mexican-americans

"I want to use my voice to remind us that we are all part of the same human family"

"This is our time. There is no better time"

"First, address and connect with the audience, then tell a personal story about yourself, deliver your message with one to three points you want to make, then close it with something inspirational"

"If you’re Jorge, you pretend to be George, and you leave yourself at home, and you come with someone you don’t know"

"Hispanics have never been stronger. However, we’ve also never faced so many political pressures. This community needs to be united and it needs to unite now"

"The work that I’m doing is very much inviting companies, decisionmakers, and Latinos everywhere to take action,” she says, “so that we can be seen as what we are: positive contributors to the country"

"Every morning, as I enter the day, I like to outline the three goals I want to achieve"

"Every time I went to a restaurant and there was a waiter who was clearly Latino, and I spoke to him in Spanish, he would try to deny his identity, to suppress it"

"And then I started learning that, in America, they invented a word that means that 26 different countries all of a sudden are one group, and that I was going to belong to that group, and that that group was not terribly well perceived"

"I work out with my husband six times a week"

"Being able to speak up for the issues that matter is a privilege"

"For a group that is so powerful to think of themselves as so weak, for a group that is so big to be seen so small? It’s a big thing"

"Regardless of where I am or what I’m doing, I always have a daily call with my kids"

"At the World Economic Forum in Davos, we saw the president of Microsoft wearing his"

"We produce these bags and give them to the speakers at our summit with the message: ‘Behind every mask, there’s a human"

"Exercise is the anchor of my life. It keeps me focused and centered, which is particularly important when you lead a life that’s constantly on the move"

"I don’t do any of the writing, but I’ve had a really great friend Mitch Watson, who helped shaped that version of Daphne and allowed us to explore her more. The writers also allowed me to lean more into my “stand up routine” with Daphne in “Be Cool, Scooby-Doo”."

"It was fun kind of getting off the hamster wheel a little bit, I was able to write a bunch of songs, I started this kids' band called The Roughhousers and I wrote like 11 songs and we just put that out and it's fun. It's really good rock and roll music for kids and it's for adults too, because I just hate kids music. I would put kid music on and go, "Ugh, let's just put on Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton." I never played kid music for my kid, but this stuff is actually really good and we have the drummer from X and we have my ex-husband Murry Hammond was in the Old 97's playing bass and we have just an all-star super group of people doing the music and it's kind of taking off."

"Everything in my life is an art project...to me it is all art."

"I was working on a graphic novel when Donald Trump was elected president. My heart sunk. I could not believe that the man who had accused Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists had been elected to lead the United States. I felt unable to work, and that my stories made no sense anymore. I also felt afraid of what would come next for immigrant families like mine, like those of my friends and like those that my books had been written for and about."

"Animals and the natural world play a huge role in my artwork as I’ve learned so much from them."

"Any story that can weave more than one language into a story is based in real life, because we, la gente, when we communicate, we always use many different ways of saying things. My book not only uses words, and images, but they also communicate stories with colors, forms, embroidery, and even silence. I love telling stories where English and Espanol work together to enrich the narratives, and I love it when children can play with all the languages that are part of their lives."

"(What advice would you give to young writers?) We all have our very own ways to tell stories, and you will find yours. Honor your heart and your instincts; let your story come out first, and then revise it to make it sing! More than anything else, do what gives you joy."

"(about Frida Kahlo) I had just come to the United States, a place where I didn’t know how I felt about my identity as a Mexican woman, and it was her pride that had an impact on me and made me realize that I had things to be proud of too."

"when I am in my studio, I constantly remind myself that steady work will give me the results I want."

"I didn't have children's books when I was growing up in Mexico, but my relative's fantastic stories of little people called chaneques, and the stories of hearing la Llorona at night, filled my imagination with a world that was both unbelievable and fascinating."

"Libraries are a world where you can be safe and comfortable finding in books the things that you like the most, or things that you are curious about, or you can learn something you didn't know before. That already seems to me a path for a more beautiful world."

"My books are a combination of my culture growing up, but also my entering a new culture as an immigrant and having to learn—to re-learn—everything so that I’d actually be able to survive in a new country."

"Like many, I admire the multiple talents of Yuyi Morales—author, illustrator, videographer, moving speaker. I also admire Yuyi’s creative spirit."

"I remember loving Chato’s Kitchen by Gary Soto and Susan Guevara; I couldn’t believe that there was a book in the library about people from el barrio (actually cats, mice, and dogs), dressed, speaking, cooking, and having a family life that resembled mine. These books—and countless others—are the reason why I started making my own books (handmade at first, to emulate the books I loved)"

"(What branch of art is the closest to Your heart?) Painting. Even though I’ve tried my hand at drawing and ceramic sculpture in different moments, the vast majority of my works are oil paintings."

"The arts are a wonderful medicine for the soul."

"When I later came to the U.S., I was a foreigner. And I wasn’t part of Mexico, either. I didn’t feel like I fit in anywhere."

