The Mesoamerican Clay-Figurine Project
Hello and welcome! I’m Santiago Andres Garcia, Professor of Anthropology and Humanities at Rio Hondo College. The Mesoamerican Clay-Figurine Project arouse out of a need to contest trauma and violence in the classroom though self-reflective writing, storytelling, and clay-work. The work has grown into a collective effort between Indigenous educators, scholars, families, and community practitioners from diverse Nations throughout Turtle Island. On this website, we share a handful of student clay-figurines and their related narratives. Here, you may download our published research, and get the latest insights into our revolving public humanities and Indigenous-led Projects.
The Coatlicue State
Coatlicue is one of the powerful images, or “archetypes,” that inhabits, or passes through, my psyche. For me, la Coatlicue is the consuming internal whirlwind, the symbol of the underground aspects of the psyche. Coatlicue is the mountain, the Earth Mother who conceived all celestial beings out of her cavernous womb. Goddess of birth and death, Coatlicue gives and takes away life; she is the incarnation of cosmic processes.
Gloria E. Anzaldúa / Borderlands La Frontera
In the summer of 2014, students of Humanities 125: Introduction to Mexican Culture at Rio Hondo College began to excavate and materialize the human body and ideology through hand-bone morphology usage (Garcia 2014), the sculpting of Mesoamerican clay-figurines (Garcia et al., 2018), and self-reflective writing. Drawing from a series of Indigenous Xicana/o philosophies and teaching strategies, one of these, Gloria Anzaldúa’s (2012) Coatlicue State (Garcia 2019), students gave birth to their own Native understanding’s of the human body and ideology as a means to contest ongoing trauma and violence.
I strove to cultivate in students a strong sense of agency and empowerment, while meeting student learning outcomes in a humanities classroom. For six weeks, students poured over the rich history, language, archaeology, religion, food and medicine of Ancient Mesoamerica, and the living Indigenous family (Garcia and Marquez 2021, Marquez and Garcia 2021). For a series of teaching and learning units students had the opportunity to sculpt clay-figurines in an effort to materialize their own views of the human body. But why the human body, one might ask? Through my own way of being and becoming, classroom interactions, and public engagement, I learned that empowerment could be achieved through ideas of the body. Students with a concrete sense of the self performed better in the classroom, and were active participants in their communities, as opposed to those lacking a strong sense of identity, upbringing, and ancestry.
The clay-figurine project, serves as a response, to a rise in trauma signs and symptoms, racial inequality and social injustice, observed while engaging college students over the last twelve years. The project remains part of a larger effort, that strives to assist Indigenous peoples live honorable and sustainable lives. The work is in line with the goals of Article 13, and Article 14 of the United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples, and supports NEH’s “A More Perfect Union” initiative to preserve, understand, and promote American History.
Clay-Figurine Narratives
In 2014, Rio Hondo students began to materialize their own Coatlicue State through clay-work and self-reflective writing. This was my first attempt to better understand the life stories and mental health challenges of students within a decolonizing teaching framework. Here you can view pictures of the clay-work, and read many of the clay-figurine narratives written by students. The stories were transcribed word for word from the writing assignment that accompanied each individual figurine. NOTE: Signed consent was given to interpret and publish various student artifacts for educational purposes.
Figurine Name: All is Well that ends Well
Borderland Region: Sinaloa, Mexico
Iconographic Elements: A well, dismembered head at the bottom
Student-Figurine Narrative Inquiry: All’s Well that ends Well. This figurine originates from Sinaloa Mexico. It simbolizes the struggle with violence in the area because of conflict with drug, arms, and possibly human trafficking. Perhaps a man driving along the side of a mexican Road and The Mexican cartel looking to make a statement or perhaps it has a deeper and darker secret involving the headless man and the cartel. Perhaps the cartel and this man were somehow affiliated and it takes a simple miscomunicaiton or this man was biting off more than he could. all it takes is the idea of betrayal for it to be true. Perhaps this feud lasted a long time and this man was found in the pueblo from where he originates and was tortured and beheaded then tossed in the pueblos well in order to make a statement for the people who were harboring the fugitive. I plan to contribute to my people through dentistry I want to give back to my comunity and other countries through mental medical attention. I see a lot of immigrants like myself in need of Dental attention. Ive seen girls that are beautiful, but very insecure because of their heavily damaged/corroded teath. Children who were born in other countries and have to deal with toothaches because their immigrant parents are afraid or do not have the means to seek medical attention. I believe this to be a simple/basic human right that is not given enough attention.
Figurine Name: Mi Virgen de Guadalupe
Borderland Region: Ario de Rosales, Michoacán (Tarasca)
Iconographic Elements: Feathers, Moon, Stars, Manto
Student-Figurine Narrative Inquiry:
“Mi Virgen de Guadalupe” Queen of my Indigenous ancestors.
Faceless woman to me but my spiritual mother.
Why is it that I find myself always drawn to you?
Is your promise of peace carved in my heart?
Is your manifestation of unity bringing me victory in my journey.
Your significance to my people brought in times of death.
As I mold you to be beautiful
I find myself looking through my memory vault
Trying to pinpoint what you mean to me
I’m just brought to my troubled teenage years
Where rejection was common, where ending pain was ceasing life
Where my amateur art was only interested in every part of Juan Diego’s tilma.
