Deshilado (des-ē-lah’-do), or Mexican openwork embroidery, is traditionally used on household items such as tablecloths, napkins, and linens. Openwork embroidery is the art of removing threads from a fabric to create a design over which embroidery is made. Patricia Zavala de Arias learned deshilado from her mother in her hometown…
The Chicano mural movement began in the 1960s in Mexican-American barrios throughout the Southwest. Artists began using the walls of city buildings, housing projects, schools, and churches to depict Mexican-American culture. Chicano muralism has been linked to pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas, who recorded their rituals and history on the…
The Table Bluff Reservation, home to the Wiyot Tribe and its Heritage Center, is situated in rural northern California on the bluffs of the Pacific Ocean at the southern end of Humboldt Bay. The history of the Wiyot people is often tragic as they were among…
Asociacion Mayab’s mission is to create the conditions that will allow for the optimal development of the Maya community living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Asociacion Mayab was founded in 2004 by a group of Maya immigrants concerned about the gradual loss of the language and values of their…
Cambodian Association of America (CAA) is committed to improving the quality of life in the Long Beach community by providing linguistically and culturally appropriate social, health, outreach education and employment services to low-income children and families. CAA, incorporated as a nonprofit in 1975, is the…
The Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California is a nonprofit organization serving the Muslim-American and greater Bay Area communities. ICCNC provides a dynamic space that cultivates an exchange of ideas about Islam through art, culture, and education. In existence since 1996, ICCNC provides religious services to Bay…
Laga, Indigenous weaving traditions from Kalinga
In 1999, around 20 people native of San Pablo Tijaltepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, arrived in Taft, California (a small community in the southeastern part of Kern County). As it happens in many other places, more people from the same community continued to settle in Taft. Now over a decade later, there…
Oaxacan arts and culture
Plaza de la Raza Cultural Center for the Arts & Education is the only multidisciplinary community arts venue dedicated to serving the Eastside neighborhoods of Los Angeles, including Boyle Heights. Founded in 1970 by prominent labor, business and civic leaders as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, it…
