Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet, PhD, MFA
Ferrera-Balanquet is prominent Latinx Cuban American artist, writer, curator, and Fulbright scholar from the Mariel Generation. He holds a PhD from Duke University and a MFA from the University of Iowa. Co-Executive Director, Howard University Gallery of Art.
Ferrera-Balanquet is the author of the books Aestesis Decolonial Transmoderna Latinx_MX (2019); and Imaginarios Creativos y Soberanía Erótica Decolonial (2018). Editor the anthology Andar Erotico Decolonial (2015), Ediciones del Signo, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
His writings have appeared in Latino Book Review Magazine, 2022; Aztlan: Journal of Chicano Studies, Vol. 44, No. 2, Chicano Studies Research Center, UCLA, Los Angeles, California; Interrogando los límites del texto. Ensayos de crítica literaria. Mérida: Ediciones de la Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán; Caribbean InTransit, No 4, Virginia, USA; Social Text Journal / Periscope, New York, USA; IDEA arts + society, #39, 2011, Cluj, Romania; Artecubano, Vol.3-4, Havana, Cuba; Bienal de La Habana Para leer, Universitat De Valencia, Spain; Public No. 41, Toronto, Canada; Escaner Cultural, Santiago de Chile, Chile; Inter, Art Actuael, No 102, Québec, Canada; Integración y Resistencia en la Era Global, Evento Teórico Décima Bienal de La Habana, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wilfredo Lam, La Habana, Cuba; Vídeo en Latinoamerica. Una visión crítica, Editorial Brumaria, Madrid; Forum Idea, 9na Bienal de La Habana 2006; La Hija Natural de J.T.G., Montevideo, Uruguay; Revista Biblia, No. 20, Lisboa, Portugal; Felix: A Journal of Media Arts and Communication, New York; Artpapers, Atlanta, Georgia; the Mexican literary magazine Navegaciones Zur, and the electronic publication Net Art Review.
He has exhibited at The Future Past v. Coloniality: Decolonial Media Art Beyond 530 Years, SIGGRAPH ASIA, Daegu, South Korea; TECNOLOGÍASQUEDANZAN, XIII Bienal de La Habana, Havana, Cuba; (De)Encounters and The Weaving of Relational Memories in the MeXicanx_Latinx Territories (1987-2017), LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), California, USA; The Box Gallery, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA; Territorios Inexplorados, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico; Haceres Decoloniales, Galeria ASAB, Bogota, Colombia; BE.BOP 2013, Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Berlin, Germany; DysTorpia Media Project, Queens Art Museum, New York; Galeria La Cupula, Cordoba, Argentina; Nasher Museum, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California; Fundacion de Arte Contemporaneo, Montevideo, Uruguay; 33ro Festival Internacional Cervantino, Leon, Mexico; Exit Art Gallery, New York City; Alchemy Projects, MAAP Festival, Australia; The Light Factory, Charlotte, North Carolina; Gallery 1313, Toronto, Canada; Actions of Transfers: Women’s Performance in the Americas, UCLA Broad Center, Los Angeles, California; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Randolph Street Gallery, Video IN, Vancouver B.C., Canada; Voices Series, Gallery 400, The University of Illinois at Chicago; Museo de Arte Actual, Bogota, Colombia; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Centro de Cultura Contemporanea, Barcelona, Spain among others.
Executive curator of Arte Nuevo InteractivA (2001-2014), Ferrera-Balanquet has organized numerous art, video and new media exhibitions. Among them are Genesis: The African American Experience in Art, Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Africana Hemispheric Performance, Actions, Socially Public Participations, Rituals, and Ceremonies, Center for Afrofuturist Studies, Iowa City, Iowa, USA; Indigeneity | Decoloniality | @rt, Jameson Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Traslocalidades en Movimiento, video art, Centro Cultural de España en El Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador, 2008; In[ter]vencion, [R]-[R]-[F] – Festival, JavaMuseum: Forum for Internet Technologies in Contemporary Art, Cologne, Germany, 2004; Huellas de un Corazón Sangrante en Tropicana, MIX-Brasil, Museo de Sonido e Imagen, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1994; Nomads: Plural Identities in Traveling Territories, Randolph Street Galley, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 1993; Videos That Unmask, Test and Invade the Colonial System, Program I, Video In, Vancouver B.C., Canada, 1992; La Ruptura Latina: An Exhibit of Latino Video Art in North America, N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago. Illinois, USA, 1992; Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano in Iowa II, International Festival and Conference, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 1986.
