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Change + Resourcefulness + Imperfection
chicana Rasquache Films
Chicana Rasquache is the experimental documentary film project led by South Tejas visual artists Pris Vasquez and Javi Mateos-Campos. This project explores the possibilities of community-engaged academic work with the visual arts. Rasquache refers to a specific Chicano approach that embraces resourcefulness and imperfection in a powerful artistic style.
¡Que Amanezca! Chusaqrib’al
The Dialogues of Knowledge Chapter 1: Self-Identification
The Dialogues of Knowledge is an experimental documentary film that follows a research team led by Dr. B’eleje’ Kan and Dr. Mateos-Campos as they explore Maya dialectics through sacred talking circles. In this chapter, the team travelled to Guatemala to engage in dialogue with Maya activists, scholars, artists, and the community, discussing issues of language, identity, anti-colonial resistance, and self-identification. The film is an invitation to rethink what academic research may look like by incorporating the visual arts.
COMING SOON!
With the support of
chicanx a/r/tographic
A Presentation at the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) 2024
Walking plática
with Dr. Lilliana Saldaña
A walking plática with Dr. Lilliana Saldaña, Associate Professor of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality, at UTSA, examining food insecurity across college campuses and proposing food sovereignty in food pantries to offer sustainable, culturally-relevant, healthy food for students, staff, and faculty in need.
An introductory talk on the A/r/tographic method and archival work on el Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (M.E.Ch.A.) and identity development of student activists.
The dialogues of knowledge part 2: Sovereignty
In this chapter, the research team visited San Andres Sajcabajá to document the Chusaqrib’al Oxlapop Maya Council's efforts to protect sacred sites against transnational mining companies. The council protects an ancestral ceremonial center mentioned in the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Maya K’iche, as the place where the early ancestors witnessed the first dawn of humanity and spoke the initial words that created consciousness and material reality: ¡ Que Amanezca! !Chusaqrib’al!
Strike & Huelga
An Archival Visual Recollection of Student Activism
College campuses during the 1960s and 1970s experienced intense student activism, representing a generation that challenged the institutional order of poverty and scarcity imposed against minoritized communities. Through archival research, this film compiles scenes of activism from Black, Chicano, and Third World Liberation groups.
