Pavel Acevedo
Comparsa De Fuego (Fire Procession), 2021
Serigraph and linocut, ed. of 60
20 x 26 In.

Political activism has been core to Pavel’s upbringing. As a member of the teacher’s union in Oaxaca, the artist’s mother was at the forefront of the yearly protests with hundreds of teachers demanding for better pay, infrastructure, and supplies.

The visuals of people chanting and marching the streets in 2020, resembled the artist’s memories of a protest he participated in 2006 alongside the teachers. The march in 2006 as it was in 2020, demanded a systemic shift.

Last year’s protest also gave rise to a decentralized leadership among the protesters which was witnessed in Hong Kong or Black Lives Matter, for example; a philosophy that has guided the teacher’s union in Oaxaca for decades.