Miembros Newsletter: October 2024

A Message from the Director

Join us for Día de los Muertos 2024

Mexic-Arte Museum is thrilled to once again present the Annual Viva La Vida Festival and Parade that will take place on October 26, 2024 in downtown Austin! Viva La Vida is Austin’s largest and longest running Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival, and one of the most artistic and creative in the country. With thousands of attendees in past years, we envision the 2024 parade and festival to be the best yet! The celebration includes a Grand Procession, the Plaza de Papel in the Education Pavilion with hands-on activities, a Viva la Vida Mercado, traditional foods, a low-rider exhibition and performances throughout the day. It will be an enjoyable family event.

This year, the parade will include a section dedicated to Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl is the feathered serpent god that came into existence around the Olmec period (1400-400 BC) and I believed to be one of the creators of the world. On a lone journey to the underworld, he collected the bones of the dead in order to give birth to humanity. Quetzalcoatl represents the connection and cycle of both life and death, endings and renewal.  The public will enjoy a new version beautiful version of the featured serpent.

Come celebrate with us by wearing masks, costumes in this year’s Viva la Vida parade! Come together with your friends as a comparsa (masked company of street dancers) or join on your own!

In addition, this year Mexic-Arte Museum in collaboration with the Downtown Austin Alliance Foundation and with support from the Economic Development Department, there will be a Muertos Mercado on November 2nd at Republic Square as well as a temporary art installation, Las Calaveras at Republic Square for three weeks in November. Please join us for these events in downtown Austin.

We thank the Austin Convention Center and the City of Austin, the presenting sponsor of the Viva la Vida Fest & Parade and the Downtown Austin Alliance for their generous support.

Executive Director

Sylvia Orozco

Upcoming Events

Join us for Día de los Muertos Family Day!

This Sunday, Lucia Chavez will lead the Día de los Muertos Family Day to create props for the Special Section of the Viva la Vida Parade: Quetzalcoatl.

Quetzalcoatl is the feathered serpent god that came into existence around the Olmec period (1400-400 BC) and is believed to be one of the creators of the world. On a lone journey to the underworld he collected the bones of the dead in order to give birth to humanity. Quetzalcoatl represents the connection and cycle of both life and death, endings and renewal. 

During the workshop, participants will create large feather shaped props for this section of the parade. The whole family is invited to join in the workshop. All materials are provided and the workshop is free.

Lucia Chavez has taught about the traditions of Dia de los Muertos creating multi-disciplinary projects involving theater, dance, poetry and visual arts. Ms. Chavez is multi-talented as a teacher, musician, singer, costume designer, seamstress, art teacher and chef. She is knowledgeable about Mexican traditions and culture as well as being bi-lingual and bi-cultural. Working with Mexic-Arte Museum, she has worked with many community groups and individuals to participate in the annual Dia de los Muertos Celebration. Join us for the workshops and help create art components for the Quetzalcoatl in this year’s Viva la Vida parade.

Get Excited for Viva la Vida 2024!

Mexic-Arte Museum’s 41st Annual Viva La Vida Festival and Parade is Austin’s largest and longest-running Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) event. Co-presented by Mexic-Arte Museum, the Austin Convention Center Department, and the City of Austin, this year’s festival will take place on Saturday, October 26 at 4th Street and Congress Avenue. The festivities begin with a Grand Procession at noon. Festival activities run until 6 p.m. Participants can enjoy the Education Pavilion with hands-on art activities, traditional foods, local artists and artisan booths, a low-rider exhibition, and live performances throughout the day.

Join us in the Special Section of the Procession: Quetzalcoatl

Quetzalcoatl is the feathered serpent God that came into existence around the Olmec period (1400-400 BC) and is believed to be one of the creators of the world. On a lone journey to the underworld, he collected the bones of the dead in order to give birth to humanity. Quetzalcoatl represents the connection and cycle of both life and death, endings and renewal. 

Viva la Vida is one of the oldest Día de los Muertos parades and festivals in the state and is the largest celebration of its kind in Austin, attended by over 20,000 people. Participate in this special section by wearing feathers, masks, assemblages, fans, and drums in this year’s Viva la Vida parade! Come together with your friends as a comparsa (a masked company of street dancers) or join on your own!

Find Out How to Participate Below!

Festival

• Music by Austin Lowriding
• Information Booth
• Aztec Dancers
• Ballet Folklorico
• Costume Contest

Sign up to Volunteer!

