Chicanonautica: Flying with the Papalomeh at the Bemis Center

by Ernest Hogan

Papalomeh in Nahuatl. Mariposas in Spanish. Butterflies in English.

Some of my artwork, and artifacts of my weird career, are on display at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, in Omaha, Nebraska, December 7, 2017 to Feburary 24, 2018, in a show called Monarchs: Brown and Native Contemporary Artists in the Path of the Butterfly.

Monarchs are the orange-and-black butterflies that cross the U.S./Mexico border as part of their life cycle. No wall can stop them. Also, the path of the butterfly is metamorphosis, transformation. Rather Chicanonautical, if you ask me.

This is thanks to Josh Rios and Anthony Romero, who have included me in their project that they call Is Our Future a Thing of the Past?

A good question in these dangerous days when, as Guillermo Gómez-Peña has recently pointed out, “science fiction is merely a chronicle of daily life.” Strange that this political turmoil has opened the door for me into the world of fine art. Just another phase of my long, hard lucha for the future.

To give you an idea of what to expect, I've illustrated this post with some special edition, computer-enhanced versions of some of my battle-scarred sketchbook covers, two of which will be there.

The Cultural Subversion is Our Most Important Product cover will not be there, but I'm including it here because, yes, cultural subversion really is our most important product, dammit!

Meanwhile, as per usual, I'm keeping one foot in the underground, so if the shit hits the fan, I'll have a place to stand.

Ernest Hogan's novel High Aztech will be seen through the lens of Aztec philosophy by Sal Herrera as part of "The Force of Teotl: Deriving Change From Chicano/a Futurisms and Indigenous Philosophies" at the 2018 Native American Literature Symposium.