Jallalla! – Healing and Reclaiming Indigeneity Through the Arts
- Américo Mendoza-Mori and Catherine Bartch
- Latin American and Latinx Studies Program (LALS), School of Arts & Sciences
'Alegría de los colores" by Robert Mamani. Robert is one of three artists who will be featured in an online exhibition, a collaboration between the Latin American and Latinx Studies Program and Quechua at Penn.
Jallalla is an Aymara-Quechua word that calls for the celebration of life through unity, harmony, and well-being; it is the recognition of a collective desire to realize aspirations and dreams. This fall, the Latin American and Latinx Studies Program (LALS) and Quechua at Penn will collaborate on the production of an online exhibition titled Jallalla! – Healing and Reclaiming Indigeneity through the Arts, which will showcase the works of three artists: Roberto Mamani Mamani, an internationally renowned Aymara-Quechua artist and muralist from La Paz; Cesar Viveros Herrera, an eminent Mexican muralist in Philadelphia who weaves imagery and messages of the Aztecas in his art; and Philadelphia artist Kukuli Velarde, who explores Quechua and Andean culture while engaging with gender issues. LALS and Quechua at Penn are committed to the study and development of deeper understandings of indigenous communities, experiences, and lives in the Americas. Jallalla! – Healing and Reclaiming Indigeneity through the Arts aligns with their interdisciplinary mission of studying Latin American communities beyond books and lectures but also through innovative, cultural, and artistic interactive mediums and methods. In addition to the exhibition, LALS and Quechua at Penn are planning accompanying programming ranging from workshops on what it means to be an artist and how to create with the community, to film screenings that will elucidate some of the central issues, to panels on topics such as indigenous rights and demands in Latin America.