About Margaret ‘Quica’ Alarcón
Exhibition, Body Politic, 2016, Ave 50 Studio, Highland Park, CA. Photo by Maritza Alvarez.
I am a human being — an Africanx Xicanx living Amoxtli, still sifting through my diaspora. As far as I know, I carry Taíno-Otomí ancestry, rooted in both the African diaspora and the Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. I am a non-normative queer woman born and raised in East Los Angeles.
I am an artivist scholar, educator, and cultural worker. My formation happened in community — through MEChA at East Los Angeles College, through the East LA arts movement of the 1990s, and through nearly 30 years of practice at the intersection of art-making, cultural preservation, and social justice.
With degrees in Illustration & Studio Art, a Masters in Cross-Cultural Education, and an MFA in Fine Arts, my creative practice encompasses painting, drawing, printmaking (silkscreen & intaglio), and the ancient arts of amoxtli book-making and papel picado.
My work visually translates, documents, and reinterprets my ancestors' histories through a personal, contemporary lens — reconnecting everyday life to the sacred. I actively sift and rework within the roots of identity, spirituality, and memory, understanding the studio as both a site of research and a site of healing.
My work has been published in several books and journals, most recently on the covers of Mujeres de Maíz en Movimiento: Spiritual Artivism, Healing Justice, and Feminist Praxis (University of Arizona Press, 2024) and Voices from the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices (University of Arizona Press, 2020), where I discuss the power of healing from personal trauma through art-making.
I have exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the country, including the Oakland Museum of California and the Manetti Shrem Museum in Davis, CA. The Xicanx Futurity exhibition at Manetti Shrem in 2019 drew nearly 20,000 visitors during its run — the highest attendance in the museum's history — with over 2,000 people at the opening reception.
In 2015, I was one of five artists selected from a national pool to participate in an unprecedented one-week printmaking exchange at the Taller Experimental de Gráfica in Havana, Cuba — an opportunity made possible through MOLAA, in partnership with Self Help Graphics & Art and the Richardson Center for Global Engagement.
For over 20 years, I co-founded and developed Mujeres de Maíz (Women of Corn), a Los Angeles-based grassroots Xicanx feminist community arts organization. There I engaged in organizational development, publishing, and media projects with artists of all ages and backgrounds, mentoring generations of young and emerging artists.
As a credentialed visual arts teacher, I collaborated with Susanna Fattorini for nine years to build an Elementary Visual Arts Program serving five schools in the Culver City School District.
In 2025 I served as the Associate Director of Las Maestras Center for Xicana[x] Indigenous Thought, Art and Social Praxis at UC Santa Barbara — contributing to the documentation and advancement of Xicana Indigenous pedagogical frameworks during a formative period in the Center's history.
Curriculum Vitae/ Résumé
Education
M.F.A. Studio Arts
California State University, Los Angeles, California
Area of Research/Practice: Chicana/o Art History, Indigenous Cultures of the Americas, Eastern & Western art history, textiles, mixed media, sculpture, printmaking
M.Ed. Education
National University School of Education, La Jolla, California
Area of Research: cross-cultural, arts education and special education.
B.F.A. Illustration
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California
Illustration- 2D & 3D media, classical drawing & painting, mixed media, graphic design, and printmaking, children’s book design
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Calli: Art of Xicanx peoples
Kinetic papel picado Sculptures: Old School, Hermanas de Maíz, Recuerdos de Lodi
Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland California
Remembering Generations: 1990’s LA Chicana/o/x Music
Collaborative print with Quetzal Flores. Self Help Graphics Atalier Serigraph/Silkscreen Poster: Jarana Cósmica
BoatHouse Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2022
Let Me Talk,
Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, CA
2019
Xicanx Futurity,
Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art - Davis, CA
2018
Entre Tinta y Lucha: 45 years of Self Help Graphics & Art,
Cal State Los Angeles Fine Arts Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
WOMXN WARRIORS: Honoring The 50th Anniversary of The Walkouts & Intergenerational Organizing,
Self Help Graphics: Galeria Otra Vez, Los Angeles, CA.
2016
This Used to Be Mexico,
Avenue 50 Studio, Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA
Body Politic,
Avenue 50 Studio, Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA
International Printmaking Exchange: L.A. Havana. Preview Exhibition,
LA ART SHOW, Los Angeles, CA.
2015
Time: Present, Past, and Future.
National Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA) 40th Anniversary. Website Exhibition.
Mujeres de Maiz: Madre, Mother,
Avenue 50 Studio - Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA.
