Hispanic Heritage Month events showcase art for social justice

September 2, 2019 | UHCL Staff

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with The Latinx and Latin American Studies Program at University of Houston-Clear Lake. The month’s kickoff event will take place Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Forest Room of the Bayou Building.

“As the Latinx and Latin American Studies minor grows, we are instituting annual events to raise awareness about the program” said Desdamona Rios, associate professor of social psychology and director of LLAS.

One of the highlights of this month’s activities, Rios said, is the art contest submissions. “We wanted to have an art contest to involve more of the UH-Clear Lake community,” she said. “It was open to any student or alumni from across all our colleges, and the criteria was that it be representative of our theme, which is ‘Using Art for Social Justice.’ This contest will now be held annually.”

The winner of the contest held during the 2018-19 academic year is Liliana Alonzo, for her painting titled “There Will Be No Shelter Here.” Rios said that Alonzo, who graduated in fall 2018 with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art and Design, was among 12 entries to the contest and won a $250 cash prize. “The art work will be featured on all of our marketing materials,” she said. “Every year we plan to do a different theme, and this year we thought it would be interesting to expose our students and the larger UHCL community to prominent artists in Houston who use their art to address social issues.”

Jesse Rodriguez, Delilah Montoya and Stalina Villareal are Houston-area artists who will be discussing their work. Rodriguez, a painter and owner of Magnolia Grown Gallery in Houston’s East End, will speak about the importance of opening an art gallery in Houston, his collaboration with the Smithsonian Art Museum, and his work with the city of Houston to open a Latinx cultural and research center in the East End. He will be on campus Sept. 24, 7-8:30 p.m. 

“Delilah Montoya is a photographer and professor at University of Houston, and has also collaborated with the Smithsonian. She will speak about why social representations matter,” Rios said. “She will talk about why she pursued photography, and present work from her project titled ‘Detention Nation" during a talk on Oct. 2, 7-8:30 p.m.  

Rios added that Villareal is a poet who teaches at Houston Community College and will read her published poetry which focuses on topics pertinent to the Latinx community during her presentation on Oct. 8, 4:30-6 p.m. 

All artist talks will be held in the Student Services and Classroom Building lecture hall. 

“The LLAS faculty wants to provide for our students diverse examples for how to address social issues that we discuss in our classrooms and in our research,” Rios said. “Inviting Latinx leaders is also about positive representation. Students will have the chance to see others like themselves who are agents of change. Latinos have been active leaders in the U.S. for centuries, and these artists shed light on that history through the arts.”

Art is powerful and speaks to everyone, she continued. “You don’t need to be an expert or hold a degree. You can just look or listen and it will move you,” she said.

The month’s events are co-sponsored by UHCL’s Office of Student Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, the Department of Communication and Studio Arts, the College of Human Sciences and Humanities,  L.I.S.T.A. (formerly the student group HACER), the Art Association, and the Social Work Program.

For more information about Hispanic Heritage Month events at UHCL, contact Dr. Rios at rios@uhcl.edu.