Victoria Ocelotl

Yreina Cervántez produced this work dedicated to Maya women during Self Help Graphics’s Atelier program in Los Angeles. A member of a core group of artists dedicated to this arts organization, she often used her print residency opportunities to raise awareness about socio-political crises in Central America. In many cultural spaces in Los Angeles, there was a widespread effort to share information about the breadth of violence in countries like Guatemala, and the nature of the U.S. government’s involvement in the region. During the 1970s and ’80s, under Guatemalan military dictator General Efrain Rios Montt’s “Operation Sofia,” the military killed over 200,000 people in a genocidal assault on local Indigenous groups. 

Cervántez’s Victoria Ocelotl depicts a Maya woman armed with a rifle, prepared to combat the aerial assault above. She carries powerful artillery. But, more importantly, she is also endowed with the spiritual support of the Mesoamerican spiritual and natural world in the form of sacred jaguars and a resplendent quetzal bird embroidered on her mantle, draping these symbolic creatures upon her body for strength and protection.