Santa Barraza
Santa Barraza, a native of Kingsville, Texas, is a contemporary Chicana/Tejana artist. Barraza paints bold representations of Nepantla, a mythic “Land Between.” The term was used by Nahuatl-speaking people of Mexico to describe their situation vis-à-vis the Spanish colonizers. Her work depicts the historical, emotional, and spiritual “land between” Mexico and Texas, between the real and the celestial, and between present reality and the mythic world of the ancient Aztecs and Mayas. Barraza’s art shows how Mexican artistic traditions have the power to nurture and sustain cultural identities on the U.S. side of the border.
