Week 8 : ¡Printing the Revolution! Virtual Conversation Series

    Since I was fortunate enough to attend the virtual meeting on the Printing the Revolution conversation series, my post will be based on that. There were a few artist’s stories and lives that caught my attention and that I found interesting. I will be mentioning three artists that spoke that day and reiterate their stories. One artist that I enjoyed learning and hearing was Malaquias Montaya. He was raised by a single mother and grew up in San Joaquin Valley in Fresno. Amongst the area, he grew up in a multi-cultural community that included Japanese Americans and African Americans. Apart from his background, he was known for creating posters for many events. One event that was captivating was the walkout after senior graduation that consisted of Hispanic parents and students leaving when the president began his speech. Another artist that I enjoyed listening to was Favianna Rodriguez as she was one of the female artists that had an integrating conversion. She was raised in Oakland, California a city that, at the time, was going through a war on drugs. Her family background includes her father being an aphro-Peruvian and in general being from Peru. She stated that when she was a teenager a prop, specifically prop 187, had passed which was the anti-immigration law in 1994. She used posters to help with events like this to educate and express her feelings towards events like this as well. One astonishing moment she experienced was creating a poster during a democratic convention when Obama was president, that stated: “Migration is beautiful”. She also went in a little bit about where she lived that completely her life. One place being Mexico City for two years. Here she learned a lot about the Aztec, Incas, and other communities. Because of this, a lot of her work reflects celebrating indigenous and African roots. One part of the conversation that truly opened my eyes was when the conversation steered toward abortions and how living in a Latinx life is like. She briefly mentioned how Latin families have always given messages like “close your legs”, “don’t get pregnant”, and “don’t have sex” which was specifically targeted the women in the family. She then brought it upon herself and talked about how women are allowed to do what they want with their bodies and one example she gave was the abortions she had in her life. As for her recent and future work, she has started using wood and laser cutting.

Favianna Rodriguez