Exploring Nepantla at the Matamoros-Brownsville Border Through Art

Printmaking is an art form heavily linked with activism and protest art. Movements like the Chicano Movement from the 60s used variations of printmaking such as screen print and relief to mass produce propaganda and art. Nowadays, printmaking is still a common practice among some artivists (a play on the words artist and activist) to showcase and react to issues like the border, migration, climate and more. The Chicano Movement had a huge influence on political art and literature through Mexican American queer scholar, Chicana theorist, and activist Gloria Anzaldúa. Anzaldua used her heritage and knowledge, being from Edinburg, Texas, to theorize about an Indigenous Mexican and Mexican-American's place in the United States and Mexico. Nepantla is a Nahuatl word meaning existing in-between worlds, a term first coined by Anzaldúa in her book Borderlands/La Frontera. Anzaldúa refers to the borderlands as a space where the division is blurred, it’s neither the U.S. nor Mexico.

In this artist talk, Matamoros based artist and graphic designer, Michel Flores Tavizón (she/her) explains her artistic process as she uses printmaking to portray a reflection of self-identity, culture, "nepantla", her process of Americanization and sense of belonging. Flores Tavizón received her BFA in Art with a concentration in Graphic Design from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in 2021 and is currently pursuing an MFA in Design.