Printing el Pueblo: A Recovery Impact Outcomes
Printing el Pueblo: A Recovery
Students in the Printing el Pueblo: A Recovery Lab partnered with co-faculty Anita Huizar-Hernandez, associate professor in the School of International Letters and Cultures and associate director of the Hispanic Research Center; JoAnna Reyes, assistant professor in the School of Art; and Cami Garland, assistant librarian in the Arts and Humanities Division of the ASU Library. Together, the student-faculty-librarian team worked to explore the role of printmaking, visual storytelling, and archival recovery in preserving and reimagining cultural memory across Chicanx and Latinx communities. Through creative practices grounded in both research and lived experience, students investigated themes such as resilience, erasure, belonging, and identity. They created original works—from video art and zines to narrative installations—that reflect intergenerational stories and challenge dominant historical narratives. Scroll below to learn more about the student experience and outcomes from the lab.
Student Outcomes
Your Guide to Chicana/ O/ X Art.
In the Printing el Pueblo: A Recovery of Latinx Artists lab, one team of students collaborated with faculty and library mentors to explore Chicanx and Latinx cultural memory through printmaking, visual storytelling, and archival research. Their work reimagined erased histories and highlighted resilience through multimedia projects—including zines, video art, and narrative installations—that center identity, activism, and community voices. The work culminated in a zine of their own titled: More than meets the "I" Exploring Identity in Chicana/o/x Art which is intended to serve as a guide to Chicana/o/x art.
Not So Still Life: Reclaiming Movement in Memory
In Not So Still Life, the student team deconstructs the traditional still life by introducing a film of motion, layered textures, paintings and an interview with Chicano artist Larry Yanez who is the featured artist throughout the film. Through a series of animated vignettes—featuring everyday objects that morph, dissolve, and reassemble—the video challenges the notion of culture as static, instead portraying identity and memory as ever-evolving. Drawing on Yanez's archival prints and personal mementos, the work evokes intergenerational narratives within Chicanx and Latinx communities, inviting viewers to witness resilience unfolding frame by frame. The film explores experimental storytelling, transforming silence into a dynamic celebration of belonging. Learn more here.
Símbolos: Historia y Cultura Visibles
This bilingual zine explores the cultural significance of Chicanx and Latinx symbols—ranging from La Virgen de Guadalupe and La Llorona to Lotería and the Sacred Heart—through a blend of historical research, personal reflection, and visual analysis. Students examined how these icons shape identity, preserve memory, and resist erasure. By combining narrative text, featured artworks, and cultural commentary, the zine honors the tradition of Chicano printmaking as a tool for visibility, resistance, and reclamation. This collective work exemplifies how zines serve as accessible, powerful mediums for community storytelling and cultural recovery. For more information, click here.
Culminating Student-led Community Workshops and Events
Student teams from the Printing el Pueblo: A Recovery Lab partnered with the ASU Art Museum and local arts organization Xico to bring their humanities research beyond the classroom through a series of public workshops. Drawing on a semester of interdisciplinary research, the students designed creative experiences that invited community members to engage with Chicanx and Latinx histories through poetry, collage, printmaking, and storytelling. These collaborations demonstrated how humanities-based research can preserve cultural memory, foster dialogue, and strengthen connections between the university and the broader community.
One of the student-led teams (May 2nd) presented work at Phoenix's First Fridays event, where they connected with the broader local-Phoenix community through interactive conversations, artistic expression, and hands-on engagement with a print-maker from local group called Xico, which is a Latino and Indigenous Art Organization working to preserve culture. This event aimed to foster meaningful dialogue, collective reflection, and cultural connection while demonstrating how humanities-based research can strengthen communities and preserve shared histories.
The images below capture students leading an Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop and a Collage Making Workshop at the ASU Art Museum. Through collaborative art-making, storytelling, artistic analysis and reclection of the Chicano/a/x Prints and Graphics: Selections from the Hispanic Research Center's Collection (from 1980–2010), participants explored themes of identity, resilience, belonging, and cultural preservation while engaging in hands-on creative experiences that welcomed dialogue and cultural connection.
Collaborative Partners
- Martin Moreno
Larry Yáñez
Note: The views presented or expressed on this page are those of the speaker or author only and do not necessarily represent the views of Arizona State University.