"I started out by looking at symbols. When I first started painting as a really young artist I wanted to find the language that belonged to me. I wasn't really interested in looking at what I now know as eurocentric image and process. And what I came to, though, as an artist, was to be able to recognize what was in my own home, in Durango, that I felt represented the culture of Durango’s Indigenous peoples. When you look at the language for art in Native cultures, there is no word 'art.' It all is about making things visible, being able to see, enlightening others.”

“I think our Xicano, or Xicana, Xicanx politic of spiritual work is not just about the kumbaya experience of feeling 'somehow;' but it is a politic that moves us through, that asks for us to understand, to return, to know, to see ... very much a proceso of recovery."

— Celia Herrera Rodríguez

Artist Statement

The work in Teo(tl)ría Xicana is a combination of dreams and meditation with symbols studied through my paintings and installations.  Water Spirits and Soy el agua que reconoce su camino are drawn from dreams going back to the beginning of this century (2000 – 2006) seen through my human-centric perception of the elemental spirits of water. The painting Huehueteotl – Xiuhtecuhtli (2018) reflects the dream personification of fire as angry masculine energy; and Mixcoatl (2018) speaks to the imbalance of the feminine waters. The paintings do not necessarily represent the emotions of fear and sorrow, but they hold me accountable through my dreams as I witness the chaos within my own body, within my family, community, and society. The intimate realizations embodied in my dreams are reminders that I, and we, are interrelated beings, interdependent with Nuestra Madre.

Teo(tl)ría Xicana is a conversation about finding our way home that we, Indigenous identified Xicana[x]s, have held over the last half century. It is an engagement with remembering our ancestral knowledges, our relationships with the Peoples and guardians of the places where we move and live, and the Spirits that respond to our collective prayers. In this exhibition at Centro Cultural de la Raza, I am charging the symbols within the paintings as markers, points of reference to the installations. Abuelita Medicina con Bastón, a living and conscious walking stick that roots and buds in conversation with the Ánima of the Teotl, guides us back into remembering how we have made things right by creating: by touching, holding, making in concert, in conversation.  The installations are intended to be constructed collectively, and I am welcoming folks to join me in a collective prayer/work in community to assemble:  3 elementos de Consciencia, Prayer for the Mother Waters, and  Tlaltecuhtli – 2-Spirit Bundle. This exhibit welcomes your participation in this intergenerational conversation.

This solo exhibition, curated by María Esther Fernández, will highlight the spiritual and political nature of Maestra Celia’s work. In Fernández’s essay, Engaging the Spirit: The Curative Curatorial Challenge to the Contemporary Art Museum, she enlightens us to the overlapping layers of mixed media approaches, community engagement, and prayer that bind together Maestra Celia’s art praxis. Of Maestra Celia’s work, Fernández writes:

Celia Herrera Rodríguez’s artistic practice is a rigorous remapping of Indigenous thought for diasporic, de-tribalized Xicanx people. It is a realigning of contemporary art practice with the spiritual to reframe social, historical, political, and economic narratives that have shaped identity in the social consciousness of the Xicanx community.

In essence, this is what Teo(tl)ría Xicana is about, a visual articulation of the theory, philosophy, praxis of Xicana[x] art making and process committed to and rooted within an Indigenous política. This exhibit was organized in collaboration with Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego, where community members were invited to come witness, participate in, and engage with the creation of exhibition installations and prayers through a series of community gatherings.

Save the Dates

Centro Cultural de la Raza
2004 Park Blvd, San Diego, CA, 92101

Community Installation Offering

August 30–September 1, 2022

The artist is inviting folks to join her in a collective prayer/work in community to assemble the various installations that will hold the Teo(tl)ría Xicana exhibition together. Register here: bit.ly/teo-xicana to volunteer for either of these installation dates and times:

• 8/30 11am – 2pm & 5 – 8pm

• 8/31 11am – 2pm & 5 – 8pm

• 9/1 11am – 2pm & 5 – 8pm

Exhibition Soft Opening Celebration

September 2, 2022

Join us for a soft opening celebration at Centro Cultural de la Raza starting at 5PM.

Xicana[x] Indigenous Values:
Encuentros, Convenings and Conversations

Friday, October 7, 2022 @ 6pm

Plática with Kumeyaay elder, Uncle Stan Rodríguez and Celia Herrera Rodríguez to bridge Xicana[x] daily life and Indigenous knowledge by highlighting and mapping our daily practices prior to colonization and uncovering ways in which these values have been passed down from generation to generation.

Sunday, October 8, 2022 @ 2pm

Join us for the closing reception of the Teo(tl)ría Xicana Exhibition for a plática between visual artist Yreina D. Cervántez and writer Cherríe Moraga about the Indigenous and queer context of Celia Herrera Rodríguez’s work. Followed by a Q&A with Celia Herrera Rodríguez.

LIVESTREAM WILL BE AVAILABLE ON LAS MAESTRAS CENTER YOUTUBE CHANNEL

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org.

This project is organized by María Esther Fernandéz and Centro Cultural de la Raza with the support of Las Maestras Center for Xicana[x] Indigenous Thought, Art and Social Praxis