not see enough of growing up. 

The two next artists, Malaquis Montoya (graphic poster artist) and Moses Ros Suárez (printmaker and architect), are wonderful artists who spoke on graffiti art and graphic art as key elements to their artistic journey. I closely identify with how Suárez describes the effect of Graffiti. Suárez states that Graffiti art gave him a sense of self and a framework for his identity since he felt invisible while growing up. I too felt similarly and it is why I developed a hobby for graffiti and graphic art in middle school. Overall, the theme of this discussion centered on communities working in cohesion and harmony for social justice and equal rights.