New Mexico State University's Borderlands and Ethnic Studies Department invites NMSU, Las Cruces, southern New Mexico, El Paso and Ciudad Juárez communities to commemorate and celebrate the National Day of Racial Healing Tuesday, Jan. 21, on the Las Cruces campus.

The event begins at 4:30 p.m. in the O'Donnell Hall lobby and will include healing activities, music, food and the unveiling of the department's third mural of the Borderlands Mural Project, "Homecoming." Attendees should RSVP before the event. The BEST Department and the Learning Action Buffet of Las Cruces will co-host the event, sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and supported by the College of Health, Education and Social Transformation.

Rooted in ancestral knowledges, the "Homecoming" mural uplifts three historical watershed moments that happened near NMSU at Tortugas ("A") Mountain, Mesilla/Chamberino and Vado. The stories of peoples' dignity, movement and refusal in these moments inspire dignifying and liberating K-college curriculum in New Mexico.

"The 'Homecoming' mural reflects watershed historical movements that have profound significance in this region: the Pueblo Revolution of 1680, the Mexican Defection of 1848 and the Black migration to New Mexico in the early 1900s," said Dulcinea Lara, BEST department head. "Additionally, the mural celebrates the marking of these lands as the crux of civilization in the western hemisphere resulting from the uncovering of footprints in what is now called White Sands. The murals, altogether, celebrate the sacredness and people power in this region while inviting guests to imagine a healthier, informed and thriving future."

The BEST Research Center commissioned six local professional artists and two NMSU art students to complete the mural, including A. Billi Free, Al Na'ir Lara, Celina Corral Arreola, Norma Chairez-Hartnell, Ryan Duran, Saba, Beatrice Chavez and Citlali Delgado. Free, who is the general manager of the Learning Action Buffet of Las Cruces, said collaborating on the mural aligned with the group's practiced values of art, community and action.

"I feel strongly that many people who interface with the piece experience a deep connection," Free said. "Celebrating the Borderlands Mural Project, the 'Homecoming' mural and the collaboration with the BEST Department for the National Day of Racial Healing event highlights the benefit and the beauty of relational work between community collectives and academic institutions."

The BEST Department initiated the Borderlands Mural Project in 2023. The mural series places art in highly visible campus locations to re-represent the knowledges and histories of borderlands peoples that are often omitted from dominant narratives and institutions. This project currently spans NMSU's Las Cruces campus, including the BEST offices in Garcia Center, the Astronomy Building and O'Donnell Hall.

"The BEST Department is incredibly proud to support local artists and students in the co-creation of murals that speak to the sacred nature of these borderlands and beyond," Lara said. "The stories told in these images honor the refusal, vision and dignity of local people from long ago and today. This work is part of curriculum development from pre-K to college in our region and aims to be part of the solution necessary to address the landmark 2018 ruling in the Yazzie/Martinez vs. State of New Mexico case."

Manal Hamzeh, director of the BEST Research Center, said the mural project is one of several research-art endeavors rooted in historical research, local and global contexts, and collaborative relations.

"The mural and the collaborative artistic practice help make sense of peoples' histories, reveal their brilliance and power, and celebrate their persistent resistance to colonial violence," Hamzeh said. "It has the potential to inspire collective decolonial imaginations for ways of living outside coloniality – logics and practices in all modern institutions."

For more information about the Borderlands Mural Project, visit https://best.nmsu.edu/index.html.

The full article can be seen at https://newsroom.nmsu.edu/news/nmsu-best-department-to-unveil-new-mural-at-national-day-of-racial-healing-event/s/95c2feef-0532-41f0-956e-5af358274b61