NP Spotlight: ROOTED IN CLAY w/ Verónica Castillo & Dr. Josie Méndez-Negrete

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Have Their Say

Internationally renowned ceramicist Veronica Castillo alongside Professor Emerita and Independent Publisher Dr. Josie Méndez-Negrete join us in spotlighting their co-authored book, "Rooted in Clay: El Arte de Verónica Castillo." Tony delves into the book written as a plática in which Castillo shares her life work, inspiration, politics, and history with Méndez-Negrete alongside images of her sculptures and experiences that led her to be one of the first artists requested to submit work for the newly launched Latino Heritage Museum for the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. Her artwork, primarily ceramics that focus on the “tree of life,” is deeply connected to her indigenous roots in Mexico as well the transformations in aesthetic expressions that have occurred as a result of her work with revolutionary indigenous groups and moving to San Antonio. *********** Verónica Castillo is an internationally acclaimed artist from Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla, México. At a very young age, under the tutelage of her parents, renowned artists Don Alfonso Castillo Orta and Doña Soledad Martha Hernández Báez, she was exposed to the artistic technique of working in polychromatic ceramics, a tradition passed on from generation to generation. Verónica continues to build upon these traditions while focusing on contemporary issues of injustice and inequality. Her exhibits have achieved national and international recognition, from the Smithsonian in Washington DC to the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago to the Museo Amparo in Puebla, Mexico. In 2013, Verónica Castillo received the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship Award. She is the owner of E.V.A. (Ecos y Voces de Arte), a gallery on the Southside of San Antonio. Together with an international network of artists, E.V.A. offers the space and support for various forms of cultural art to thrive. Josie Méndez-Negrete PhD, Professor Emerita in Mexican American Studies at the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies (BBL), University of Texas at San Antonio, received her PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Duke University Press published Las hijas de Juan: Daughters Betrayed as a revised edition in 2006 and reprinted it in 2010. In 2015, the University of New Mexico Press published her second book, A Life on Hold: Living with Schizophrenia. Along with publishing book chapter and articles on culture, identity, and education, from 2009 2014, Méndez-Negrete served as Lead Editor of Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of MALCS. She served as chair of the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) and of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS). In 2021, The University of Arizona, Tucson, published Activist Leaders of San José, California: En sus propias voces (2021). In March 2017, she established Conocimientos as an independent with the vision of publishing untold or hidden Raza stories. The press’s first publication—Women, Mujeres, Ixoq’: Revolutionary Visions—edited by Claudia D. Hernández received the 2019 International Latino Book Gold Medal Award. In 2023, Rooted in Clay: El arte de Verónica Castillo was published by Conocimientos Press.