Nuestra Delta Magica: Settler Imaginaries & Community Resistance

Nuestra Delta Mágica: Settler Imaginaries & Community Resistance is a two-month-long exhibition that will investigate untold South Texas history of land settlement, addressing racial and environmental injustices happening in the Rio Grande Valley. The exhibition presents an opportunity to examine previous misconceptions, question harmful border narratives, and activate a space that will allow for community members to collectively craft, define, and redefine our own identities as fronteriza/o/xs.

Nuestra Delta Mágica will be on view from April 1 to June 1, 2023, and is free and open to the public. This exhibition is bilingual with English and Spanish labels and organized into three sections: “Settler Imaginaries,” “Community Resistance’ and “La Delta Mágica.” These overarching themes examine the historical and modern impact of land exploitation and environmental challenges in South Texas.

• Settler Imaginaries is a series of large archival images, articles, and academic writings that demonstrate the early 20th century colonizer gaze of the borderlands.

• Community Resistance highlights the work of six border artists creating work in response to environmental colonization. Featured artists include: Josue Ramirez, Anel Flores, Futuro Conjunto, ENTRE, Tony Briones and Bonnie Ilza Cisneros.

• La Delta Mágica is a collective imaginary where community members will have an opportunity to explore and respond to the exhibit, and the emotions and memories it evokes.
• Nuestra Delta Mágica: Settler Imaginaries & Community Resistance is organized by Nansi Guevara and Monica Sosa, and is supported by the Anonymous Was a Woman (AWAW) Environmental Art Grants program in partnership with the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).