Directed by: Rodrigo Esteva and Mirah Kellc Moriarty 

Communications: Sebastian Esteva 

Community Partners: TBA

​

The Migrant Arts Project: Querida Carmelita, is a return to some of the crucial questions that we were asking in Tlaoli: People of the Corn (2016), about migration, cultural displacement, and amnesia while observing the potential of the stories (held within the body) as seeds to restore soul memory. In times of forced or voluntary migration, what happens to the old traditions and mythologies that unite people with the land? How can we, as immigrant artists and cultural centers, create a fertile ground for this wisdom to grow for future generations?

​

The Migrant Arts Project is a seed towards recovering ancestral memory to ignite new paradigms through the recovery and renewal of indigenous ways of being and relating to the land. During these moments of environmental and social crisis, it is essential to listen to the voices of those who have not been traditionally heard whose cultures hold knowledge that is vital for these times. It is on the edges, the places in between, where we gain greater clarity.  As part of this project, we will offer migrant families in border communities, including in San Antonio and San Diego, free art, movement and traditional healing practices, in response to their needs.

 

After 25 years of dedication as DANCE MONKS (1999-present), we are envisioning activating two connected sanctuaries for the arts, bridging Mexico and the US, focused on the Mexican diaspora/immigrants and indigenous communities. As a bi-cultural (Mexico/US) company working on both sides of the border, our work is embedded in ongoing creative practices of community-responsive listening and exchange, developing relationships over time.  In addition to activating spaces for gathering, dance/art making, and classes, we envision growing a milpa (a traditional Mexican food system), and a small library with books in Spanish and indigenous languages.

​

UPCOMING MIGRANT ARTS RESIDENCIES

     

2024

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER: Oaxaca, Mexico 

Artist Residency for the creation of Queztalcoatl y Mayahuel, a new interdisciplinary performance for children based on Mexican mythology, preparations for Querida Carmelita, and Workshops with curanderas of the Nuu Saavi (Mixteca), People of the Rain  and Ben 'Zaa (Zapoteca), People of the Clouds

     

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2024: San Antonio, TX  

Migrant Arts residency with local migrant families and public altar/performance installation on November 1

 

2025

     APRIL: San Francisco Bay Area, CA 

Migrant Arts residency with migrant farm workers, Public Talk on the Tonapohualli by Rodrigo Esteva

​

     MAY: San Diego, CA 

Migrant Arts residency with families

​

JUNE: Ireland 

Artist residency for the development of dance Film, Tuiscint na Talún, old Irish for the wisdom held in the land. Mirah

will travel to Ireland as the first in her family to return to her ancestral homeland and re-trace the route that her father's family likely took after being forced out of the country during the mass evictions known as the famine clearances.

​

Would you like to host a residency? Contact us!

​