Placita Latina Exhibition
Volume 6: Puentes (Bridges)
Art has the power to connect people across borders, languages, and lived experiences. Placita Latina v.6: Puentes (Bridges) celebrates the many ways Latin artists build understanding, preserve cultural heritage, and create new pathways for dialogue. Through painting, photography, sculpture, mixed media, and other forms of creative expression, this exhibition explores how art serves as a bridge—between past and future, tradition and innovation, homeland and new home, individual stories and collective identity.
At a time when communities can feel divided, art reminds us of our shared humanity. “Puentes” invites artists to reflect on connection, belonging, resilience, and cultural exchange, highlighting the role of creativity in bringing people together.
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 18 – October 23, 2026
Location: Decatur Arts Alliance Gallery • 113 Clairemont Ave.
Gallery Hours: Daily • 10am – 4pm
Closing Reception: Friday, October 23 • 6:00 – 9pm
Special Request for Large Groups
Groups of more than 10 are asked to please use this contact form to reserve a date and time to visit the gallery space. The gallery has limited capacity and shares a space with the Decatur Visitors Center, so visits may require coordination around meetings and other activities. Thank you for your understanding!
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
Exhibition pieces marked with an asterisk (*) indicate the work has been purchased.
My mother and I made many a craft project together. When we got to a tedious bit, we shared the phrase and sentiment “Basta del…” In this case, stitching the border and the discussion of country borders embodies a play on words of the bit we have grown tired of.
My mother’s tongue. My father’s land. Somewhere in between, I paint to explore the unique point of view that I and those like me embody. My portrait is a blend of cultural hues, an American father and a Colombian mother. I was raised with one foot in the colorful traditions of Appalachia and the other in my mother’s Colombian homeland. In art, the discord between complementary colors strengthens individual hues. My work reflects this bridge, where love can overcome differences, and instead overlap and merge revealing common ground built by embracing tradition and values.
This piece celebrates the overlap of traditions. A delicious shared, family meal. A holiday menu. Recipes passed from grandmother to grandchild. Flavors that recall fond memories, scents that conjure beloved places. No food is complete to me without some my mother’s favorite spice cumin and a southern dash of course ground pepper.
My mother’s tongue. My father’s land. Somewhere in between, I paint to explore the unique point of view that I and those like me embody. My portrait is a blend of cultural hues, an American father and a Colombian mother. I was raised with one foot in the colorful traditions of Appalachia and the other in my mother’s Colombian homeland. In art, the discord between complementary colors strengthens individual hues. My work reflects this bridge, where love can overcome differences, and instead overlap and merge revealing common ground built by embracing tradition and values.
This piece is a tongue-in-cheek of what it was like during the many family gatherings of my mother and her Latin friends during my childhood in Tennessee. All talking at once, voices impassioned, but never hostile. Loud and animated like a hen house.
My mother’s tongue. My father’s land. Somewhere in between, I paint to explore the unique point of view that I and those like me embody. My portrait is a blend of cultural hues, an American father and a Colombian mother. I was raised with one foot in the colorful traditions of Appalachia and the other in my mother’s Colombian homeland. In art, the discord between complementary colors strengthens individual hues. My work reflects this bridge, where love can overcome differences, and instead overlap and merge revealing common ground built by embracing tradition and values.
“Consumed” explores the quiet ways emotional weight shapes our inner world. It reflects the moments when thoughts become heavier than words, gradually influencing how we see ourselves and the people around us. While the source of those thoughts is different for everyone, the feeling itself is deeply familiar. By leaving space for personal interpretation, the work invites viewers to recognize their own experiences within it, revealing how shared emotions can become bridges between lives that may never share the same story.
“Holding” reflects the quiet act of carrying what words often cannot express. Whether it is memory, hope, identity, or the search for belonging, what we hold often shapes who we become. By leaving the narrative open, the work invites viewers to recognize their own experiences within it, suggesting that the deepest bridges are built through the emotions we share rather than the stories that separate us.
“Weight” explores the invisible burdens we carry and the ways they quietly shape our bodies, memories, and identities. While every person’s story is unique, the emotions behind those experiences are often shared. Through simplified forms and sculptural relief, the work invites viewers to recognize something of themselves within it. For me, art becomes a bridge when a deeply personal feeling transforms into a shared human experience.
As a son of Mexican immigrant parents, I was devastated by the detainment of 2-year-old Chloe Renata Tipan Villacis and 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, both of which took place in the state of Minnesota on January 20th and 22nd. These children aren’t the first or last to be detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but they were heavily documented in the news. These children and their parents have not broken any laws, yet they are treated as prisoners. These children should be at school, with friends, socializing, and should never be subject to such conditions.
Although it’s hard to read about these things, I think it’s important, especially as an latino printmaker, to bring attention to the injustice experienced by my community and by children. I want to make a print that is impactful and striking so people wouldn’t be able to scroll past the injustices experienced by immigrants. I often get my imagery and subject matter from the news, and it causes me to do even more investigation into the subject matter. My investigation creates images that strike concern and curiosity into the subject matter. My work compels people to think about the lives immigrants have been living. Liam and Chloe’s cubbies were empty at school the days they were held in ICE custody, and so many more children’s seats have sat empty due to fear of being detained and detainment.
The scale of the piece is deliberate. I wanted to sit with a version of myself I have often struggled to look at — sometimes with indifference, sometimes with something closer to hatred — and force myself to meet his eyes at full size. To make him unavoidable. To give him the room he was never given.
“Rorro” is what my favorite person in the world called me – my grandfather, Papi Roberto. It is a name that belongs to Mexico, to childhood, to a self that existed before ambition, before assimilation, before the long American project of becoming someone else. Naming the piece “Rorro” is my way of extending a hand backward — building a bridge to that happy little Mexican boy who is still, somehow, waiting.
I am finishing this work this year because my life is in the middle of a profound reshaping. Careers end, homes change, the ground shifts. In seasons like this, the bridges we most need are the ones that lead inward — to the languages, names, and selves we set down along the way. “Puentes” gave me a reason to name that crossing out loud.
