Amalia Mondragón
BORDERLANDS REGION, 2022 - 2023
Amalia Mondragón (she/he/they) is a Latin Grammy-nominated, transfronterizx, singer-songwriter born in East Los Angeles and raised in the tri-state Borderplex (El Paso, Texas/Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua/ Las Cruces, New Mexico). They have participated in numerous ensembles and community organizational initiatives on both sides of the border throughout the years and have worked with La Mujer Obrera on various initiatives over the past 12 years. Mondragón is currently working on Transfronterizx, an album funded by the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures and the Ford Foundation through the Border Narrative Change Grant. Transfronterizx is a concept album that seeks to amplify the unique life of the transfronterizx—people who transit and navigate the U.S.-Mexico border as a way of life—through the lens of two-spirit: Tereso Perfecto Contreras/Amalia Mondragón. The album includes original compositions inspired by various genres that Tereso/Amalia grew up listening to. It is a mixtape experience for the modern playlist age, creating intimate connection and community through lyrics, language, music, and emotional soundscapes that evoke the trans-border experience. Amalia Mondragón and Tereso Contreras hope to spark conversations and shift narratives around gender fluidity, xenophobia, border life, migration, and underrepresented communities.
Amalia is working with community members to write songs about native plants in the Chihuahuan Desert. Fighting the perception that the desert is a barren landscape, Amalia is committed to highlighting and honoring the deep relationships and generational practices local people have developed and inherited in the region. With a particular emphasis on preserving and celebrating ancestral knowledge, Amalia is working to "proactivly chip away at colonization by advocating for our way of life through conversation, learning, community connecting, and songwriting".
CULTURE HUB
La Mujer Obrera’s collective vision is to create a thriving community in which Mexican heritage is continually affirmed and celebrated, where Mexican arts traditions are fully known, acknowledged for their artistic merit, and shared in a free, intergenerational space. We work with intention in the Chamizal neighborhood dedicating years of organizing and cultural events planning to strengthen its cultural identity and social bonds. By centering ancestral art and cultural practices (food traditions), we create alternatives to contamination and blight that exist in our community. Historically throughout our organizing we have used teatro, murals, music to express the struggles and aspirations of the workers and our community. Through Proyecto Verde we identified and worked with active backyard gardeners in the Chamizal alongside El Paso area artists (musicians, graphic artists, etc) to organize Tianguis, neighborhood festivals. The Tianguis is a neighborhood-led effort that highlights the ancestral knowledge of neighborhood residents in relationship to food growing, preparation, and artistic expression. By hosting two artists it would allow more time for them to integrate into our organizational and community process. It would include participating in the thinking, planning and implementing of our programs and events in the community.