Purépecha Artist & Visual Arts Educator 

Juana Duran Charicata is an undocumented/DACA artist, born in Cheran, Michoacan, Mexico and currently teaches art at Peace and Education Coalition Accelerated High School in Back of the Yards, Chicago. Her body of work ranges from collaborative murals with her students to large-scale sand and acrylic paintings. Since 1995, the year Ms. Duran Charicata immigrated to the US, she and her family picked fruits and vegetables for a living. While migrating two to three times per year from state to state alongside her migrant community, she maintained the spirit of her cultural and indigenous Purépecha traditions. Her work is inspired by her migrant upbringing: stories of strong  indigenous women that worked in the fields, el campo. These works capture the power and beauty of being indigenous, while living in a colonized world--a way of life not created for indigenous peoples. The artist captures her community’s richness in traditions, culture, color, laughter, life with nature, and story telling of antepasados (ancestors) in her paintings. Ms. Duran Charicata says, “Being a migrant child has helped me maintain the Purépecha spirit while being away from home.”

Artist, Community Activist/Muralist & Art Instructor

Mario Mena, a DACA (Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals) artist was born in Mezquitic, Mexico, migrated to Chicago at the age of 6 years from Huron, California. Since 1998, Mario has primarily grown up in the Southwest side of Chicago, Chicago Lawn and Gage Park. His work stems from an alternative underground subculture of musicians and visual artists of Chicago. Experiencing first hand the lack of resources and disinvestment in his community, has led his focus to community mural work and public installations, using his art as a means of therapy. He is an advocate for mental health, especially when breaking generational traits about men expressing their emotions. Mena has been painting for over 15 years, since the recent pandemic and social unrest in Chicago, he has used his art to bring public works to the community, primarily the southwest side of Chicago. He hopes to brighten underserved communities with his works of art focused on hope, to inspire the youth to create art not only as a method of expression but as a successful choice of career.