SANTA ANA—Imagining Santa Ana Art & Culture Workshops

SANTA ANA—Enjoy a spirited afternoon in celebration of traditional art and indigenous heritage. This event is open to the entire community with a drum circle, Mesoamerican dancing, food, art activities, and open mike poetry. Sign up for free, limited-enrollment workshops for adults, ages 14+. Parents, relax and enjoy the workshop of your choice while your children create, play and learn with a team of teaching artists. Intro to Nahuatl with David Vazquez In this workshop, you will learn how to greet and salute in Nahuatl, learn the colors, numbers and how to hold a basic Nahuatl conversation. Artist, musician and Maestro David Vazquez has been teaching Nahuatl, the ancient language and culture of the Aztecs, in Santa Ana for over 25 years. Painting with Natural Pigments with Isidro Perez aka Chilo Traditional cultures have created art from natural pigments for thousands of years, using materials that can literally be found in your own backyard. For example, the cochinilla insect was used by the Aztec and Maya peoples to make intense red and purple colored dyes, and this insect continues to make its home on prickly pear cacti throughout Southern California. Culture, history, and art come together in this workshop where participants will learn to gather and use natural materials to make paint pigments while creating their own Aztec-inspired codex to take home. Lead artist Isidro Perez, also known as Chilo, recently graduated from Cal Arts while painting the El Sol mural El Sol y La Luna. Register and get free tickets for this event or RSVP on Facebook. This program is supported by California Humanities through a Humanities for All Project Grant.