Renaissance: Latinxpresión SP22

LATINXPRESION

RENAISSANCE RENAISSANCE RENAISSANCE

TABLE OF OF TABLE CONTENTS CONTENTS 1 2 44 66 88 10 10 11 12 12

Director’s Letter Meet the Staff Romeo and Juliet Illustrated - Violeta

Utopia

- Carlos Cepeda

Dystopia

- Carlos Cepeda

Never

- Brenda Rodriguez Cruz

Suelo

- Hugo Córdova

Oh Deer

- Lizzy Martinez

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Two Skulls are Better Than One - Lizzy Martinez

Dear Someone I love, - Veronica Lee

Flower Weaver - Lizzy Martinez

Making Home

- Madi Diaz + Sarah Leiva

¿Cómo te fue?

- María Balogh

Nacimiento Syncretismo - Coralina Rodriguez Meyer

Portrait of a Budding Revolutionary: Colleen Avila - Victoria Briggiler + Sarai Steinberg

LETTER DIRECTOR’S LETTER LETTER DIRECTOR’S DIRECTOR’S Dear Reader, We present to you Latinxpresión, an art & literary magazine by Washington University’s Association of Latin American Students (ALAS). Our publication has served as a platform for our community members, sharing a special curation of their art pieces. We introduce the theme of “renaissance.” Given the impact of revolution in Latin American history, our team birthed renaissance as an homage to that history and contextualized it in an art historical lens. For us, this issue speaks to our demand and pursuit of change within our own lives and in the world we live in, just as we ourselves continue to change Latinxpresión for the better.

We are proud to continue our expansion of the magazine to allow submissions from all Latine-identifying individuals across the nation. In this issue, we are grateful to share their experiences and stories of renaissance through mediums like painting, sculpture, poetry, collage, and photography.

Dystopia, a mixed media piece by Carlos Cepeda, presents evocative imagery and a narrative of an apocalyptic world and its paradox with the natural sublime. Coralina Rodriguez Meyer presents evocative imagery depicting the beauty of pregnancy and the way the body transforms in her photography series, Nacimiento Syncretismo. Portrait of a Budding Revolutionary: Colleen Avila, an editorial by our creative historians Victoria Briggiler & Sarai Steinberg, showcases an interview with WashU junior student Colleen and the application of renaissance and revolution to their life and art.

These are just some of the works we feature in the Renaissance issue of Latinxpresión. We hope to create a sense of community as we bring together contributors not only from WashU and the greater St. Louis community, but from all over.

We hope you enjoy this issue, as we have enjoyed putting it together. We are grateful to our designers, social media staff, and editors, who came together over the past three months to produce this publication. We are excited to see what is in store for Latinxpresión in the coming months, aiming to continue our pursuits in creating a platform for community and expression.

Most importantly, thank you to each one of our contributors, as this issue would not be possible without your interest, support, and willingness to share your stories and work with us.

Viva la revolución Viva a revolução Long live the revolution, Bryanna Mendez & Carlos Cepeda Directors of Latinxpresión

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MEET MEET THE THE STAFF STAFF

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Bryanna Mendez Mendez ‘24 ‘24 Bryanna Director Major: Marketing Major: Fun Fact: Fact: I walked past Bretman Rock Fun in NYC

Carlos Cepeda Cepeda ‘24 ‘24 Carlos

Sofia Gutierrez Gutierrez ‘25 ‘25 Sofia

Director

Creative Curator

Major: Architecture + Urban Design Fun Fact: As a creative I always try to maximize self expression through art, design, and dance

Major: Communication Design Fun Fact: I think I have that gene that makes cilantro tastes nasty and makes me an abomination in my family

Arte Romero Romero yyy Carver Carver ‘25 ‘25 Arte Romero Carver ‘25 Arte

Adriana Vega Vega ‘24 ‘24 Adriana

Content Producer

Content Producer

Major: Sociology + Studio Arts Fun Fact: Fact: Once, I swear to god, saw what Fun looked like a dog driving a car.

