Esta Tierra es Nuestra Tierra
This Land is Our Land
On the occasion of Hispanic Heritage Month, Four Freedoms Park Conservancy unveils a newly commissioned mural entitled “Esta Tierra Es Nuestra Tierra” and celebrate this newly envisioned monument with a “LatinXtravaganza” family festival at FDR Four Freedoms State Park on Roosevelt Island, October 7th from 11:30am-4pm. Curated by award-winning writer Xochitl Gonzalez, and featuring a large-scale public art installation by artist Mata Ruda, this program invites visitors to celebrate the diversity of the Latino experience in America.
Read Xochitl’s manifesto and inspiration for Esta Tierra es Nuestra Tierra here.
Continue reading to learn more about Xochitl Gonzalez & Mata Ruda.
Xochitl Gonzalez
Curator
XOCHITL GONZALEZ is the New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming. Named a Best of 2022 by The New York Times, TIME, Kirkus, Washington Post, and NPR, Olga Dies Dreaming was the winner of the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize in Fiction and The New York City Book Awards. Her new novel, Anita de Monte Laughs Last, is forthcoming in March 2024 with Flatiron Books. Gonzalez is a 2021 M.F.A. graduate from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. As a staff writer for The Atlantic, she was recognized as a 2023 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary. A native Brooklynite and proud public school graduate, Gonzalez holds a BA from Brown University and lives in her hometown of Brooklyn with her dog, Hectah Lavoe.
Mata Ruda
Artist
MATA RUDA (Karlito Miller Espinosa) is an artist who lives and works in the Southern Arizona U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. He was born in San Jose, Costa Rica, to American-Colombian and Costa Rican Parents. He lived in Venezuela until he was 11 years old when he moved with his family to the east coast of the United States. He creates paintings, public murals, objects and installations informed by the direct relationship between capitalism and the structuring role violence plays in its preservation. His studio practice pays particular attention to the absence, loss, migrations and transformations motivated by the inherent contradictions embedded within the social structures of society.
Karlito participated in the 2020 Whitney Independent Study Program through the Whitney Musuem of American Art in New York, NY. He received his MFA from The University of Arizona in 2019 and his BFA from The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2012.
In conjunction with Esta Tierra es Nuestra Tierra, Four Freedoms Park Conservancy is hosting LatinXtravaganza – a family festival at FDR Four Freedoms State Park on Roosevelt Island, October 7th from 11:00am-4pm. Curated by award-winning writer Xochitl Gonzalez, and featuring a large-scale public art installation by artist Mata Ruda, this program will invite us to celebrate the diversity of the Hispanic and Latino experience in America. Learn more and RSVP here.
Creation of Esta Tierra es Nuestra Tierra