In addition to a Fulbright Fellowship, Ferrera-Balanquet has been awarded grants from MeridaFest Creative Award Yucatan Mexico, Critical Minded, Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA), Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Prince Claus Foundation, FOECAY, US/Mexico Cultural Fund, The Australian Network of Art and Technology, the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Lyn Blumenthal Video Foundation.
Ferrera-Balanquet is the author of the books Aestesis Decolonial Transmoderna Latinx_MX (2019); and Imaginarios Creativos y Soberanía Erótica Decolonial (2018). Editor the anthology Andar Erotico Decolonial (2015), Ediciones del Signo, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
His writings have appeared in Latino Book Review Magazine, 2022; Aztlan: Journal of Chicano Studies, Vol. 44, No. 2, Chicano Studies Research Center, UCLA, Los Angeles, California; Interrogando los límites del texto. Ensayos de crítica literaria. Mérida: Ediciones de la Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán; Caribbean InTransit, No 4, Virginia, USA; Social Text Journal / Periscope, New York, USA; IDEA arts + society, #39, 2011, Cluj, Romania; Artecubano, Vol.3-4, Havana, Cuba; Bienal de La Habana Para leer, Universitat De Valencia, Spain; Public No. 41, Toronto, Canada; Escaner Cultural, Santiago de Chile, Chile; Inter, Art Actuael, No 102, Québec, Canada; Integración y Resistencia en la Era Global, Evento Teórico Décima Bienal de La Habana, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wilfredo Lam, La Habana, Cuba; Vídeo en Latinoamerica. Una visión crítica, Editorial Brumaria, Madrid; Forum Idea, 9na Bienal de La Habana 2006; La Hija Natural de J.T.G., Montevideo, Uruguay; Revista Biblia, No. 20, Lisboa, Portugal; Felix: A Journal of Media Arts and Communication, New York; Artpapers, Atlanta, Georgia; the Mexican literary magazine Navegaciones Zur, and the electronic publication Net Art Review.
He has exhibited at The Future Past v. Coloniality: Decolonial Media Art Beyond 530 Years, SIGGRAPH ASIA, Daegu, South Korea; TECNOLOGÍASQUEDANZAN, XIII Bienal de La Habana, Havana, Cuba; (De)Encounters and The Weaving of Relational Memories in the MeXicanx_Latinx Territories (1987-2017), LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), California, USA; The Box Gallery, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA; Territorios Inexplorados, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico; Haceres Decoloniales, Galeria ASAB, Bogota, Colombia; BE.BOP 2013, Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Berlin, Germany; DysTorpia Media Project, Queens Art Museum, New York; Galeria La Cupula, Cordoba, Argentina; Nasher Museum, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California; Fundacion de Arte Contemporaneo, Montevideo, Uruguay; 33ro Festival Internacional Cervantino, Leon, Mexico; Exit Art Gallery, New York City; Alchemy Projects, MAAP Festival, Australia; The Light Factory, Charlotte, North Carolina; Gallery 1313, Toronto, Canada; Actions of Transfers: Women’s Performance in the Americas, UCLA Broad Center, Los Angeles, California; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Randolph Street Gallery, Video IN, Vancouver B.C., Canada; Voices Series, Gallery 400, The University of Illinois at Chicago; Museo de Arte Actual, Bogota, Colombia; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Centro de Cultura Contemporanea, Barcelona, Spain among others.