Major: Communication design Major: Fun Fact: My favorite color is pink Fun Fact:

Ale Uriostegui Uriostegui ‘23 ‘23 Ale

Sofia Angulo Angulo Lopera Lopera ‘24 ‘24 Sofia Angulo Lopera ‘24 Sofia

Literary Editor

Literary Editor

Major: Marketing Major: Fun Fact: Fact: I have synesthesia so I can smell Fun sounds

Major: Comparative Literature + Major: Cognitive Neuroscience Fun Fact: Fact: I’ve held a shark before!

Fun

Victoria Briggiler ‘25

Sarai Steinberg Steinberg ‘25 ‘25 Sarai

Creative Historian

Creative Historian

Major: Psychology + Women, Gender Major: and Sexuality Studies Fun Fact: I Fun Fact: can ride a bike standing with no hands!

Major: American Culture Studies + Major: Marketing + Business of Social Impact Fun Fact: I love to embroider!

Liv Yazigi Yazigi ‘24 ‘24 Liv

Maya Torres Torres Colom Colom ‘25 ‘25 Maya Torres Colom ‘25 Maya

Public Relations Chair

Secretary

Major: Political Science + Latin American Major: Studies Fun Fact: I have three citizenships Fun Fact:

Major: Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies + Major: French + Business of Social Impact Fun Fact: Fact: I danced ballet for 15 years Fun

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Romeo and Juliet Illustrated Violeta Violeta is a Cuban Illustrator and animator based in NYC, fascinated with telling stories through her work. She is a passionate artist that enjoys combining analog and digital media, in order to create images that feel honest and tactile. Keeping humor and movement in the heart of her work is one of her favorite elements to play with when illustrating. For more information and to see more of her work, visit www.violetaencarnacion.com

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Utopia Carlos Cepeda Carlos is a sophomore Architecture student at Washington University in St. Louis. They are an artist and often utilize vintage photos, maps, typography, and photomontage in their work. They take a lot of inspiration from magical realism and often make politically and socially charged commentaries through their work.

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Benath the apollonian lights of an obsidian sun Above the purple pools of rosey water Floats the fortresses o brave and young Arisen from the destruction of parasitic hearts In a land of purple light and green-yellow hills, Supervised by a nourishing, just mother Thrive the fruits of hard labor and fertile land Akin to the hopes and ideals of its peoples From within the land hoist frosted buildings of nature Like man-made trees that rupture the sky One with the land where they are grounded The created creations of the creator Augment the connections of the ground with its peoples Like land of fantasy and enthralling flowers, Made with bridges rather than walls, Freely circulates the words in the same fashion as people From the land of lavender clouds, From the country of circling light.

From the nation now directed by the colors hidden By the phallix reflections of the mirrors of the past I write in awe of the change of a nation Hearing the voices of the land, the earth, and the unheard Children of dark

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Dystopia Carlos Cepeda

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And, here I lay, among crimson rivers of rivers of light, Rippling down, like the veins of the earth from man-made volcanoes.

At the edge of the fortress of the city of rippling buildings, Caressing the sweet earth to not let me go.

Among sulfur-infused, orange clouds of gold.

Asphyxiating on the sweet smell o the volcanoes’ ashes Near Icarus’s buildings that reached too close to the sun.

Barely moving, staying grounded I se the amorphous shapes that gravity’s absence has made.

Unerthened rocks and frameless towers, leaving the floor into outer space.

Mrs. Moon, kindly-looking over, Dressed in orange, above the growling giants of the growing sierra.

Looking at the pleading children of the end of the road.

Giggling at the naiveness of the pleading children of Ares.

With their armed toys and thirst for distractions Looking above at the aftermath of their abandoning leaders.

From below it is clear.

The dirty ships of war have departed, letting them fall asleep Hands of the ironic, lethal irony of the beautiful, noxious gases Released onto the earth by those high above.