At time I found myself reflected in you
Drawing my insecurities and sorrow on you
The connection started making sense
nonetheless I sketched my mother offering her my pain, loss and all.
My parents told me stories about your Son your importance in our people.
They introduced you to me as my angel
As my spiritual mother
Who I confide in
Looking at your manto reminded me to look at the night sky
remembering that even in the galaxies suction my worries.
That when I looked at the crescent moon
it would remind me about its cold beauty but still carrier of my tears.
the light around you was love radiating warmth to my humanly form.
Most importantly your hue spoke to me in levels that bring every kind
of emotions love, tears, revolution, warrior women
you appeared before us bring peace, unity and universal sense.
I thank you for connecting with me through my ancestors, dreams, and purpose.
“DIOS TE SALVE MARIA, LLENA ERES DE GRATZIA, DOMINUS TECUM BENDICTA
TU IN MULIERIGUS, BENEDICTA FRUCTUS VENTRIS TU JESU, SANCTA MARIA
MATER DEI ORA POR NOBIS PECATURIBUS EN LA ORA Y EN LAORA DE NUESTRA MORTIS, AMEN.”
Figurine Name: Sad little “Luisa”
Iconographic Elements: Sad face, cross legs,
Borderlands Region: El Salvador
Student-Figurine Narrative Inquiry: My figurine represents me Luisa went I was 8 years old in my country el Salvador. This figurine this picture that its always in my mind everyday of my life Represent me went I lost my dad in the civil war this is the ways that I always feel went I think about him my dad was everything for me. my best friend my best dady that I miss everyday antill today. My dad for me was the person that may me happy, laugh, dream, but one day the bad soldier took him away for my family. I remember the last day that I saw him I still remember the look that he give to me like telling me I love you. With his eyes, but I new that was the last day that I was goin to see him. I try to say good buy to him but them don’t let me get close to him it was night like 11:40 pm they took him and the last word that he told my mom was don’t worry all be back but that day never happen we never found his dead body we never see him again even that hi still in my life everyday like the figurine sitting in the floor thinking were is my dady The little sad Luisa uses to go to the top of the mountain end seet there end look around the city talk to myself or to the stars whey they took my twins soul, the days went by and after two week I still have faith that hi was coming back but went I starred see that days was going more and no body new nothing my faith was going more down The little sad Luisa still see lik that sometime went I would like to be with him and talk to him about my life. The figurine mean to me all my life, because even I am at woman 39 years old I still feel the pain in my heart because hi was my twin’s soul. Went he left my half of my soul left to the little Luisa was not the same ever again I miss him 24 hours 7 day a week 365 day a years. Ad I know hi miss me to because hi was like me and I was like him but one day I am going to see him again in heaven and the day I will stay with him foreverlasting, because I believe in god my Salvador and hi promess me another life. After yo moera. the little sad Luisa that keep going in life experience, everyday a Mesoamerican life that sometime if hold someway one easy, funny , some day sod but I believe in god first and them end my self and I know I am going to make “ya” to help my family special my son and the humanities.
Research & Publications
The Mesoamerican Clay-Figurine Project has produced a growing body of public educational artifacts and publications. The work speaks of the project history and culture, the data collection methods, and theoretical understandings. The project has led to a handful of learning frameworks and practical models to better serve community college students. The research articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals and are available in an open-access format.
Cultivating Positive Health, Learning, and Community: The Return of Mesoamerica’s Quetzalcoatl and the Venus Star
Contesting Trauma and Violence through Indigeneity and a Decolonizing Pedagogy at Rio Hondo Community College
MOM’S HEALING ALTAR AND DAD’S OBSIDIAN BLADE: BUILDING THE INDIGENOUS XICANA/O FAMILY HEALTHCARE KIT
A Medical Archaeopedagogy of the Human Body as a Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategy for Indigenous Mexican-American Students
Modeling household building sustainability
(HBS) with wood, stone and paint:
Achieving spatial wellness in a West
Walnut household of the San Gabriel Valley
Sustaining Public Engagement & Humanities Projects
One of the important goals of the Mesoamerican Clay-Figurine Project serves to encourage the co-creating, sustainment, and circulating of knowledge for the public good. Every year, since 2014, public scholars, Black Intellectuals, community organizers, local tribal members, and people that practice medicine spend time in our classroom sparking discussion, debate, and civic participation. This community partnership has led to the publication of humanistic research available to everyone. The teaching strategies, racial equity, and social justice motives behind the clay-figurine project thrive in various places inviting conversations between community partners from all levels of society.
Awards & Recognitions
The Mesoamerican Clay-Figurine Project has earned recognition from three major learning societies the Humanities Metrics Initiative, the American Studies Association, and the American Council of Learned Societies. In 2022, the project won a $157,000 grant from the ACLS, as part of the American Rescue Plan Act, to sustain public engagement for a period of one year.
The Gabrielino, Kizh, and Tongva
Rio Hondo College sits on the traditional territory of the Gabrielino, Kizh, and Tongva. Like so many Native American tribes of California their language and culture were decimated by rapid assimilation, the destruction of their homes, and the indiscriminate killing of tribal men, women, and children. Here I acknowledge the Gabrielino, Kizh, and Tongva, and their efforts to recover a traditional way of life.
