@arte_duran_charicata | Indigenously DACAmented? | 28.5 X 23 inches | Acrylic on Canvas |
Duran Charicata was born in Cheran, Michoacan, Mexico and is an artist and educator. She was primarily raised in the Southern Illinois area where her family decided to settle because of the welcoming community and supportive resources for migrant workers/families.
Her work is inspired by her migrant upbringing: stories of strong indigenous people that worked in the fields, el campo. These works capture the power and beauty of being indigenous and the natural forms of migration through cultural symbolism. Symbols such as the Monarch butterfly, humming bird and native plants, both of Mexico and the United States. Visual narratives of migration being a natural way of human and natural life.
5 Questions
My family is originally from Cheran, Michoacán, Mexico, home of the Monarch butterflies & Purepecha Peoples. We migrated to the U.S. in 1994 to access temporary work to eventually have financial stability in Cheran. My parents’ dream was never to stay but to build our home in Mexico and go back.
The temporary/seasonal work my family and I worked in as a child and young adulthood was migrant farm work. This type of work consisted of constant travel from one area to another, based on the seasons of the crops. During the winter months, we would move to states that had poultry and dairy farms. Even though life as a migrant worker was challenging, work was low pay, jobs took place in harsh weather conditions and our temporary homes were shared and unsafe, we had our migrant community. Migrant families traveled together to new states, adults would work in the same jobs, the children would go to the same schools and we would all either live in the same home or block. In that regard we were never alone and we had a strong family dynamic.
Now, our families have settled, most in the same region, still holding that bond and the children have flourished. Most of us being the first generation to graduate high school and/or attend higher education. As an artist, I now paint these stories of these beautiful and strong indigenous people that faced cruel realities and still prospered.
My home has always traveled with the people I love and as an adult, I finally found a place/location I can now call home, where I feel stable, safe and hopeful. Our Purepecha traditions have always stayed with us, regardless of where we lived because of our grandparents and parents. They celebrated our traditions, cleansed our new homes, made garments and braided our hair, they made sure we always maintained our identity, roots.
My present life is learning how to balance the blessings and teachings of my upbringing within the western world. How to celebrate my indigenous
identity in the professional world, a world not created for people like us to succeed. I reconcile these competing feelings by sharing my experiences and perspectives of my upbringing though my art and share these perspectives in spaces where we weren’t meant to thrive. Quietly, elegantly and openly, I let my art and work speak for me.
My hope is to be able to travel freely as nature intended, as the monarch butterflies do. From one home to another, one country to another and to one family to another. At the moment, I continue to live a dream I never thought I could reach; teach children like myself, practice what I love and visually share it, as I continue to build my little home in Chicago.
Los Últimos Tesoros | 36.5 X 24.5 inches | Acrylic on Canvas |
Butterfly Effect: Bridging Borders Exhibiting Artists
Aileen Nicole Castro • Akira – Light that Heals • Alejandra Lemus • Alex Covarrubias – Red Cave • Anna Silvonchik • Arte Duran • Bane.xxa • Christian Joshua Varela Solis • Cindy Uriostegui – Cattco • Cristina Marquez • Elena Diadenko • Elena Pach • EMNI • Gabriel Guzman • Grecia Solorio • Idil Duman • Isaac Galvan • Janis Appleton* • Javier Viñuela*• Kaltra • Kybo • Mariana Perez • Mary Antar • Pamela Rubi Trejo Soria • Peauxline • raqui • Riesling Dong • Rocio “Chio” Cabrera-Coz • Sailee Charlu • Shalala Salamzadeh • Sharvani Rathna Chittem* • Stef Skills • Victoria Park • *Group collaboration