Jesus Barraza (born 1976), is an American

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique ...

and

graphic artist A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming l ...

. He started working as a layout editor in 1994 of the Xicana oppositional newspaper La Voz de Berkeley. He worked as a graphic designer for student groups at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

, community organizations and with Elizabeth "Betita" Martinez designing Shades of Power, the newsletter for the Institute for Racial Justice.Dunn, Alec and MacPhee, Josh. 2010. Taller Tupac Amaru: The Future of Xicana Printmaking, p6-37, PM Press

Biography

Jesus Barraza was born in 1976 in El Paso, Texas, U.S. In the late 1990s Barraza became known for his designs for issues regarding the defense of Ethnic Studies, affirmative action, immigrants rights, woman's rights and youth activism. During this time Barraza worked for MEXA, third world Liberation Front (twLF) at UC Berkeley, Olin, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR), Schools Not Jails,

National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies The National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) is "the academic organization that serves academic programs, departments and research centers that focus on issues pertaining to Mexican Americans, Chicana/os, and Latina/os." Unli ...

(NACCS) and Mujeres Activas en Letras y Ciencias (MALCS). In 2001, Barraza worked at the

Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA) is an arts nonprofit that was founded in 1977, and is located at 2868 Mission Street in the Mission District, San Francisco, Mission District in San Francisco, California. They provide art studio spa ...

(MCCLA), in the San Francisco's

Mission District The Mission District ( Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as the Mission ( Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name ...

as a graphic designer. While working there Barraza worked with Juan R. Fuentes, to create screen printed posters for the Centers events at Mission Grafica, the printmaking studio at MCCLA. During the two years Barraza worked at MCCLA, he created dozens of screen printed posters and prints and had the opportunity to be mentored by Fuentes, Calixto Robles and Michael Roman in various screen printing techniques. In 2003 Barraza left MCCLA to work at Tumis Design as a Graphic Designer, where he co-founded the Taller Tupac Amaru with Favianna Rodriguez and Estria Miyashiro. As a graphic designer at Tumis, Barraza worked with community organizations, non-profits and foundations to design collateral materials and websites. In 2006 Tumis co-founders Rodriguez and Miyashiro offered Tumi's workers a share in the company making them all co-owners and partners. Barraza worked at Tumis as a

web developer A web developer is a programmer who develops World Wide Web applications using a client–server model. The applications typically use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in the client, and any general-purpose programming language in the server. is used ...

, heading on over 50 web projects, before leaving at the beginning of 2010. As a member of the Taller Tupac Amaru, Barraza has partnered with community organization to produce posters to help with the work they do. In 2005 Barraza and Rodriguez received the Art is a Hammer award from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics for the outstanding work with the Taller Tupac Amaru. Barraza has produced over 250 screen prints and posters. Barraza has printed editions for artists including Melanie Cervantes, Favianna Rodriguez, Tony Carraza, Malaquias Montoya,

Emory Douglas Emory Douglas (born May 24, 1943) is an American graphic artist. He was a member of the Black Panther Party from 1967 until the Party disbanded in the 1980s. As a r''evolutionary artist'' and the ''Minister of Culture'' for the Black Panther Part ...

, Barbara Carraco, Juan R. Fuentes, Ester Hernandez, Rupert Garcia and

Enrique Chagoya Enrique Chagoya (born 1953) is a Mexican-born American painter, printmaker, and educator. The subject of his artwork is the changing nature of culture. He frequently uses shocking imagery, irony, and Mesoamerican icons to convey his point in his a ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barraza, Jesus 1976 births Living people American graphic designers American printmakers Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area Hispanic and Latino American artists Artists from El Paso, Texas