• Parade Volunteers: Help setup & carrying forth the parade (pushing parade props etc.) Volunteers are ESSENTIAL to the parade’s beauty and success!
• Festival Volunteers: General festival duties including setting up and loading props, hanging up decorations, and any other help needed throughout the day.

Sign up to Join the Parade!

The Parade brings together a vibrant and varied mix of the traditional, contemporary, and Austin “weird”. The Procession – including costumes, props, live music, dancers, and floats – marches down historic 6th Street and culminates at E. 4th Street and Congress Avenue.

Check out the Viva la Vida Mercado

Viva la Vida features over 30 Día de los Muertos inspired artists, artisans, vendors, and makers! Visit the Viva la Vida Mercado for the perfect addition to your Día de los Muertos altar or the perfect gift for a friend.

More Día de los Muertos Events – Muertos Mercado & Las Calaveras de Republic Square

Colectivo Última Hora Public Lecture by Nayla de Carmen Altamirano Allende and Ernesto Carbajal Ortiz

The celebrated Ultima Hora Colectivo from Mexico City specializes in large-scale marionettes. Their monumental marionettes were featured in the opening scene of the film Spectre. The Colectivo Última Hora was founded in 2004 by students of the Fábrica de Artes y Oficios Oriente, also known as FARO de Oriente, which is a cultural center and arts training facility located in Mexico City. The Última Hora Collective is dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of plastic arts focused on the popular cultures of Mexico. Colectivo Última Hora works on sculptures and sets, in small and large formats, in diverse materials such as traditional cardboard, carpentry and artistic blacksmithing, as well as the use of polymers and resins for various finishes.

See more of their work here.

Also on view at the Consulado General de Mexico is Ofrenda Tradicional by Mexicanas en Austin.

Las Calaveras at Republic Square

The Colectivo Ultima Hora is a renowned group of Mexican artists well-known for the large scale monumental parade sculptures for the Dia de los Muertos parade in Mexico City.

The Mexic-Arte Museum has partnered with the Mexico City-based Colectivo Última Hora to create four large-scale fiberglass skulls that have been painted by four Austin-based artists: Ruben Esquivel, NIZ, Carmen Rangel, and Ryan Runice. These artists have created imagery relating to Republic Square’s history, a central point for the city’s diverse communities. This space has hosted pivotal moments in Texas history, city celebrations, and day-to-day commerce. It continues to serve as a gathering place for community events, standing as an active park that connects modern-day Austin with its past. Through Las Calaveras de Republic Square, we acknowledge and highlight the Mexican, Mexican American, and Black communities, as well as the Tonkawa tribe.

Discover the Muertos Mercado at Republic Square

Join us at the Muertos Mercado for a vibrant Día de Los Muertos celebration at Republic Square! Mexic-Arte Museum and the Downtown Austin Alliance Foundation proudly present a Day of the Day curated market. During the mercado, Las Calaveras de Republic Square: Celebrating our Shared History, an art installation at Republic Square inspired by the rich history of the park.

In addition, activities from El ABCDia de los Muertos, Libro para Colorear, the ABCDay of the Dead Coloring Book will be available for the public. The coloring book gathers many words in Spanish used in preparation of and during the Dia de los Muertos celebration in Mexico, Latin America and in the United States. By reading all the words and visualizing them, the reader begins to imagine the beautiful tradition of Dia de los Muertos.

This coloring book was made for the 2024 Dia de los Muertos celebration at Republic Square. In the 1870’s, Austin’s early Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans created a vibrant business and cultural community just west of downtown Congress Avenue to the banks of the Shoal Creek. Republic Square Park, then known as Mexican Park, was the cultural heart of the area. It is known that civic celebrations such as the Diez y Seis de Septiembre and Cinco de Mayo were held at Mexican Park since the 1800s. We can imagine that over time, people living in this area when it was an indigenous land, then later Spanish, Mexican, Tejano that the families continued to remember and honor their family members in their homes, churches and the cemeteries. Through this traditional celebration of the Dia de los Muertos, with festivities, the Muertos Mercado and the coloring book, the community is welcomed back to reclaim and enjoy one of original places where their ancestors lived. Other art activities include participating in the in pop-up community ofrenda, making papel picado and marigold flowers.

This event partners with the Sustainable Farmers Market to showcase over 30 vendors. Enjoy pan de muerto, tamales, dulces, music and dancing while remembering and honoring our loved ones who have passed on.

Exhibitions

Path to the Altar: Community Ofrendas Opens!

Path to the Altar: Community Ofrendas
September 27th – January 5th

Thank you so much for joining us on Friday September the 27 to celebrate the opening of this wonderful exhibit, Path to the Altar: Community Ofrendas, as the name hints, this exhibition has been created by and for our communities. Luisa Fernanda Perez, Curator of the exhibit states, “I acknowledge the work of four organizations: the MACC, MAS Cultura (Monica), La Peña along with The South Texas Human Rights Center. The Museum thanks the familias Arriaga-Gonzales and Chávez-Martínez who have been close collaborators with the Museum, and who have created altares for their loved ones. In addition, we have a beautiful Quetzalcoatl-themed community altar created by the artist Emmily Arenas. I encourage you to place a photo of a departed loved one in this community altar. Thanks to artists Michael Menchaca, Micayla Garza, Alan Serna, Federico Archuleta, Mary J Andrade and the many other artists in this exhibition.”

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a holiday celebrated on November 1st and 2nd in which the memory of the dead is honored communally, weaving together mourning and remembrance with celebration. This holiday is a blend of traditional Catholic practices and customs of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico, Central and South America. These festivities are not only deeply ingrained in Latin American cultures but have become an important part of the multicultural tapestry of the United States, reflecting a growing recognition and appreciation of this Latin American heritage that brings people of different backgrounds together. 

For this annual Día de los Muertos exhibition, Mexic-Arte has invited three Austin-based organizations, the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, La Peña in collaboration with the South Texas Human Rights Center, and MAS Cultura, to create altares inspired by artworks from the Museum’s permanent collection. Three community-based altares are also on display, with the Arriaga-Gonzales and the Chávez-Martínez families presenting altares as tributes to their loved ones, while artist Emmily Arenas designed the community altar, drawing influence from the Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcóatl and Mexic-Arte’s 2024 Viva la Vida Fest. In addition, the Museum has commissioned three artists to conceive original artworks that offer a unique vision of this holiday. Inside the Museum’s space, one can observe Micayla Garza’s mural as well as Michael Menchaca’s video installation, while outside on the Mero Muro wall, you will find a mural painted by Alán Serna. 

October 2024 Changarrito Artist BAT Printmaking Society!

You’re invited to Mexic-Arte Museum’s Changarrito Instagram Live event on October 24th at 5:00pm with the BAT Printmaking Society, taking place virtually through the Museum’s Instagram account @mexic_arte! Luisa Fernanda Perez, Mexic-Arte Museum’s Curator of Exhibitions and Director of Programs, will facilitate the virtual event with a series of questions directed at the artist including a Q&A taking place during the last 20 minutes of the event. 

The BAT Printmaking Society will present their work on the Changarrito cart at Mexic-Arte Museum on October 19th, 20th, 26th & 27th from 12-3pm.

About the Artists & Artist’s Statements

Andrea Izaguirre was born in Caracas, Venezuela. In 2008, she moved to the US to pursue her higher education and is currently an artist based out of San Antonio, Texas. She graduated in 2011 from San Antonio Community College with an Associate Degree in Digital Illustration Design and is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) with a concentration in Printmaking. Her body of work ranges from different methods of printmaking to leatherworking, sewing and mixed media sculptures. She is currently in her third semester of an internship at Democratizing Racial Justice where she is exploring the socio-economic issues that affect her home country through the art of printmaking. During her time at UTSA, Izaguirre has been involved with the Printmaking Society serving as president from 2022-2023 and under her leadership, the UTSA club has been part of group exhibitions, portfolio exchanges and has participated in events with local museums like the McNay’s College Night. In 2023, Izaguirre displayed her work at the San Antonio Museum of Art’s La Malinche: Juried Student Exhibition, and at the 19th  Annual Collegiate Juried Show at the San Antonio Art League Museum. She was part of the BAT Printmaking Society’s group exhibition at Dock Space Galley, and two of her prints were selected to be part of the Texas Association of Schools of Art Artnovation, an online student exhibition. In addition, Izaguirre is the recipient of an Honorary Mention at the 39th Annual Juried Student Exhibition at UTSA.