Hands of the stubborn, destructive nature of children.

Sealing the paradoxical prophecy of progress and regression. …and, from the war. Radiation

Fire Death

Oblivion.

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Never Brenda Rodriguez Cruz Brenda Quetzali is a proud immigrant of Mexican descent. She grew up in Florida and is currently based in Chicago, IL. She is a fine artist and an editorial illustrator.

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Suelo Hugo Córdova De Puerto Rico. Aveces habla mucho a veces no habla.

Ahora estás tirado en el piso Mirando la ropa que igual está Ropa que tienes que doblar Tu ropa que cada día cada día amenazas Diciéndole que la doblarás Pero pasa una semana Pasan dos Permaneces en el suelo Y tu ropa también Te preguntas porque no la recoges Conoces la respuesta Pero el miedo paraliza

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Oh Deer Lizzy Martinez Martinez has exhibited at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Springfield Museum of Art, Danforth Museum of Art, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Figge Art Museum. She has shown in venues both in the USA and Ireland and is a 2 time STL Regional Arts Commission Awardee, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow as well as a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Award for outstanding figurative art. Lizzy has done 10 artist residencies as a fellow in 6 states. She teaches drawing and painting at the University of Missouri St. Louis is currently preparing work for exhibitions at Center of Creative Arts, Craft Alliance Center of Art + Design, Indianapolis Art Center, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, and Duane Reed Gallery for the 2022.

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Two Skulls Are Better Than One Lizzy Martinez

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Dear Someone I Love, Veronica Lee Veronica is an undergraduate at WashU in the class of 2024 majoring in Cognitive Neuroscience and Minoring in Educational Studies on the pre-medicine track. She is a daughter of Colombian and Brazilian immigrants who spent her childhood in Illinois and moved to Singapore from the age of 12 until high school graduation. She has written extensively since childhood both in Spanish, English, and Portuguese, and her favorite genres are creative non-fiction and poetry. She hopes to pursue writing professionally in some way, but for now enjoys using it as a creative and expressive outlet in her free time.

Someday you will find the wild heartbreak of your soul and the tables that have turned will be strewn all on the floor even when the room is empty, your heart will still be full and you’ll cry and thank the earth for the kindness with which it hurt and you’ll smile and hold your own hand, you’ve finally put yourself first.

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Summer sidewalks in the winter, the warmth fed from your own heart Empty hallways, breezy windows they all feel like some sort of start to an ocean of the sad or just some more broken glass All I ask if you be gentle, all I ask is you be kind and that day I hope I trust you to not leave yourself behind.

Someday someone will sweep you off your feet but remember you need ground because callused hands filled with flowers can’t make up for the sound of your own heart between your ears as you drift off to sleep because even in forever there’ll still be some things you keep in the corner of your mind from beneath the soles of your feet You’ve walked too many miles to ever really explain and no one could truly see the marvelous palace of your brain It’s beautiful, it’s treacherous, it’s got a few too many cliffs and I’d give a thing or two for some peace inside of it But even between the noises and the chaos that ensues I trust the quiet will return because I trust you.

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Flower Weaver Lizzy Martinez

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Making home Madi Diaz + Sarah Leiva This piece is a curation of images and videos that both artists recognize as home.They explore what it means to make home in a new space, as well as seeking home within each other as romantic partners; using photos of Miami, where they are from, overlaid with photos of Baltimore, where they now call home.

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¿Cómo te fue?

María Balogh María Balogh is a multi-lingual, bicultural poet, fiction writer, Caribbean folkloric dancer and educator. She teaches all levels of Spanish at UMSL, specializing in creative writing, linguistics, literature, and culture.

How was your day? asked the only child who cared enough daughter who didn’t judge her alcoholic father her problematic father Father who did his best Chicano father who spoke to her in Spanish who spoke to her of her ancestry who appreciated her question at every one of his sporadic visits in his increasingly fewer lucid moments ¿Cómo te fue, papá?

