On August 4, 2026, Professor of Art History Ray Hernández-Durán @rhernand65 and Irene Vásquez, Chair of Chicana and Chicano Studies, were interviewed about their work on the exhibition, Voces del Pueblo: Artists of the Levantamiento Chicano in New Mexico, which was on view at the National Hispanic Cultural Center from April 2025 through February 2026.
This is an exhibition 7 years in the making that features a group of New Mexican artists who were among the earliest generation of Chicana and Chicano activists in the state. All 6 artists, 3 men and 3 women, were students at New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) in Las Vegas in the early 1970s when Chicano scholar Pedro Rodríguez was hired as the inaugural Director of Chicano Studies at NMHU. It was at NMHU that these young men and women became politically active and proceeded to paint murals, produce art, and organize in New Mexico as part of the nascent Chicano civil rights movement that was unfolding nationally. The artworks on display capture a distinctly New Mexican Chicana and Chicano experience that has received little attention in Chicano art history.
The interview aired on September 29, 2026, and is featured in the latest episode of ¡Colores! on NM PBS.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
WATCH HERE at https://www.pbs.org/video/voces-del-pueblo-artists-of-the-levantamiento-chicano-k3i4lb/?source=social
