Melanie and Jesus' Prints and Posters

Melanie Cervantes and Jesus Barraza
Offset poster , Printed in Mexico City, 2008 

While visiting and working in Ecatepec in October of 2008 the three collectives participating in this exchange were given the opportunity to participate in an amazing campaign. The three collectives include the Taller Tupac Amaru (Jesus and I as well Favianna), Yo What Happened to Peace and  Just Seeds Collective. There has been an effort to openly declare art and culture as human rights in Ecatepec.

You can see our poster design here. We decided to include photos of the people we met in Ecatepec in the poster in order to give people in Ecatepec a mirror to see themselves. We also used the slogan 'la cultura cura' that is widely popular in Xican@ country to emphasize how culture healths and contributes toward wellness. The posters will be reproduced in editions of 1000 and will be wheat pasted through out Ecatpec by the Komal Collective (great new allies) a national collective of street artists who engage in political art interventions regularly. 

Early New Year's Day in the Fruitvale District of Oakland, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) police murdered unarmed, 22 -year old, Oscar Grant III by pushing him face down to the ground and shooting him in the back. After he was shot he was handcuffed.  The shooting was fatal.

Having come of age in Los Angeles during the uprisings that followed the Rodney King verdict- this incidence of violence  enacted by the State rings eerily familiar.

For me this is a crystal clear example of how racism is alive and well in the United States. People would like to think that because Barack Obama has been elected president that some how we, as a nation, are "post-race". What really irritates me about this line of thinking it the conflation of race and racism. One is a category another is an active force that impacts real people's lives.

The fact that racism probably had a huge role in Oscar Grant's death chills my bones.
The practices of the police continue to demonstrate this: the way they are trained, the way stereotypes and profiling are reinforced institutionally and how little-to-no accountability the police have with communities of color. These communities  are instead terrorized by the police.

Jesus Barraza and I (Melanie Cervantes) collaboratively developed this poster and drew a connection between the violence enacted domestically by transit police in Oakland and Israeli occupying forces (and their attacks which have kiiled hundreds of  Gazans including many women and children.)

We created hundres of 1-color posters that we gave out at the protests and community actions as picket signs and gifts to Oscar Grant's family. We also helped tell Oscar Grant's story to people all over the world by using social networking venues like Facebook and Myspace to circulate the digital image.

Oscar Grant is only one of many stolen lives in Oakland. Once we created the poster about OScar Grant, the family of a young Native man who was killed by Oakland police felt compelled to connect the deaths and have a visual that memorialized their son, Andrew Moppin. 

We were invited to print posters, live, at the community forum the Oakland Intertribal Frienship House held in response to the continued police brutality as made light by the recent shooting of Oscar Grant.

 We printed dozens of posters and gave them to all the community members at the forum includings Andrew's family and his niece who was just a baby in the poster.

Melanie Cervantes and Jesus Barraza (Los Barraza Cervantes)
Digital Image, 2009

On January 23rd, Annette Garcia, a mother of three, was shot to death by Riverside Sheriffs after they received calls that she was suicidal and under duress due to a marriage dispute. Reports by the family and witnesses state that she "posed no harm to the officers involved, yet she was shot at six times until a bullet hit her in the back as she tried to run for cover." It took over an hour to get medical attention and Annette Garcia died in the arms of her children.

This is the third in a series of graphics to remember those lives stolen by police brutality.  

"We strongly believe that our future is in the hands of the young folks."-Mutulu Shakur

This print was created when Jesus and I worked with Oakland's Spanish Speaking Citizen's Foundation with several Raza youth ages 12 to 17 to conduct five workshops on how to develop political posters. The weeklong series of workshops acted as an alternative Spring Break . During this period the students met and worked with us, Xican@ community artists, to learn about the history of political posters as developed within the context of social justice movements, learned the steps in developing a poster and created posters of their own that reflect their values and interests.

