A Cal State Fullerton alum and two fellow Orange County artists will participate in the March 18 “We’ve Been Here” panel. The panel will be moderated by Manuel G. Galaviz-Ceballos, a sociocultural anthropologist and CSUF assistant professor of anthropology, in collaboration with Sarah Rafael Garcia, visiting professor of creative writing for the Latinx Lab. The event will take place in the Pollak Library, Room 130, from 1-2:15 p.m.
“We’ve Been Here” is a claim immigrants and “foreigners” use to affirm belonging. Throughout history, media headlines and government actions have dictated how society perceives and treats people. Visual culture and language significantly influence how individuals vote in political elections and shape the national perspective.
In this panel, three Orange County-based artists express their acts of resistance through art, sharing their diverse perspectives on labor, gender, borderland narratives and climate change within an urban landscape. This presentation will also include themes and counternarratives presented by Crear Studio, a gallery and digital lab in Santa Ana that fosters community through interdisciplinary art and social justice by emphasizing Black, Indigenous and people of color in Orange County. Through the direction of Garcia, Crear Studio serves as a free, interdisciplinary art and mentorship studio that provides a multifaceted learning environment bolstered by established resources, and facilitates access to contemporary art education, solo exhibitions, critical digital humanities practices and professional opportunities in the field for residents in Orange County. As a visiting scholar at the Latinx Lab, Garcia will present and curate a digital gallery experience for each featured artist to complement the dynamic conversation.
Galaviz-Ceballos’ experience as a construction worker and undocumented youth motivates his ethnographic praxis and research. Currently, he is developing an ethnographic research project that examines gentrification and alienation through the lens of construction labor. He serves on the #LibroMobile Arts Cooperative board. Galaviz-Ceballos is also the host and editor of the LM Voices Scholar Holler Podcast, a series focused on first-generation graduate student and faculty experiences.
García is an award-winning Chicana author and multimedia literary arts advocate in Santa Ana. Her book, “SanTana’s Fairy Tales,” is part of an oral history multimedia exhibition awarded by the Andy Warhol Foundation and an ethnic studies text in Santa Ana Unified School District. García’s work began as a 2020 USLDH-Mellon Grant recipient with the University of Houston U.S. Latino Digital Humanities Center and includes “Mapping Santa Ana, Modesta Avila” archives and “Ethnofiction Through Contemporary Narratives” in classrooms. García is also the founder of LibroMobile Arts Cooperative.