Keep Moving Forward
“As long as you keep sharing pieces that are about you or about your culture, your identity, that will be the thing someone needed to see today.”
Welcome to the final A4D Newsletter of 2021. Your inbox is probably as full of end-of-year emails as ours, so we’ll keep this one brief.
ACTION ITEM
Get ready for 2022
What a year! We resoundingly thwarted an attempt by Republicans to undermine the will of the voters and recall the Governor of California. We vaccinated more than 332 million Americans and 4.3 billion people globally against COVID. We saw Deb Haaland become the first Native American cabinet secretary in US history.
We didn’t see nearly as progress as we need, though. While America rejoined the Paris Climate Accords, we’re falling short on meaningful action. Urgently needed voting rights legislation is still stalled in Congress.
Here’s the hard truth: We are gearing up for another fight for the soul of American democracy in 2022. The Republican Party has embraced The Big Lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and have passed 33 laws in 19 states that will make it harder for Americans to vote.
History has shown us that we can win, but only if we stand together for what we believe in.
As this year comes to a close, we have three action items to recommend to get ready for 2022:
Whatever this time of year means to you, enjoy it. Connect with family and friends safely. Get plenty of rest (let The Nap Ministry show you why and how). Read a good book or two, watch a few good movies, cook a good meal, get yourself outside and into nature when you can.
Recommit to the fight for democracy. If you’ve written postcards and letters in the past, line up your pens again. If you’ve phone banked or text banked, get those dialing digits ready. Up your game this year by organizing a group of friends to do your letter-writing and phone banking together, in person or virtually. We are going to need all of us this time.
If you’re doing end-of-year donations and have some money to spare, check out our friends at Walk the Walk. They’re an all-volunteer group that raises funds for local grassroots organizations run by people from historically disenfranchised communities of color. They’re doing great work, and all the money goes directly to community organizers in critical electoral districts.
We’re getting ready too. In 2022, Artists 4 Democracy will be organizing a series of fall Artist + Activist talks on college campuses (and on Zoom) in the run-up to the November general election. We’re also collaborating with several schools (sorry we can’t tell you exactly where yet!) on art exhibitions in support of democracy. This monthly newsletter will continue to profile artists for democracy and action items you can take to strengthen our democracy. And you can always keep up to date on our lively Instagram.
This next fight for democracy is bigger than the election, and it is as urgent as the one we fought and won in 2020. We need to pull together no matter our race or ethnicity, whether we’re rich or poor, live in a big city, suburb, or small rural town. When we see politicians trying to divide us by blaming different groups, we need to stand strong together. We have done this before and can do it again.
ANOTHER ARTIST FOR DEMOCRACY
Emilia Cruz
“If you have the capacity to help someone in need, that’s what I like to think of as democracy.”
If you haven’t seen work by Emilia Cruz at Plaza de la Raza or Self-Help Graphics or other Southern California galleries, you may have seen it featured in the Netflix show Gentefied, or her street mural in Selena the Series. She’s a first-generation Mexican American painter who focuses primarily on portraiture and figurative work that is usually autobiographical. “It comes from my experiences, my culture, my upbringing, my identity,” she says. “You have to let your emotions out somehow.”
Growing up in Simi Valley, Cruz says she learned that democracy was all about elections. People come together to express themselves through voting. But as she grew older, experiencing racism and hearing about friends’ experiences, she started to see a disconnect between voting and daily life. It began to erode her trust in the system.
Then the 2016 election came along. It wasn’t a surprise that Simi Valley, which is home to the Reagan Library, went for Trump 44% to Clinton’s 40%. What did surprise her was the community response. Her neighbors began to organize, hitting the streets in anti-Trump protests. “I had never seen that before here, ever,” she said. “I didn’t know there were so many people who wanted to make a change.” As a person of color living in a conservative community, it made her feel less alone.
(In the 2020 election, Simi Valley switched sides. Biden took 49% of the vote compared to Trump’s 48%.)
Cruz answers questions about democracy by talking about her community. “It’s important to be there for your friends and family, for their friends and family, or even for strangers. If you have the capacity to help someone in need, that’s what I like to think of as democracy. I hope that’s what democracy means.”
Cruz also talks about democratization of the art world. Many people she knows, especially immigrants and first-generation Americans, don’t feel welcome in museums and galleries. After the opening of her most recent show, a few friends told her it was the first time they’d ever been to a gallery. It makes Cruz happy to think she’s opened up a new world to them.
“The fact that I’m a woman of color, taking up space in the art world, that in itself hopefully helps play a part in changing the ecosystem.” She hopes this will inspire younger women of color to see that they can do it, and to feel they have the right to take up space too.
“My favorite compliment is when someone comes up and says, that looks like my prima or my daughter.” She wants to make work that her friends can enjoy, but also that her older relatives and family feel welcome to view.
Cruz thinks our democracy could be stronger if we had better candidates for public office, candidates that she can fully trust. She says it can be hard to feel motivated to vote for a candidate who’s better than the alternative but not her ideal.
At the same time, she also knows it’s important to show up and vote on behalf of the people who can’t vote.
She also knows that sometimes the only way to have your voice heard in the political system is to hit the streets, such as coming together to support communities like immigrants and Indigenous people. “I wish protests weren’t necessary, but they are.”
While some visual artists make work with specific political messages and design posters for rallies and demonstrations, Cruz expresses her values through her work, which she describes as “small revolutionary acts.” For example, her painting Am I Too Dark? was not intended to be political, but people responded strongly, sharing stories about their own experiences of colorism.
“That’s when I realized that as long as you keep sharing pieces that are about you or about your culture, your identity, that will be the thing someone needed to see today.”
Thanks for reading the Artists 4 Democracy Newsletter. Artists 4 Democracy promotes democratic and civic engagement by mobilizing artists to get involved in political action. Through voter registration drives, fundraisers, and events we seek to foster and protect our participatory democracy. Stay safe and see you again in 2022!