We had a vary focused group that was determined to finish their posters and put as much thought and time into them as possible. The youth also designed individual posters on topics that they felt passionate about.The poster topics ranged from calls for universal health care, demands to stop ICE raids, a declaration of Indigenaity and a call to end racism.  

All of the students that were in a class worked as one in order design this poster the the May 1st Migrant Mobilizations. 

"Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA) is a grassroots organization of Latina immigrant women with a dual mission of personal transformation and community power.  Creating an environment of understanding and confidentiality, MUA empowers and educates our members through mutual support and training to be leaders in their own lives and in the community.  Working with diverse allies, MUA promotes unity and civic-political participation to achieve social justice."

We were honored to create this poster for the National Domestic Worker Congress by Mujeres Unidas y Activas, they were founding members of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. Their work here in the Bay area is very inspiring, It is a great to see women standing together to create better working conditions in their community. More inspiring is that people are standing together to make this organzing happen at a national level to create a Domestic Worker Bill of rights.

Domestic Workers Organize
Not into unions -- federal labor law prohibits domestic workers from forming unions -- but into the National Alliance of Domestic Workers. And the first thing they want is a "Domestic Worker Bill of Rights." (Washington Post)

The members of the Excluded Worker Congress are national networks of organizations that represent a base of workers that are either by law or by practice excluded from the right to organize in the United States.  They are also regional networks and individual organizations in industries where there is no national network.  Every network represents a different industry, sector, or kind of work. They recognize that not every sector is nationally represented and   strive to increase representation in those sectors.

We created a poster that is a composite of portraits that were created for a local affiliate of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and the National Domestic Workers Alliance (both of which were formed at the US Social Forum in Atlanta in 2007.)

The work of the Congress continues. You can read more about it here.

Melanie Cervantes and Jesus Barraza (Los Barraza Cervantes)
20" x 26"
6-Color, Handprinted, screenprint Print, Archival Covetry Rag Paper, Printed in San Leandro, CA  2007

A collaborative print designed by Melanie and Jesus, this poster was created to celebrate the Zapatista Women and the EZLN Women’s Revolutionary Laws. Half of the edition was donated to
Collective Zapatista Ramona to support fundraising.

This is a print we were commissioned to create for the opening of a youth center in Richmond. RYSE.

RYSE emerged out of the needs articulated by local youth organizers after the tragic killing of four high school students in December 2000. The deaths galvanized youth and adult allies to address the root causes of violence in and around their communities. In 2002, Youth Together, a community based leadership development and educational justice organization organized a “Youth Speak Out Against Violence” forum to acknowledge the experiences and insights of young people in the community.  Youth voiced their views on the causes of, and potential solutions to, the violence experienced and acted out by youth. Young people pointed to problems including inadequate educational resources and insufficient employment opportunities.  Most frequently, however, local youth articulated a lack of “things to do” as a root cause of youth violence.

In the following months, Youth Together conducted a community-wide survey to gather information about resources needed in the community. Of the 1,500 surveys that were completed across West County, 100% of youth surveyed indicated a need for positive youth activities, after school programming and supportive and safe places “to hang  out.” Young people expressed the need for programming in the afternoon and evening that was culturally relevant and that included art, cultural and social activities as well as resources and support for current and future education and jobs.

In late 2005, almost three years after the survey was published and after dozens of presentations to public officials and agencies on the identified need for such space, Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia identified a 6,600 square foot vacant county building in Richmond near a major bus line and County Health Center. In partnership with City, County, School District, community, and youth partners, Supervisor Gioia and Youth Together spearheaded a three-year effort to plan and secure resources for the building’s conversion into a comprehensive youth center.

As a core operating principle, RYSE is committed to maintaining safety for the full diversity of youth we serve so they are able to take healthy risks emotionally, politically, and physically. We hold youth and adults accountable for upholding each other’s safety while participating in Youth Center services and activities.  We also encourage our community members to keep our communities safe for our participants.  We understand that safety needs change, evolve and will look different for different youth populations. We will continue to assess, plan and ally with youth to develop a safety plan address these various needs.

Fore more info click here