The Taller Tupac Amaru is a collective art studio founded in 2003 by Xicana artists, Jesus Barraza and myself, Favianna Rodriguez. The mission of the Taller Tupac Amaru is to produce political posters and art prints in order to revive the medium of screen printing. The two of us were trained by printmaking masters in California, including Jose Alpuche from Self Help Graphics (Los Angeles) and Juan Fuentes from the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (San Francisco).
In 1998, I was an intern for the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles. It was here where I was inspired to become a political poster artist. While working at Mission Grafica, in San Francisco, from 2001-2002 Jesus was mentored by Juan R. Fuentes, Calixto Robles and Michael Roman who taught him about the many applications of screen printing. In 2007, Melanie Cervantes joined the studio after learning how to screen print at Laney Community College in Oakland.
The three of us just did a super cool interview while we were at the US Social Forum.
Listen to our interview by clicking hereJesus and Melanie work together as Dignidad Rebelde, a graphic arts collaboration that follows principles of Xicanisma and Zapatismo, to create work that translates people’s stories of resistance and resilience into art that can be put back into the hands of the communities who inspire it. They believe representing these movements through visual art means connecting struggles through images that inspire solidarity among communities of struggle worldwide. Click here to see more of their work.
You can see more of my work by clicking here.
In this spirit of collaboration among artists, all three artists are also members of the Justseeds Artists' Cooperative, and the Consejo Gráfico.
Photo above: Jesus printing posters in Oakland, CA
Photo above: Melanie on left, Favianna on right. Winner of a print in middle. This pic was taken at our annual Open Studio.
