Federico Cuatlacuatl: “Transborder Nahua Futurisms”

The ICA, in partnership with VCUarts and VCU Humanities Research Center, invites artist Federico Cuatlacuatl to discuss how his practice is directly informed and profoundly shaped by his lived experiences as part of a community from Cholula, Mexico, that was forced by the Mexican government to self-displace in the early 1990s. Through short experimental films, sculptural works, and multimedia installations, his practice recalls generational traumas and the history of Mexico’s violence toward indigenous communities.

“Migrant Nahua futurisms” is the conceptual framework for his ongoing project highlighting the Nahua community’s forced self-displacement and the problematization of indigeneity in its diasporas. He allegorically references traditions from his community to amplify indigenous immigrant realities stemming from a history that has undergone painful fractures, distortions, and re-interpretations over the last 500+ years.