Melanie Cervantes

Who is Melanie Cervantes?

Melanie Cervantes is a Xicana artist and activist based in the Bay Area.

She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2004 with a Bachelors Degree in Ethic Studies. Melanie currently works at the Akonadi Foundation which supports movement-building organizations working to end structural racism in the United States.

As an artist, Cervantes has exhibited at Galería de la Raza; Woman Made Gallery and National Museum of Mexican Art; Mexic-Arte and Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center; and Crewest. Her work is in public collections of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, the Latin American Collection of the Green Library at Stanford, and the Hispanic Research Center at the Arizona State University as well as various private collections throughout the U.S. She formed Dignidad Rebelde with printmaker Jesus Barraza, a collaborative graphic arts project that uses principles of Xicanisma and Zapatismo to translate stories of struggle and resistance into artwork that can be put back into the hands of the communities who inspire it.

Cervantes is a member of Justseeds Collective, Taller Tupac Amaru, and the Consejo Gráfico.