Melanie Cervantes

Melanie Cervantes
Born Harbor City, CA
Alma mater UC Berkeley

Melanie Cervantes (born in Harbor City, CA) is a Xicana artist and activist based in the Bay Area.

Background

Cervantes grew up in a small city in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, CA. Her father was a paper box printer and her family's poverty helped foster her interest in art, out of the necessity of creating their own clothing and Halloween costumes.[1]

Education

Cervantes graduated from UC Berkeley in 2004 with a Bachelor's degree in Ethnic Studies.

Career

Cervantes works full-time as a Senior Program Officer at the Akonadi Foundation which supports movement-building organizations working to end structural racism in the United States. While at Akonadi she co-founded the Bay Area Justice Funders Network, an alliance of funders working strengthen grantmaking for social justice movements in the Bay Area and beyond.

As an artist, Cervantes has exhibited at Galería de la Raza (San Francisco); Woman Made Gallery and National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago); Mexic-Arte and Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (Austin, TX); Crewest (Los Angeles); and at the Musée d'Aquitaine (Bordeaux, France).[2] Her work is in public collections of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, the Latin American Collection of the Green Library at Stanford, and the Hispanic Research Center at the Arizona State University as well as various private collections throughout the U.S. She formed Dignidad Rebelde with printmaker Jesus Barraza, a collaborative graphic arts project that uses principles of Xicanisma and Zapatismo to translate stories of struggle and resistance into artwork that can be put back into the hands of the communities who inspire it.[3]

Her work can also be found in Dylan Miner's book, Creating Azatlán.[4] Cervantes' work has been included in the recent scholarship in Chicana/o studies of revolutionary women of color in Claudia D. Hernández book Women, Mujeres, Ixoq: Revolutionary Visions. [5]

Cervantes is a member of Justseeds Collective, Taller Tupac Amaru, and the Consejo Gráfico.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Signal:01 Taller Tupac Amaru". Signal: A Journal of International Political Graphics & Culture. Retrieved 2018-04-29.
  2. ↑ Cigainero, Jake (2014-09-09). "Mexican-American Street Art From Los Angeles Comes to Bordeaux". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-04-29.
  3. ↑ "Chicano Art Wields A Sharper Political Edge In Post-Election California". NPR.org. Retrieved 2018-04-29.
  4. ↑ "Creating Aztlán – UAPress". uapress.arizona.edu. Retrieved 2018-04-29.
  5. ↑ Women, mujeres, ixoq : revolutionary visions. Hernández, Claudia D.,. [San Antonio, TX]: Conocimientos Press. 2017. ISBN 9780692969984. OCLC 1031335774.
  6. ↑ "Signal:01 Taller Tupac Amaru". Signal: A Journal of International Political Graphics & Culture. Retrieved 2018-04-29.

See Also

References

  • McPhee, Josh and Erik Reuland. Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority. Oakland: AK Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-904859-32-1.
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