Xochitl Nevel-Guerrero

Xochitl Nevel Guerrero (born 1954) is a Chicana artist who specializes in making murals, paintings, gourd decorations, masks, and mosaic/tile art.

Early life and education

Xochitl Nevel Guerrero was born in 1954 in Berkeley, California, but was raised in Oakland. She was the youngest child in her family of six children. Her father, Raymundo “Zala” Nevel, came to the United States from Mexico City as part of the Bracero Program and settled in West Oakland, where he met Nevel Guerrero's mother. He was also a muralist, and it is because of him that Nevel-Guerrero became fascinated by art.

Nevel Guerrero had a traumatic experience at the age of eleven that made her contemplate suicide at the age of thirteen. To cope with this, she started making art full of bright colors, changed her name, and began working in the community.

She got a summer job around the ages of fourteen and fifteen that allowed her to work with children, where she learned she wanted to create a safe space for others to express themselves in artistic forms.

Nevel Guerrero joined baile folklórico and also learned to play the flute because of her parents' love for music and dancing. Since her father was active in the social movements of the time, she became involved as well. She joined a theater group called El Teatro Triste, where she performed skits that had political or social critiques.

At Laney College, she joined a theater group called El Teatro Calcetin, where she continued to represent and be involved in the community while making statements about current events. Nevel Guerrero became part of the “Mujeres Muralistas,” where she connected culture, environment, and gender into her art.

After Laney College, she transferred to the University of California, Berkeley and dropped out after a year. Nevel Guerrero then took a gap year, enrolled at Cal State East Bay (formerly known as CSU Hayward) and received her degree.

Works

Latino America

Latino America was a mural project coordinated by the Mujeres Muralistas in 1974. Together with artists like Ester Hernández, Nevel Guerrero created this piece on the Mission Model Cities building in San Francisco, California. She painted much of the maize, and her dreams of a corn goddess inspire her to include corn in many of her works.

La Clínica de la Raza Mural

In 1977, Nevel Guerrero and her father painted this mural at the Clínica de la Raza in East Oakland, California. It depicts indigenous peoples and symbols as well as Mexican cultural elements, such as the Virgin of Guadalupe and a curandera healing a man laying face down.

Youth of the World, Let's Create a Better World

This mural was painted by Xochitl Nevel Guerrero and Crystal Nevel, along with the PLACA group, in 1984. There is a young man holding the world in his arms with others around him. Those surrounding him are expressing themselves creatively through painting, breakdancing, and more.

Further reading

• HOMBRES Y MUJERES MURALISTAS ON A MISSION: PAINTING LATINO IDENTITIES IN 1970S SAN FRANCISCO by Cary Cordova