"(What is Your inspiration?) My inspiration comes from many sources. Clearly, Mother Nature has always occupied an important position in this regard, which is tied up to my early experiences in Mexico. In addition, the patterns used in Mexican arts and crafts—ceramics, textiles, tiles, masks, etc.—also have been present in the development of my mental and artistic imaginary from the very beginning. Other elements that I can mention are indigenous myths and legends, the expressions of other artists from various cultures, iconic historical figures, and the works of poets and other writers, some of whom are my friends. Obviously, my surroundings are also a big source of inspiration, as my series of paintings on the Pacific Northwest clearly show."

"We were poor, but we were happy. We didn’t have much, but we were painting."

"For me my works are like my children, and I love them all equally...I love all colors and every one of my paintings has something I like. It is like my children, each one of them has something I like, and although they all are wonderful and different gifts, I love them equally."

"When I was a kid, I watched Tarzan movies. At that time the movies were black and white, and I wanted to put color in them. That was a big stimulus for me, and it made my imagination work."

"I love diversity in Nature. I appreciate the difference in colors on people, animals, and flowers. My walks in Nature stimulate my mind, and make it easier for me to get ideas for my paintings. My imagination helps me to discover hidden images in nature, and I include them on my canvases. Those little ghosts frequently get enhanced as I paint, and they appear and disappear on my paintings."

"(Any advice for young artists beginning their professional life?) Work hard, find your own voice, and persevere."

"Art has always been in my life…As a young student in Mexico, I had no favorite artists. I was mostly impressed by the folk art in the Mexican markets. My grandma used to take me to the markets where I was fascinated by the native crafts. The designs and patterns on blankets, baskets, pottery, jewelry, and toys were my inspiration. Later on, I learned about the Mexican muralists that painted beautiful images on the walls of public buildings. Diego Rivera, Orozco, Tamayo, and others. Being born in Mexico has made my life richer, I feel fortunate to be able to speak the beautiful Spanish language, and I feel I came to the USA with a wonderful culture."

"(What Art means to You?) Art is life. it is a vessel that allows me to express my perception of the world, my sense of beauty and my social concerns–which, I believe, are shared by many other persons around the world."

"I grew up thinking I didn't matter, that no one cared what I had to say. The world didn't see me, a daughter of working-class Mexican immigrants, and what it did see, it considered disposable, inconsequential. I rarely found portrayals of anyone like me-bookish and poor and surly and Brown-in the art that I enjoyed. I searched everywhere for a model for the life I wanted, but found few. I wanted to be a writer and travel around the world, but I had no idea how I was going to make that happen. I saw only snippets of that kind of life here and there. Texts like the poetry of Sandra Cisneros were a lifeline. Here was a Mexican girl from Chicago who'd become a writer and traveled alone through Europe. But texts like hers were rare finds for me, because, it seemed, I was the only one in my immediate vicinity looking for them. My teachers didn't often teach books by people of color, and I didn't have mentors or access to the internet, which was rudimentary at that time. The libraries in my community were so limited and hostile toward children that I began stealing books from the bookstore. Today, of course, I know that there were other books out there at the time that spoke to who I was, but they didn't make it into my hands very often. So when no template existed, I did what Lucille Clifton wrote about in her poem "won't you celebrate with me" and made it up."

"I consider Toni Morrison the patron saint of my writing. To write with her level of honesty and clarity is my North Star. Virginia Woolf is referenced in this book again and again, both for her work and for her tragic life, which, I suppose, are one and the same. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz became a model for my rebellion. And the list goes on and on. None of my books could have been written without these extraordinary authors. I'm indebted to all the women who came before, those who paved the way as well as those whose talents were extinguished, buried, or sublimated because the world was afraid of their strength. It's thanks to their rebellions, big and small, that I get to lead this extraordinary life-that is, a life completely of my choosing. I am myself in a world that pressures me to be otherwise, a world that doesn't love me, wasn't for me."

"Women of color are regularly praised for our resilience, but what's too often overlooked is that our resilience is a response to so many forms of violence. For us, resilience is more than a noble trait; it's a lifestyle that oppression has demanded of us. Either we adapt or we die. Even so, we need not be mere caricatures. Our stories matter, despite what the rest of society would like us to believe."

"Erika’s writing grabs a hold and won’t let go. She’s equal parts pee-your-pants hilarity and break your heart poignancy"

"A rare one with phosphorescent night-powers & deep-fire mind tools, Erika L. Sánchez"

"I think, for the most part, borders are bullshit. I have trouble accepting the notion that governments have the right to tell people where they can and can’t go. I’m always suspicious of binaries, whether physical or metaphorical."

"(Do you have any advice for aspiring writers of color?) Build community. You won’t get very far without it. You have to support other writers. Read and promote as much as you can. Also, you have to come to terms with rejection. Not everyone is going to love your work, and that’s ok. You just have to keep going. No matter how accomplished you may be, you probably won’t escape it. Write because you love it, not for fame or recognition."

"Kids really do see through our bull and have shorter attention spans."

"Erika L. Sánchez writes with persistent care. . . . Reading Sánchez's poems is like watching the world from a train, the exquisite rhythmic blend of the known and the unknown. The world remains always more than we can understand, yet suddenly, thanks to her great poetry, we are pierced by what we know."