2014
Stairway to Heaven: Thoughts on the story of the Virgen de Guadalupe.
Avenue 50 Studio, Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA.
GLAMFA: Greater Los Angeles Graduate MFA Exhibition,
California State University, Long Beach, CA
Now Trending, 2014, Alpay Scholarship, Juried University Student Exhibition,
The Palos Verdes Art Center, CA
2012
From a Whisper to a Roar: Women Artists Charting Their Own Course.
WCA 40th Anniversary, Avenue 50 Studios - Highland Park, CA
2009
Mujeres de Maiz: La Sagrada (That Which is Sacred),
Farmlab Public Salon - Los Angeles, CA
2008
Mujeres de Maiz: Somos Medicina (We Are Medicine),
Self Help Graphics: Galeria Otra Vez, Los Angeles, CA.
2006
Reflections of 8 Natural Women,
Láfia House Gallery Brewery Arts Complex. Los Angeles, CA.
2000-03
Just Another Poster? Chicano Graphic Arts in California,
University of Texas, Austin & University of California, Santa Barbara. US National Art Tour:
Crocker Art Museum and La Raza/Galería Posada - Sacramento, CA.
Jersey City Museum - Jersey City, NJ.
Oakland Museum of California - Oakland, CA.
Fowler Museum - University of California, Los Angeles.
University Art Museum - University of California, Santa Barbara.
The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art - University of Texas, Austin.
2002
Celebración del Dia de los Muertos, Snite Museum of Art,
Mestrovic Gallery, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
3 Generations of Chicana Art: 30 Years of Contemporary Chicano and American Art Traditions,
Rike Gallery, University of Dayton, Ohio
Exhibitions Curated
2009Mujeres de Maiz: La Sagrada (That Which is Sacred)
Farmlab Public Salon. Los Angeles, CA.
2008Mujeres de Maiz: Somos Medicina (We Are Medicine)
Self Help Graphics: Galeria Otra Vez. Los Angeles, CA.
Books, Bibliography and Press
2024
Mujeres de Maíz en Movimiento: Spiritual Artivism, Healing Justice, and Feminist Praxis: The University of Arizona Press, by Amber Rose Gonzåalez, Felicia ‘Fe’ Montes, and Nadia Zepeda, cover art, pgs.73-74, 180, 206, 209, 332n4, plate 2 & 3, fig 22.6, pgs. 247-249
2020
Voices From the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing: The University of Arizona Press, by Lara. Medina & Martha R. Gonzales, pgs. 74, 85-87, 167n, Plate 6.
1998 to 2018
Mujeres de Maiz Flor Y Canto Zine Series: volumes 3-14, annual community arts & publication zine.
2017
Dia de Los Muertos: A Cultural Legacy, Past, Present & Future. Exhibition Catalog, Self Help Graphics & Art, Los Angeles, curated by Linda Vallejo, Betty Brown, Ph.D. pg. 17, 18.
Chicana/o Remix: Art and Errata since the Sixties, by Karen Mary Davalos. pg. 173.
2010
Corn Women of East LA: 13 Years of Art and Activism, by Olga García Echeverría. La Bloga, (Interview concerning community involvements).
2006
Womyn Image Makers: A Colectiva of Queer Indígena Visionaries, Spectator: USC Journal of Film and Television Criticism.by Sandra Alvarez and Susy Zepeda. Chicana Spectators and Media Makers: Imagining Trans Cultural Diversity. Ed. Osa Hidalgo de la Riva. Vol. 26. No. 1, pp. 127-134, (Illustrations).
2003
Borderlands: Critical Subjectivity in Recent Chicana Art Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies.Vol 24, Number 2 & 3, pp.104-121. by Judith L. Huacuja, University of Nebraska Press, (Art analysis & criticism).
2002
Day of the Dead, A Day for Remembering, by Joseph Dits, South Bend Tribune, South Bend, Indiana, (Art analysis and criticism).
A Spirit Reborn: Chicana Artist Finds Redemption and Renewal in Ofrenda, by Julie York Coppens. South bend, Indiana: South Bend Tribune. (Interview, art show observation and criticism).
2001
Just Another Poster? Chicano Graphic Arts in California, by Holly Barnet-Sanchez. University of California, Santa Barbara. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press pp. 142, 144, (Art analysis and criticism).
2000
El Imaginario Chicano: La iconografía civil y política chicana en Estados Unidos de América 1965-2000, by Katerina Brezinova. Karolinum Press, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, (Art analysis and criticism for Ph.D. Dissertation).