“My work reflects a conversation between nature and the self, exploring topics of identity and culture through the intrinsic geometry and structure of plants and insects and their metaphor and iconography. I want to convey the journey we embark on to become artists from the low point of self-doubt to the highlight of creating work you are proud of, something I struggle to balance life as an artist and a mother. I am inspired by the artists that came before me in my family, the architecture of nature and the way they are structured, combining their organic geometry with the meanings found in their symbolism I am hoping the viewer can recognize and identify with the idea of metamorphosis and what each of those stages represent in the life of the artist. This is a project that will continue to expand as I evolve as a person, artist, and mother.”

Angelica Romo was born in Chicago and attended the University of Texas Permian Basin where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2020. She is currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate at the University of Texas San Antonio as a multi-disciplinary artist. Her work encompasses media such as printmaking, photography, and New Media. Romo’s body of work expresses feminine rage and strives to raise awareness of femicide, domestic abuse and child abuse.

Angelica works with the abject theory of feminine rage and their relation to the abject woman. In her application, Romo follows Barbara Creed’s criticism of the mythical patriarchal view that a “woman is terrifying not because she is castrated but because she castrates”. Underlining how the world interacts with the womb and its ability to menstruate being the source of women’s pain, trauma, and rage. These are the representations that make women, “the other”, “the abject”, simply because they menstruate. Women are invalidated by a society that questions their rage and trauma, but never questions if this is how villains are made. Women are standing up, fighting back, and taking their space.

Claribel Olivas is a printmaker originally from Odessa, Texas. She is an MFA candidate student enrolled at The University of Texas at San Antonio with a concentration in printmaking. Currently, Claribel works as both a teaching and lab assistant in UTSA’s printmaking program. She is also a graduate advisor for the BAT Printmaking Society, an extracurricular club that provides students with exhibition and sale opportunities. Claribel’s work encompasses both traditional printmaking and experimental work with textiles. The imagery in her work combines amalgamated human/animal forms with decorative patterns and organic shapes. With these surreal images, she deals with themes of introspection and internal conflict that manifest physically through the various visual motifs she employs.

“My work encompasses both traditional printmaking and experimental work with textiles. Embracing the reproductive quality of techniques such as lithography and serigraphy allows me to create a visual vocabulary that extends across my pieces. The recurring organic patterns and shapes in my work create recognizable motifs. These visual motifs are often paired with amalgamated human/animal forms. With this combination of biomorphic design and form, I explore themes of introspection and internal conflict. These private sentiments often express themselves “physically” in the form of intestine-like designs moving freely across the composition.”

Leticia “Leti” R. Molina is an artist who currently lives in San Antonio, Texas. Being native to central Texas where art itself has a high presence, she takes heavy influence from the surrounding art community to pursue in her art career. She practices various forms of art not only by the cultural influence of being First Generation Mexican American but as well as a way of coping through creative expression throughout her life due to being born hard of hearing. Since not being able to express interests and thoughts properly through oral translations at an early age, expression through art has become a way of communication to others for her. Molina’s art tends to show the presence of Art Nouveau, Romanticism, abnormalities, historical fashion, challenging norms, and traumas relating to Mexican heritage, as well as defining admiration to the deepest roots of Mexican culture and compositions of figures and non-figures tending to follow with the right side being more exposed than the left side to simulate how she must alter her posture and majority of her life interactions to accommodate in regard to hearing the world around her.

Molina is currently studying at The University of Texas at San Antonio to complete her Bachelors of Fine Arts after transferring from Austin Community College, where she completed her Associates of Fine Arts. She hopes to continue her education to achieve a Masters of Fine Arts to further build her art portfolio and is currently working on pieces to submit to future Art Exhibitions. Meanwhile during the process of completing her Bachelors, she aims to seek out and finish a Minor in Latin American Studies. Going through this journey of completing her undergraduate degree, she has a drive to dabble into occurring issues that are relating to Mexican Americans such as: insensitive cultural appropriation, unhealthy cultural traits within the community, complex identity issues, discrimination to those with physical and mental disabilities, and new perspectives on coming to terms with death. Furthermore, showing evidence of in-depth research from within the culture to make healthier connections on where the roots of the culture have begun and forming alleviation of being proud of the Latino identity and its ties to predecessors. This includes creating an understanding of the past to find a form of acknowledgment to have a base on where to grow, heal, what to keep within the present, leave behind as time goes on, and finding aid from the past to have comfort in what to believe in for the future.

September 2024 Changarrito Artist Carolina Yáñez!

