The Bomb interview

We dive into a conversation with Eric about his artistic voice and the role of art in exposing what history tries to hide. García spoke about using satire and visual storytelling to confront collective amnesia, from U.S. imperialism to nuclear testing, and how drawing can become both an act of resistance and remembrance. His work reminds us that the stories we choose to illustrate, and those we leave blank, shape how we see the present.

Read the full interview: The Bomb

NALAC Announces the 2025 Catalyst for Change Fellows

 The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) announces the selected 2025 NALAC Fund for the Arts: Catalyst for Change (CFC) Fellows. The 2025 fellowship highlights five Latinx/é arts and culture leaders from across the U.S., including Puerto Rico, whose work is intended to catalyze community-based and artist-produced visions for creative solutions to social injustices.

“The Catalyst for Change Fellowship is a unique opportunity for community-based artists to deepen and expand the critical work they are already doing in their communities. We are thrilled to support this group of innovative and creative change makers,” shared NALAC CEO and President Mari Hernandez. “This program is rooted in NALAC’s commitment to social justice, aligning with our core values of advocacy, empowerment, and equality.”

The Catalyst for Change (CFC) Fellowship is a collaboration between NALAC and the Surdna Foundation and focuses on radical imagination as a key component of pursuing racial justice. The fellowship aims to uplift the work of Latinx/é culture workers who use community-informed artmaking to increase civic engagement and activism, creating systemic change through artistic interventions. Projects are guided by meaningful engagement with community members and designed to foster community relationships through the arts and culture.

The Catalyst for Change (CFC) fellowship program began in 2020 and expanded in 2023. To date, the program reflects an investment of approximately $1 million to support artists from diverse artistic disciplines whose projects aim to address systems of injustice within their own communities. Previous projects have addressed social justice issues, such as immigration, healthcare, incarceration, and education, through a variety of media, including visual art, performance art, and creative writing.

Meet the 2025 Catalyst for Change Fellows:

Eric J. Garcia

Sarita Hernández

Alan Pelaez Lopez

Mildred Beltre Martinez

Diógenes Ballester Rodríguez

Alien Encounters: Eric J. García’s “Space Invaders” by Dr Claudia Zapata

I was awarded the DeMilitarized Fund, last year. A grant sponsored by the Veteran Art Movement, to recognize veteran artists using their talents for social change. Along with this award is the opportunity for a writer of your choice to examine a body of your work. Dr Claudia Zapata, writer/curator specializing in Chican@ Art was generous enough to write an essay about my 2022 “Space Invaders” exhibition.

You can read the full article here at the Veteran Art Movement website.

Chamisa: Journal for Literacy, Performance, and the Visual Arts of the Southwest

Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of the Greater Southwest is sponsored by the Southwest Hispanic Research Institute* (SHRI) at the University of New Mexico. The arts of the southwest region are abundant, diverse, and often blur the boundaries between categories normally accepted as defining the structural hierarchies of the art world. As these forms change, they enrich and redefine the cultural landscape. The journal seeks to capture the dynamic ways that the creative arts in this region have developed and continue to advance over time and in relation to the diverse composition of its communities.

*Established in 1980, SHRI promotes multi-disciplinary research related to Latinx/Hispanic populations of New Mexico, the Southwest, and the United States, and offers an intellectual home for its faculty associates. It publishes a series of working papers and monographs, and supports and promotes public lectures and research seminars on Latinx issues. SHRI has over 60 UNM affiliated faculty members from the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Education, Architecture and Planning, Medicine/Health Sciences, Fine Arts, Law, and the Anderson School of Management. The Institute is a member of the Inter-University Program for Latinx Research, a national consortium of Latino studies programs throughout the country, and is supported by the UNM Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development. The Institute also acknowledges support from, both, public and private entities and foundations.

You can buy a copy here: Chamisa Volume 3

Or, if you can’t afford a copy you can download a free PDF: The Southwest Research Institute