How the Canon Gets Made: Or, Notes Toward a New Canon

Presented by New Latin Wave

In 2026, New Latin Wave marks its 10-year anniversary—a milestone that invites both celebration and reflection. While we have built a platform for contemporary Latine artists across disciplines, we are also part of a longer lineage, multiple “waves” of cultural workers and artists who have reshaped the terrain of Latine art through sustained engagement with—and transformation of—institutional structures.

This program brings those histories into direct conversation with the present. It highlights a foundational cohort of women scholars, curators, and cultural strategists whose work over the past several decades has helped define the field of Latinx art history, alongside Historias, a recent citywide initiative developed by Libertad Guerra and The Clemente Center that reimagines how Latinx histories are told, held, and shared across New York City, including its digital platform Nueva York Chronicles, which maps Latinx presence across time, space, and public life to connect past and next generations. 

Featuring Rocío Aranda-Alvarado (Ford Foundation, formerly curator at El Museo del Barrio), Yasmin Ramirez (curator, professor, and writer), and moderated by Libertad Guerra (Executive Director of The Clemente Center).