Impressions of a Brown Girl  

As a daughter of Mexican migrant workers, Villarreal had a particularly difficult experience as a child. She was raised in a strict, Spanish-speaking, patriarchal household that conflicted with the outside assimilation of the ‘American culture’. “I was looked down upon if I spoke Spanish at school, my friends and relatives feared for their livelihood every time they walked outside because of their immigration status, and I was treated as a second class citizen cuz I was a brown girl.” The intention of this project is to initiate and facilitate conversation about immigration, sexism, and discrimination as they relate to her experience as a brown girl. Using traditional Mexican printmaking, Villarreal will create a series of posters focused on issues that affect Latinx people. She will march with these posters at protests and organized actions throughout the year.

We distributed the first posters for "Impressions of a Brown Girl" at the 3rd Annual Joe Campos Torres Solidarity Walk for Past and Future Generations where the first demonstration. This walk followed the trail of the events surrounding the murder of Joe Campos Torres by HPD officers in 1977. It brought the Houston community together to honor the pain of those who lost loved ones to police violence and to strengthen our solidarity and resistance. It was also the  41st anniversary of Joe Campos Torres passing.

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