Juana Duran Charicata

Juana Duran Charicata is an undocumented/DACA artist, born in Cheran, Michoacan, Mexico and currently teaches art and is a muralist in the city of Chicago. Her body of work ranges from collaborative murals with her students to large-scale sand and acrylic paintings. Since 1995, the year Ms. Duran Charicata immigrated to the US, she and her family picked fruits and vegetables for a living. While migrating two to three times per year from state to state alongside with family members and others people, she maintained the spirit of her cultural and indigenous Purépecha traditions.

Her pieces are inspired by her reclamation of being a migrant, indigenous and alternative women. These works capture the power of being indigenous and finding ways to spiritually and naturally overcoming pain that was un-consensual and traumatizing while being an undocumented, migrant worker and not having access to mental health resources. Her continuous process of healing through art has helped her give a voice and set example of speaking out and asking for help.