On Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in the Spanish and Portuguese Library at UC Berkeley, Afro-Cuban visual artist Alexis Esquivel gave a talk on his mixed media praxis and his understanding of Cuba as a socio-political, historical and cultural space. Titled, “El desafío de pintar la historia” or “The Challenge of Painting History,” this event was organized by Elena Schneider in the Department of History and in collaboration with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UC Berkeley. The work of Alexis Esquivel has been exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions inside and outside the island including important public and private collections in Germany, Brazil, Cuba, Spain, the United States, France, England, Italy, and Mexico.
After the engaging presentation and insightful Q&A, two graduate students from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Laura Barber and Lydia Millhon, were able to continue the conversation with Alexis Esquivel and Bay-area based Cuban-American artist, Juan Carlos Quintana during lunch. For Lydia and Laura, their exchanges with such influential artists opened new questions on Cuban cultural production and legacies of cultural and political debates both specific to Cuba and within international networks of artistry.
April 4, 2025