Child who saw beyond the absences the unconscious naps among beer bottles Child who wanted to make up for the others’ dismissals of him

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¿Cómo te fue, papá?

She kept asking this question until his sudden passing when she was sixteen losing her only contact with the heritage for which she yearned and only years later begins to rescue on a visit to the land of the abuelos of which her father spoke so fondly pursuing her never-ending desire to embrace her father’s culture and language On this trip she allows herself the license to reclaim all she thought she had lost coming to grip with his loss accepting her reality ¿Cómo te fue?

Reads a fresh tattoo

on her right hand

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Nacimiento Syncretismo Coralina Rodriguez Meyer Coralina Rodriguez Meyer is an indigenous Latinx Quipucamayoc artist, community organizer and urban designer born in Everglades, FL and based in Brooklyn and Miami. Raised queer in the Caribbean and rural South, she translates her mixed race, status and gender identity from her Inca/Muisca traditions to urban American mythology while collaborating with social justice leaders in her BIPOC community. Healing domestic and structural violence through her Mama Spa Botanica social practice project, Coralina builds agency and solidarity with her neighbors using ancestral intelligence and virtual heirlooms ranging from documentary sculpture, moving images and immersive installations.

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Portrait of a Budding Revolutionary: Colleen Avila Victoria Briggiler + Sarai Steinberg Photography: Ahmed Motiwala Victoria Briggiler is a first-year student double majoring in Psychology and Women, Gender, ans Sexuality Studies.

Sarai Steinberg is a first-year student majoring in American Culture Studies with a double minor in Marketing and the Business of Social Impact.

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Exploring the path not taken in revolution is daunting, but artist Colleen Avila has done it. Colleen (she/they) is a third-year Rodriguez and Ervin scholar double majoring in studio art and PNP with a minor in Latin American Studies.

On campus, they’re heavily involved with Uncle Joe’s, Colour Magazine, and their dual scholar programs. Colleen has taken on various roles at Uncle Joe’s, and in each one the importance of listening, mentoring, and holding a safe space for others were emphasized.

When asked about their own safe spaces on campus, Joe’s is quick to come up.

Colleen shared a sweet Joe’s tradition with us: Worlds. In this activity, members take turns exchanging meaningful moments from the past week. Although it can just be about the “yummy mac n cheese” someone had that day, hearing from fellow Joe’s is important for Colleen because they highly value the well-being of their peers. Being in Joe’s is particularly special to them because they are surrounded by like-minded empathetic individuals.

For the past two years, Colleen has also served as editor-in-chief of Colour Magazine, a student-run creative magazine for students of color. As somebody who grew up in the predominately white town of Frederick, Maryland, existing in spaces where ethnic identity is emphasized as sacred has been a welcomed transition, especially when that identity is considered intersectionality with queerness.

“Before Colour, there weren’t many spaces on campus for the voices of students of color to all come together and make something.”

Colleen’s passion to make people feel heard and accepted is demonstrated in their dedication to Colour. As a respected magazine on campus, the publication gives students of color a chance to be seen in media on campus. Pieces included in Colour can look like a photography project about a student’s home country, a poem of a student’s body image being affected by the culture she was raised in, or a commentary on a region’s political conflict. For those submitting, Colour can be an outlet of frustrations, creativity, and love for their culture. As for Colour’s audience, reading about the lived experiences of others and appreciating the art that came out of it can be incredibly insightful. Colleen’s commitment to such a magazine has shown her incredible skills in artistry and empathy for others, as it continues to be a source of expression for students of color.