Executive curator of Arte Nuevo InteractivA (2001-2014), Ferrera-Balanquet has organized numerous art, video and new media exhibitions. Among them are Genesis: The African American Experience in Art, Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Africana Hemispheric Performance, Actions, Socially Public Participations, Rituals, and Ceremonies, Center for Afrofuturist Studies, Iowa City, Iowa, USA; Indigeneity | Decoloniality | @rt, Jameson Gallery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Traslocalidades en Movimiento, video art, Centro Cultural de España en El Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador, 2008; In[ter]vencion, [R]-[R]-[F] – Festival, JavaMuseum: Forum for Internet Technologies in Contemporary Art, Cologne, Germany, 2004; Huellas de un Corazón Sangrante en Tropicana, MIX-Brasil, Museo de Sonido e Imagen, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1994; Nomads: Plural Identities in Traveling Territories, Randolph Street Galley, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 1993; Videos That Unmask, Test and Invade the Colonial System, Program I, Video In, Vancouver B.C., Canada, 1992; La Ruptura Latina: An Exhibit of Latino Video Art in North America, N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago. Illinois, USA, 1992; Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano in Iowa II, International Festival and Conference, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 1986.
In addition to a Fulbright Fellowship, Ferrera-Balanquet has been awarded grants from MeridaFest Creative Award Yucatan Mexico, Critical Minded, Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA), Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Prince Claus Foundation, FOECAY, US/Mexico Cultural Fund, The Australian Network of Art and Technology, the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Lyn Blumenthal Video Foundation.
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Crtical Texts English by Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet, PhD, MFA
An inmigrant who has experienced two or more geo-physical space has two or more different processes of self-collectivization, and two or more ways of relating to historical time.

communities.
I sketch at the end of this essay an organic historical database of audiovisual, sound, media and digital representations produced by Latin@s at the intersection of ethnicity, gender, sexuality and technology emerging in the U.S. Latina/o Diaspora since the late 1980 ́s until today. I employ the term ‘queer’ for political reasons, not because I believe in defining one's sexuality as fixed categories. Therefore, I invite future generations to articulate new definitions for the diversity of our sexual practices alive in <<The Americas>>.
a museum in Merida, Mexico, part of territory baptized as “Las Indias” by the Spanish colonizers who crossed the At- lantic in 1492 with a way of thinking, which Ella Shohat has defined as: “a ready made us versus them ideology aimed at the region of India who was colonized by Vasco de Gama in 1498.” Ironically, the indigenous people here are still
called “Indios” to reinscribe the colonial hierarchies and the cast system. Glimpses of a conversation I had with Shuddha Sengupta at Alchemy regarding the power of documentary hunts my viewing. I am the distant observer, the viewer who has been saturated with stereotypical images of India and now restructures the way to interpret these contemporary audiovisual discourses.
Ensayos Español by Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet, PhD, MFA
Este ensayo parte de un estudio histórico comparativo entre el flujo poblacional de Yucatecos residente en Mérida, Yucatán a Los Ángeles, California y el flujo de data –empleo de la nuevas tecnologías de la información- entre ambas ciudades con el fin de demostrar como se han creado nuevos tipos de movimientos –físicos –y virtuales- y transformaciones espaciales dentro de estas dos urbes, distantes; pero ahora conectadas por el flujo de información, el movimiento poblacional y redes compuestas de sistema de telecomunicaciones, computadoras, transportación rápida, entronques y vehículos que configuran a la ‘ciudad’ como una geometría variable que establece un sistema de comunicación horizontal alternativo entre los habitantes de estas regiones –residentes e inmigrantes-. Estas urbes, ahora transformadas en ‘espacios de resistencia cultural’ reflejan los desafíos culturales, urbanísticos, sociales y políticos confrontados por estas comunidades Latinas a principio del siglo XXI.
An inmigrant who has experienced two or more geo-physical space has two or more different processes of self-collectivization, and two or more ways of relating to historical time.

communities.