Artist Carolina Yáñez was the Changarrito artist for September. During her residency she interacted with visitors and conducted an Instagram Live interview with Mexic-Arte Curator Luisa Fernanda Perez. During the interview the artist shared more about her practice and future projects. View the interview here.

About the Artist

Carolina Yáñez is a Tejana multimedia artist from Austin, Texas. She is primarily working with photography to explore ideas regarding Tejano culture and politics, place, gender issues, mental illness and how they all intersect. Yáñez currently attends Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas pursuing an MFA in art.

Yáñez’s work has been shown in the Blaffer Art Museum, Houston Center for Photography, and the Lawndale Art Center, among others. 

About Changarrito Program

Changarrito is an art vending cart conceptualized by artist Maximo Gonzalez as an alternative to the official gallery selection presented by the Mexican cultural authorities. True to the Mexic-Arte Museum’s mission, the Changarrito and Changarreando are dedicated to the presentation and promotion of contemporary Latinx and Latin American art.

New Mural: En la tierra como en el cielo by Alán Serna

Come check out the latest mural in El Mero Muro program at Mexic-Arte Museum! You can view the mural anytime along the 5th Street side of Mexic-Arte Museum.

About:
“This mural is dedicated to my Apa Beto and my Abuela Maria. Their portrait is set in an open night time landscape of their burial plot, and is accompanied by painting of their tomb with their favorite travel snacks, coca-cola light and chicharrones set in a bolsa de mandado. The text in the upper part of the mural is a reinterpretation of the phrase, “En la tierra como en el cielo”. Rewriting this phrase as, “En el cielo como en la tierra” is my way of expressing hope that they’re living as happily in the next life as they did when they lived.”

Artist Bio:
Alán Serna is an inter-media artist from Huanusco, Zacatecas, MX, now living and working in San Antonio, TX. In 2018, Serna earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in Intermedia from the University of Kentucky and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking in 2015 from The University of Texas at San Antonio, where he is currently an Assistant Professor of Printmaking and Drawing. Serna is the co-founder and Master Printer of Feral Editions, an independent publisher of fine art prints, artist books, and ephemera.

Collections

Path to the Altar: Community Ofrendas Features Edith Eppenberger

In honor of the upcoming exhibition, Path to the Altar: Community Ofrendas, the Mexic-Arte Museum highlights a piece from the Permanent Collections that is on display. This particular piece is a print by Edith Eppenberger from her series Reflections of Oaxaca. 

Eppenberger (1942 – 2003) arrived in Oaxaca more than thirty years ago and could not believe what she saw. She fell madly in love with the landscapes, our traditions, mezcal, and mainly our people. She was a wonderful painter, and she made figures with wood, clay, and crumbs. Everything came to her hands, as if by magic; it was transformed into a marvel. She was an expert in the art of paper cutting, a great tradition in her native Switzerland, where figures are duplicated. All objects have their counterpart, their other self. Upon her death, her brother Willy prepared this folder of six serigraphs, the originals of which were made on papel picado by the author. It is a testimony of her love for Mexico, a tribute to corn, to the public places that she enjoyed so much, and the Mexicans that were always in her soul as an artist. The particular piece highlighted is Altar for the Dead, which depicts a grand ofrenda to honor past loved ones.You can see this print by Edith Eppenberger and so many more wonderful pieces from our Permanent Collection in our next exhibition, Path to the Altar: Community Ofrendas, from September 27th, 2024 – January 5th, 2025!

Welcome Julio Martinez, Digital Media & Assistant Registrar Associate!

Julio Martinez is a multimedia artist born in Hidalgo, Texas, raised in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and later moved to the Rio Grande Valley. He recently graduated with honors from The University of Texas at Austin and received a BFA in Studio Art and a BS in Arts and Entertainment Technologies. Throughout his time at UT, he participated in various group exhibitions and co-curated the Somos Recuerdos exhibition at the Visual Arts Center. Julio was previously introduced as the Preparator Intern in February at Mexic-Arte Museum and is now the new Digital Media/Registrar Associate. He’s excited to continue working at the Museum to provide accessibility to the Mexic-Arte collection and foster culture in the community. In his practice, he recalls and materializes shared experiences of Latino and Chicano immigrant cultures to serve as mediums of introspection and understanding through rasquache sensibilities. See his work at www.juliomartinezart.com and @juliomtzart on Instagram.