In relation to both their involvements and ideologies, one concept that Colleen emphasized was the idea of Marxist alienation. In their mind, we’re estranged from three main things. We’re estranged from the people around us—because we’re all in constant competition with one another, consequently estranging us from our 23

own labor and its products. They cite this alienation and disconnect from what it means to be human as one of the reasons so many of us feel isolated and drained living in modern society. When asked what revolution means to them, Colleen answered

oppressive structures like capitalism, Colleen emphasizes the importance of prioritizing pleasure and relaxation. This idea is particularly radical for people living in the United States, a country that stresses ideals like the American Dream– where working tirelessly is supposedly the key to success. In a capitalist system, there are few moments of relaxation and 24

“Revolution means community, it means reversing alienation.”

As they’ve grown into their identity as an anarcho-communist, prioritizing community has been at the forefront of their mind.

In talking about resistance to

pleasure that aren’t tied to economic reward. This grander ideology is reflected in the smaller hub of WashU, where students often have so much work that they experience sleepless nights or they must stay inside on even the most beautiful of days to study for an exam.

However, the overall mood of campus is lifted when students have the time to sit

in hammocks, picnic with friends, throw a frisbee, or sunbathe.

Although Colleen is not one to shy away from work, one thing they prioritize in life is taking time to bask in the sun, both literally and figuratively.

When asked what one of their safe spaces on campus is, Colleen answered, “being outdoors in public.” They love to romanticize their life and curate themselves, and one way they find

happiness is by putting on a superb outfit and “look[ing] romantic on the lawn.” Connecting with the aesthetic self, both internally and externally, in a larger community is a form of selfcare. Being with friends, eating delicious food, and spending time outside are all ways that we can prioritize pleasure and tranquility in our lives as students at WashU. Academically, Colleen finds revolution

in their art major. Taking extensive classes, pouring hundreds of hours into their art, and creating things for the sake of its process and pleasure challenges the norm for students at this school.

It can be easy to fall into the path of seeking out education that only offers

monetary success in the future, and forgo integrating pleasure into pursuit of knowledge. For Colleen, this path was not without pushback; their parents envisioned a more guaranteed career like being a doctor. While Colleen recognizes their wishes as valid and 25

loves their parents for pushing them, they nevertheless choose to include art in their education because they enjoy it.

“[Studying art] is something that’s really special to me … I’m taking power away from this university to dictate what we have to study in order to get a job or learning for the sake of learning is just as important as learning for the sake of labor.”

Colleen loves to soak in knowledge, but they do not feel that all of their academic efforts at this school should be geared towards becoming wealthy and successful by capitalism’s standards.

In combating such a framework, Colleen is a creator. They love working

Revolution Prepping

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with the abstract to communicate ideas regarding revolution and they disagree with the popular assumption that realism is the “epitome of talent.” They also call on indigenous communities’ styles of art, a skill and form of beauty that is often unjustly ignored in the art world.

Exploring their indigenous heritage through art is another way in which Colleen reverses alienation, by taking inspiration from the art forms of their ancestors. At the moment, they’re really interested in exploring the home and the domestic relation with revolution. “that’s how i see revolution manifesting” Colleen recognizes how revolution may include war and violence, but that can be overwhelming to tackle in one painting. Instead, they create art that is “emblematic of what a community can be,” and the power that it holds to make change.

Listener. Artist. Revolutionary. What else does the future hold for Colleen?

When asked about when they see themselves in a few years, Colleen has a vision. They dream of being a counselor and opening a practice with their long-time best friend from back home,

Shelby. In the back, there’s a garden where people can pick fresh fruits and vegetables for free. The walls are plastered with art and there’s a soft cat on the premises for people to pet. In this space, they are able to provide holistic, accessible care to all who need it.

Unformulated American Ancom Daydream

Entering Colleen’s world for the afternoon was colorful and revolutionary. By the end of it, we were left imagining a parallel WashU social culture that recenters pleasure, knowledge, and empathy. Colleen’s ideas on revolutionary relaxation and pleasure applied to the working culture of WashU could have an impressive effect on the physical and mental well-

being of each student. As a whole, if the student body works towards creating a stronger sense of community amongst one another, we could make the difficulties of being college students feel just a bit less isolating.

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