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González, Xico Art Collection, Guide to
MC 125
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Sacramento Public Library
email: sacroom@saclibrary.org
phone: (916) 264-2795
Title: Guide to the Xico González Art Collection
Identifier/Call Number: MC 125
Physical Description:
2 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 2020-2022
Abstract: Collection is composed of five archival prints created by Sacramento-based artist and activist Xico González. The prints were
created for marches, actions, and demonstrations related to social justice from 2020 to 2022.
Language of Material: Some titles of the prints are in Spanish.
Xico González was born in 1975 in Los Angeles, California. He went on to be an educator, curator, interdisciplinary artist,
published poet, and political and cultural activista/organizer based in Sacramento, California. He received a Master of Arts
in Spanish from Sacramento State University, and a Master of Fine Arts in Art Studio from the University of California, Davis.
González has exhibited widely since the late 1990s and is known for his politically charged posters and his revoltoso poetry.
His work is archived at the Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento State University, San José State University, the Center
for the Study of Political Graphics, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, amongst other public and private collections.
He has also exhibited internationally in Argentina and China. González has taught Spanish and Art Studio at the Met Sacramento
High School wherein social justice, cultural awareness, and community engagement in and out of the classroom are part of his
praxis.
[Identification of item], Xico González Art Collection, MC 125, Sacramento Room, Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento, California.
Prints are arranged by size in a single, oversized acid-free folder and separated by acid-free buffer paper. Notable themes
relate to activism, racial discrimination, cultural awareness, women's rights, worker's rights, the United Farm Workers of
America (UFW), and the Covid-19 Pandemic. Each print is described in further detail as follows:
"Stop Asian Hate," 2021, Archival Print, 16" x 20"
This piece was used in an action that took place at Southside Park on Saturday, March 27, 2021, and was part of a national
day of protest to bring awareness to a recent wave of discrimination and violence towards the Asian community throughout the
nation. The poster features a portrait of local Vietnamese American organizer Đụ Má May, who is a member of the Sacramento
Community Self-Defense Collective. González made it a point to feature a local Asian activist to highlight their community
work and dedication to equity and social justice. NorCal Resist sponsored the printing of 150 posters that were given to protest
participants.
"Radio Xicanismo Papel Picado," 2020, Archival Print, 16" x 20"
This piece was created for "Souls of The City 2020," a Day of The Dead celebration by Sol Collective and the Sacramento History
Museum in Old Sacramento. During the Covid pandemic, Souls of the City became a social distancing scavenger hunt, where participants
had to locate artwork and altars throughout Old Sacramento. The poster was designed in the festive papel picado style and
features the creator's Radio Xicanismo logo which is an appropriation of one of José Guadalupe Posada's iconic pieces (González
switched the guitar in the original piece and added two 45rpm vinyl records). The creator is a vinyl record collector with
a collection of over 3000 LPs and 45rpms, so this poster pays homage to música norteña (music from northern México), and González
upbringing in the border city of San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora. Radio Xicanismo is an online radio station established by
Xico in 2013. Radio Xicanismo broadcasts online on Mixlr.com, and on the Sacramento airwaves on KUTZ 103.1FM.
"Puro corazón," 2022, Archival Print, 22" x 28"
This piece was created and used in the Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) and SEIU Local 1021 strike against Sacramento
City Unified School District (SCUSD). The strike took place from March 23 until the unions prevailed against SCUSD on April
3, 2022. SCTA approached González, who is a member of said union, to design the strike poster. He decided to honor a local
teacher in the poster, and that local teacher is his former student and now colleague, Andrea Alvarado who took Xico's Introduction
to Chicana/o Studies, and Introduction to Chicana/o Culture courses at the University at California, Davis (UCD). Alvarado
was an excellent student, and led and volunteered in community empowerment projects with González and her peers. Alvarado
is a Spanish/English immersion 6th grade teacher at César Chávez Intermediate School in Sacramento. A little over a decade
after she took González classes at UCD, she graduated from UCD, and then earned a master's degree and a teaching credential.
She taught in Woodland and eventually made her way to César Chávez Intermediate School. Alvardado is an exemplary teacher
who works well with her students and their families. She became the face of the strike with hundreds of teachers carrying
this poster in the school's picket lines, and in mass teacher and staff gatherings. SCTA printed 1000 posters.
"Peregrinación 2022," 2022, Archival Print, 22" x 28"
This piece was created for the last march in the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) pilgrimage from Delano, California,
to Sacramento to inspire California Governor Gavin Newsom to sign Assembly Bill 2183 into law. The last march of the pilgrimage
took place on Friday, August 26, 2022, from Southside Park to the State Capitol. Over 10,000 supporters marched with the United
Farm Workers of America that day. Sol Collective sponsored 1,000 18"x24" posters that were passed and carried by UFW supporters
marching through the streets of Downtown Sacramento. NorCal Resist sponsored a 6'x8' banner that was also carried at the head
of the march, right behind UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta and current UFW President Teresa Romero. The poster was designed
in the festive papel picado style with a row of UFW eagles at the top, and the words ``Peregrinación 2022: Marcha de Delano
a Sacramento'' (Pilgrimage 2022: March from Delano to Sacramento) are below the eagles. The Spanish sentence underneath says
"After 24 days and 335 miles, we reached Sacramento on Friday, August 26th, 2022." The portrait at the center features UFW
founder César E. Chávez. The date "1966" pays homage to the first UFW pilgrimage from Delano to Sacramento, and "2022" acknowledges
this pilgrimage as the second pilgrimage by this historic farmworker organization. The bottom of the poster demands that "Governor
Newsom Sign AB2183," flanked on each side and underneath with UFW eagles.
"Sacred," 2020, Archival Print, 21" x 29"
This piece was created for the Women of Color Contingent of the Sacramento Women's March that took place on January 18th,
2020 from Southside Park to the California State Capitol. Students from the Chicanx Student Movement of Aztlán at the Met
Sacramento High School also known as MEChA de la Met organized a rally at the Met Sacramento High School with the support
of NorCal Resist. The rally centered women of color voices that had largely been absent from the Sacramento Women's Marches.
Speakers at the Met Sacramento High School rally spoke against systemic racism, colonization, imperialism, capitalism, patriarchy,
homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, and xenophobia. For this, X González poster features his former Met Sacramento student
Viola LeBeau, a Pit River and Cahuilla Native American young woman. This collaboration between González and LeBeau to bring
awareness, and to seek justice for murdered and missing Indigenous women not only in the United States, and other social ills
like systemic racism, colonization, imperialism, capitalism, patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, and xenophobia.
Sacramento Take Back the Night, and Mujeres Chingonas de Sacramento sponsored 1,000 posters that were given to Women of Color
Contingent and attendees of the Sacramento Women's March 2020.
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to sacroom@saclibrary.org. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Sacramento Public Library as the owner of
the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained
by the patron. No permission is necessary to publish or quote from public records.