Placita Latina Exhibition
Nuestra Tierra - Our Land, Our Legacy
The Decatur Arts Alliance presents the 5th annual Placita Latina exhibition in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. This juried exhibition aims to celebrate and showcase the rich and diverse heritage of Latinx and Hispanic culture. This year’s theme, “Nuestra Tierra – Our Land, Our Legacy”, invites Hispanic and Latinx artists to submit up to three works that explore the complex and deeply personal meaning of belonging.
In a time when natural disasters, political unrest, and forced migration displace millions, how do we preserve our cultural identity while forging new lives in unfamiliar places? How do we reconcile our love for the places we call home with the pain of feeling unwelcome in them? Is our sense of self shaped more by the legacy of our ancestors or by the nation we reside in?
Nuestra Tierra is a call to reflect on the meaning of belonging—whether it’s a physical place, a community, or a cultural inheritance. This exhibition seeks to illuminate the diverse experiences of what it means to reclaim identity and to find security in one’s roots—even when those roots are challenged, transplanted, or transformed.
We welcome artwork that speaks to resilience, memory, displacement, and cultural pride. Artists are encouraged to share their personal narratives, reinterpret traditional symbols, or imagine new definitions of “belonging” through their creative expression.
About the Exhibition
This year’s Placita Latina Exhibition is produced by the Decatur Arts Alliance in conjunction with local organizing group, Placita Latina Decatur, with support from the Decatur Tourism Bureau. Join us in celebrating this impactful exhibition with a closing reception, filled with traditional food, lively music, and local artists.
Exhibition Run: September 12 – October 17, 2025
Location: Decatur Arts Alliance Gallery • 113 Clairemont Ave.
Gallery Hours: Daily • 10am – 4pm
Closing Reception: Friday, October 17 • 6:00 – 9pm
About Placita Latina
Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, celebrates the history, culture, and contributions of Hispanic-Americans, who hail from the 30+ countries and territories that make up Latin America. Communities all over the US mark the achievements of Hispanic and Latino Americans with festivals and educational activities.
In 2021, a group of local Hispanic/Latinx residents/professionals/friends came together to propose a colorful, cultural, and historical series to be held throughout this special month.
The result is Placita Latina, a fun-filled, festive schedule of “mini-events” that highlight Hispanic/Latinx performance, food, and culture that all take place in Decatur, GA.
Exhibition Catalog
Cosume is a two minute video piece in which I take artifacts from Guatemala and perform the act of eating them, but ultimately having to regurgitate them.
When I think of Nuestra Tierra, I don’t see just one place—I see many. I see the vast lands of South America, Central America, and North America. My blood carries the strength of these regions—Colombian, Mexican, and Indigenous—and within that blood lives a heritage that is deeply interconnected. Across these lands, our people have always shared traditions, medicine, and ways of life that root us in resilience.
This piece, “The Natural Healing Canvas”, is my homage to that inheritance. It honors the sacred medicines of our land—the same remedies that cared for and healed our ancestors, generation after generation, until they reached us today. Every plant in this canvas carries its own power. This canvas is not only art—it is a living story of our heritage, our medicine, and our resilience. It is a reminder that Nuestra Tierra continues to heal us, just as it healed our ancestors.
“The Foothill Bag” is a woven memory of home—the Central Valley foothills where I grew up.
The triangle pattern, echoing a design long found in Hispanic art, symbolizes the mountains, while the green reflects the natural beauty I walked among in my youth. The blue zigzag tells of the skies, endless and bright, that watched over me in those hills.
But this work also carries weight. Those foothills were once lands where our ancestors thrived freely, without the borders that now divide them. In these stitches live stories of healing, strength, and grief—threads that tie me to both the land I call home and the resilience of those who came before me. It is not just a bag; it is a testament to memory, heritage, and the spirit of a land that continues to shape me.
Entre Trenzas honors the spirit of our ancestors, whose presence lives on in the everyday rituals passed from hand to hand. The braid, adorned with ribbons, becomes more than an act of care—it is a sacred symbol of continuity, weaving memory, culture, and resilience into each strand. Though time and place evolve, the ties to those before us remain unbroken, guiding us to carry forward the traditions that shape who we are.
Domino Park is a cultural cornerstone of Little Havana, in South Florida, where the older generation gathers daily to share cafecito, exchange stories, and connect through games of Dominoes.
It is common to see groups of small canoes on the sea with local inhabitants who leave early in the morning to seek their daily sustenance for themselves and their families. The best way to appreciate this activity is to also set out early in the morning for a boat ride. This painting ‘Fishermen of Dreams’ was inspired by this particular event.
