In August 2020, a Pew Research Center poll discovered that just three percent of the Hispanic population in the United States identifies as Latinx. The director of race and ethnicity research Mark Lopez explained that their rejection of the word had nothing to do with its inclusive framework, but rather its limited means to describe the population as a whole. The outcome, he said, “reflects the diversity of the nation’s Hispanic population, and the Hispanic population of the U.S. thinks of itself in many different ways.”
This collection of works by Latinx artists, presented in time with Hispanic Heritage Month, is anything but a monolith: These artists hail from all over the Americas, stretching as far down to Argentina and as north as New York, and bring forth an array of cultural archetypes, histories, and experiences that are carefully deconstructing persistent colonial power structures and demanding liberation from their grasp. Many of these artists are self-taught, raised on freestyling and graffiti, and powered by the sense of community that permeates daily life. From painting and collage to sculpture and installation, these artists dive into relational and conceptual territories unique to their cultural milieus, churning out provocative works of art that tell their stories with authority.