Melanie Cervantes (Xicanx) "Solo el Pueblo, Salva al Pueblo." bandana

"As a cancer survivor, work grows from the tender space between illness and healing. In the quiet presence of plantitas like nopales, I’ve found not just breath, but life. These plants—small, living companions—have taught me about care: what it means to nurture, to be patient, to witness slow transformation. They clean the air for my lungs, offer rhythm to my days, and remind me that even fragile things can be full of strength.

Through my art, I explore how the natural world becomes a site of restoration. Plants are more than symbols; they are collaborators in my process, sometimes appearing in the work themselves or inspiring its forms and textures. As symbols they reflect the endurance and tenacity of my communities. This piece becomes a kind of offering: to those navigating hardship, to those longing for rootedness, and to the parts of ourselves still learning how to bloom."

22" x 22" premium cotton bandana. Green fabric with 3 ink colors (one is Metallic gold) All proceeds go to NDLON's organizing and programmatic work. Bandanas are hand-cut & hand-printed so each bandana has its own natural variation in shape and size.

Artist Link: Melanie Cevantes

Artist Bio: Melanie Cervantes (Xicanx) creates visual art that is inspired by the people around her and her communities’ desire for radical social transformation. Her intention is to create a visual lexicon of resistance to multiple oppressions that will inspire curiosity, raise consciousness and  inspire solidarities among communities of struggle.

In 2007 she co-founded Dignidad Rebelde, a graphic arts collaboration that produces screen prints, political posters and multimedia projects that are grounded in Third World and indigenous movements that build people’s power to transform the conditions of fragmentation, displacement and loss of culture that result from histories of colonialism, patriarchy, genocide, and exploitation. and Dignidad Rebelde’s purpose is to illustrate stories of struggle, resistance and triumph into artwork that can be put back into the hands of the communities who inspire it.