I sketch at the end of this essay an organic historical database of audiovisual, sound, media and digital representations produced by Latin@s at the intersection of ethnicity, gender, sexuality and technology emerging in the U.S. Latina/o Diaspora since the late 1980 ́s until today. I employ the term ‘queer’ for political reasons, not because I believe in defining one's sexuality as fixed categories. Therefore, I invite future generations to articulate new definitions for the diversity of our sexual practices alive in <<The Americas>>.
a museum in Merida, Mexico, part of territory baptized as “Las Indias” by the Spanish colonizers who crossed the At- lantic in 1492 with a way of thinking, which Ella Shohat has defined as: “a ready made us versus them ideology aimed at the region of India who was colonized by Vasco de Gama in 1498.” Ironically, the indigenous people here are still
called “Indios” to reinscribe the colonial hierarchies and the cast system. Glimpses of a conversation I had with Shuddha Sengupta at Alchemy regarding the power of documentary hunts my viewing. I am the distant observer, the viewer who has been saturated with stereotypical images of India and now restructures the way to interpret these contemporary audiovisual discourses.
Este ensayo parte de un estudio histórico comparativo entre el flujo poblacional de Yucatecos residente en Mérida, Yucatán a Los Ángeles, California y el flujo de data –empleo de la nuevas tecnologías de la información- entre ambas ciudades con el fin de demostrar como se han creado nuevos tipos de movimientos –físicos –y virtuales- y transformaciones espaciales dentro de estas dos urbes, distantes; pero ahora conectadas por el flujo de información, el movimiento poblacional y redes compuestas de sistema de telecomunicaciones, computadoras, transportación rápida, entronques y vehículos que configuran a la ‘ciudad’ como una geometría variable que establece un sistema de comunicación horizontal alternativo entre los habitantes de estas regiones –residentes e inmigrantes-. Estas urbes, ahora transformadas en ‘espacios de resistencia cultural’ reflejan los desafíos culturales, urbanísticos, sociales y políticos confrontados por estas comunidades Latinas a principio del siglo XXI.
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DESCRIPTION:
Publisher: Artist Studio Project Publishing LLC. Raleigh, NC: 2021.
Language: English
Notes: Includes bibliographical references, list of images, artist cv.
Description: xx, 289 p. (304 p.); 152 illustrations; 30 x 21 x 2 cm [11 3/4x 11 1/2 x 3/4″].
Editors: Miguel Rojas Sotelo & Rafael A. Osuba.
Illustrator | Artist: Sergio Sánchez Santamaría. All art by Sánchez Santamaría, otherwise named.
Preface By: Robert Healey.
Contributing Text By: Carlos Guevara Meza, Miguel Rojas Sotelo, Raúl Moarquech Ferrera Balanquet, José Calle, Steven Campbell, and Bill Fick.
Cover Design: Rafael A. Osuba, Miguel Rojas Sotelo.
Image by: Sergio Sánchez Santamaría. (Benito Juarez o el Nacimiento de la república. 2017)
© Artist Studio Project Publishing LLC (ASP Books) 2021
© Sergio Sánchez Santamaría
IN COLLABORATION WITH:
Duke University Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), Duke University Center for International and Global Studies (DUCIGS), Duke University Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies (AAHVS) and Duke Arts.
Quotes:
“As a lover of Mexican culture in general and of the TGP in particular, I am delighted that Sergio Sánchez Santamaría is carrying on their great tradition.”
Robert Healey, collector.
“The work of Maestro Sánchez Santamaría has a clear ‘classic’ air, so to speak. He immediately remembers the best of that revolutionary left-wing nationalism of the Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP).”
Carlos Guevara Mesa, art critic.
“Sánchez Santamaría and Elizabeth Catlett, have engaged in constant interventions with the sociopolitical and cultural local context of many regions; and, as conscious producers of memories, aware of their voices, have manifested their collective capacities to reclaim their existence. Acquiring the designation of La Tercera Raíz, the third root”
Raúl Ferrera-Balanquet, author and art critic.
“I was always attracted to Sergio’s mastery of the craft, his ability to create mood, movement, light, darkness, tensions, emotions. A mastery not seen since the days of Posada or Leopoldo Méndez.”
José Calle, collector.
“Sergio is as passionate for printmaking as he is to make poetry with it.”
Steven Campbell, artistic director Land Fall Press.
“I definitely consider him to be one of the outstanding printmakers alive today!”
Bill Fick, artist and printmaker.
“Alluding to the famous phrase of the great José Clemente Orozco: ‘If I hadn’t been an engraver I would have wanted to be an engraver.’”
Sergio Sánchez Santamaría.