NHCC News:
ALBUQUERQUE — The National Hispanic Cultural Center is proud to announce a new art exhibition that explores the work of New Mexico’s first generation of Chicana and Chicano artists. Voces del Pueblo: Artists of the Levantamiento Chicano in New Mexico opens at the NHCC Visual Art Museum April 25.
“Voces del Pueblo explores an important moment in New Mexico history,” said National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) Visual Arts Program Manager Jadira Gurulé. “The artworks on display showcase the roots of the Chicano movement in New Mexico, situating our state within the broader cultural movement.”
This exhibition, seven years in the making, brings the work of six New Mexican artists who were among the earliest generation of Chicana and Chicano activists in the state to NHCC for the first time. All six artists – three men and 3 women – were students at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas in the early 1970s when Chicano scholar Pedro Rodríguez was hired as the inaugural Director of Chicano Studies at NMHU. At NMHU, these young men and women became politically activated and proceeded to paint murals, produce art, and organize in New Mexico as part of the nascent Chicano civil rights movement that was unfolding nationally.
Voces del Pueblo showcases a range of work by these artists – Ignacio Jaramillo, Juanita J. Lavadie, Francisco LeFebre, Noel Márquez, Roberta Márquez, and Adelita Medina – that characterized this pivotal moment in New Mexico’s art history. Drawing from a variety of traditions, the artworks on display capture a distinctly New Mexican Chicana and Chicano experience that has received little attention in Chicano art history. The exhibition is guest-curated by University of New Mexico professors: Dr. Ray Hernández-Durán, Professor of Spanish Colonial Art and Architecture in UNM’s Department of Art; and Dr. Irene Vásquez, Director of UNM’s Chicana and Chicano Studies Department.
The opening also corresponds with the re-opening of the NHCC Visual Arts Museum following a water-related closure. Join us from 5-7:30 p.m., April 25 for a free opening reception that celebrates this new exhibition along with the return of artworks from other exhibitions and the NHCC Permanent Collection to public display.
Voces del Pueblo will be on view through Feb. 8, 2026. Visit nhccnm.org/exhibitions to learn more and buy tickets.
About the National Hispanic Cultural Center
The National Hispanic Cultural Center is dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and advancement of Hispanic culture, arts, and humanities. The NHCC presents mission-related events throughout the year, some produced by its history, literary, performing, and visual arts programs, and others by partnering with external organizations. Events take place at its 20-plus-acre campus, which includes a plaza, an art museum, a historically designated building, a library, and a genealogy center. The NHCC is a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs and is further supported by the National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation.