Voces del Pueblo: Artists of the Levantamiento Chicano in New Mexico

Professor Ray Hernández-Durán completed his M.A. in the Art of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Ph.D. in Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Latin American Art at The University of Chicago. He is currently Professor of Spanish Colonial Art and Architecture in the Department of Art at UNM and is affiliated with Latin American Studies, Chicana/Chicano Studies, Africana Studies, and Museum Studies. Central to his research and teaching has been a critical exploration of historiography, colonialism, institutional histories and practices, and the political nature of knowledge production.

Since 2018, Hernandez-Duran, Ph.D., has been working with Irene Vasquez, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and also Director of the Southwest Hispanic Research Institute on a monumental project aimed at documenting the work of a group of first generation New Mexican Chicana and Chicano activists. The project is comprised of four elements: an exhibition, an exhibition catalog, a program of events, and an archive. The exhibit, which opens on Friday, April 25, 2025 at the National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum, features the work of six artists which includes three men and three women, who were students at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas when Chicano Studies scholar and artist, Pedro Rodríguez was hired as the inaugural Director of the Chicano Studies Program ca. 1971. Pedro, originally from Texas, is credited with igniting the civil rights activism that unfolded at the Highlands and that fed the growing Chicano movement throughout the state. The exhibition catalog, which includes five scholarly essays and full color reproductions of the artworks in the show, will be published in December 2025 by The University of New Mexico Press.

The exhibit will run from April 25, 2025 through February 8, 2026. Scheduled events, to be announced at the opening, will run from the summer into next fall. The archive, which will be a continuing project as new materials on the Chicano movement in New Mexico are identified and collected, will be housed at the Center for Southwest Research in Zimmerman Library.

The opening reception at the NHCC is free and open to the public, although registration is required. For more information, please contact Professor Ray Hernandez-Duran at rhernand@unm.edu.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
1) STUDY WITH PROFESSOR HERNÁNDEZ-DURÁN in the fall 2025, by registering for ARTH 455/555: Art of New Spain during the Hapsburg Period (1521–1700) and during spring 2026: ARTH 456/556: Art of New Spain during the Bourbon Period (1700–1821).
2) Learn more about Professor Ray Hernández-Durán by visiting his faculty profile https://art.unm.edu/profile/ray-hernandez-duran
3) Learn more about the project by visiting the National Hispanic Cultural Center’s website at https://nhccnm.org/event/reception-voces-del-pueblo-artists-of-the-levantamiento-chicano-in-new-mexico/