Artivism: The Art Beyond Our Borders
Photos by Blanca Castillo
Resistencia Fronteriza held its Relief Printmaking Workshop from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 23, in the UTRGV Printmaking Studio on the Brownsville campus.
Participants learned the basics of printmaking by carving their own 4×6 linoleum block on themes such as border, migration and identity–activism artwork.
The prints that were made at this workshop will be included in an art exhibition on Friday, April 19 at Cactus Valley Art in Harlingen.
Resistencia Fronteriza is a project that was created by Michel Flores Tavizón, a design graduate student. Flores Tavizón’s project aims to bring important topics and themes into conversation through art. Her workshops are typically based on printmaking, activism and border issues.
The project was made possible through an award Flores Tavizón received from UTRGV after being nominated for a fellowship by her mentor, Dr. Christen Garcia. After receiving the Presidential Research Fellowship, Flores Tavizón has hosted workshops and exhibits while also partnering with friends Cecilia Sierra and Cactus Valley Art member Souther Recio.
“The name of the project came … I wanted it in Spanish,” Flores Tavizón said. “… There’s a lot of Hispanic community in the Valley. I thought the name would be better if it was in Spanish. We always talk about resisting, resistance, resilience. [Those] words come up a lot in the activism world.”
Flores Tavizón said she believes that it is important to be aware politically and socially of what is going on in the Valley.
“It’s really important to know issues like these and the border lines,” she said. “This is where you live. I know that bill affects people. The SB4 [bill]. You need to know how it affects you or if it doesn’t affect you, it might affect your friend or family member.”
This workshop is not the first that Resistencia Fronteriza has hosted. Another was an informative session and zine workshop with La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), a social services organization founded by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta. The other was a poetry and screen printing workshop partnered with Unfolded Poetry Project, a non-profit poetry project and Cecilia Sierra, a UTRGV art alumna, who facilitated the screen printing process for the participants at Cactus Valley Art.
Flores Tavizón said typically ten people attend the workshops because of limitations with materials and budgets, but also so that it feels personal.
Cecilia Sierra is an art alumna of UTRGV and the instructor of Saturday’s workshop.
Sierra said that channeling border activism through art helps create awareness because it becomes more approachable and not as intimidating or confusing. She said her teaching style or method is to try to push people out of their comfort zone and hands-on practice.
“I tell you, ‘Okay, this is the process,’” Sierra said. “I try to make it like a step thing. Then, I also try to make the ways of thinking as a process. I base it a lot off like English class like who, what, when, where, why. Word webs.”
Sierra feels that everyone is a visual learner “whether they like it or not.” To Sierra, having a visual representation helps people have a better understanding of what is taking place.
Many community members and organizations also participated in the Relief Printmaking Workshop, such as Flower Shop Art Residency, a program in Brownsville of Frontera Arts in Bloom.
Cielo Zuñiga, an artist from the residency, was a participant who heard about the workshop through Sierra. Zuñiga said her experience with printmaking had only been at home and this was her first time using “the big tools.”
“I think it’s a very important and also very cool way to merge [politics] and art,” Zuniga said. “I think they call it artivism, which is really interesting because I feel like you can reach people more that way and also engage even the younger audiences to make art.”
