We kick off (un)making’s third season with an investigation into the theme of “movement,” with a conversation with artist and educator, Jesus Barraza. Through his many collaborations and community projects, particularly with his partner Melanie Cervantes and their work together under the banner Dignidad Rebelde, Jesus has helped to produce many of the political graphics and prints that continue to shape the visual identity for movements that are radical, feminist, and centered on people of color, in the San Francisco Bay Area and globally. Jesus roots this practice in struggles for social justice and in generations of creative knowledge, stories, and production. As he notes in the course of the interview, this work draws on a long and complex history of print, mural, and socially engaged practices within Indigenous and Xicanx communities—a constantly growing tradition that he now passes along to his students. We talk about Indigenous spiritualities, the community workshop as a cultural practice, and the ways Dignidad Rebelde’s political analysis has been shaped by Xicanisma and the Zapatistas.

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