Review of Cuentos y Arte: Mexican American Folktales of the Southwest

Every culture has its own ghost stories that act as cautionary tales—for instance, my friends and I were terrified of the “Bloody Mary” apparition as kids. Mexican American folktales, such as La Llorona, have established a legacy in popular culture, but a multitude of lesser-known figures and stories are reimagined visually at Centro de Artes’ Cuentos y Arte: Mexican American Folktales of the Southwest. The exhibition explores the relationship between oral folklore and contemporary artistic expression. Among the five artists featured, the works by Lisette Chavez and Angelica Raquel stand out for their depictions of folk narratives centered on powerful female figures, revealing Southwestern cultural perceptions of feminine power and presence—manifesting as either a benevolent saint or an ambiguous specter.

Installation view of Lisette Chavez’s Night Lights. Image courtesy of Centro de Artes.

In Night Lights, Lisette Chavez presents two blow-mold figures shaped in the likeness of the Virgin Mary. A figure central to Mexican Catholic practice, Mary is here melded with earlier Indigenous traditions through the contemporary image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Resting on small pedestals within a recessed wall, the installation emphasizes the figures’ internal glow. When illuminated, the chipping paint and scuff marks become visible, revealing their once-functional use as veladoras or night lights meant to provide comfort. Through this material transformation, Chavez demonstrates how folk belief is carried into everyday objects, presenting Mary as a physical light source that symbolizes protection and care—a comforting, matriarchal presence watching over those at rest.

Another work by Chavez, La Mujer de Blanco, illustrates the folktale of a woman dressed entirely in white who causes a fatal car crash. In South Texas lore, La Mujer de Blanco is often understood as a vengeful or grieving spirit—frequently tied to betrayal, abandonment, or loss—who haunts roadways by flagging down passing drivers. Those who stop are met with ill fate, suggesting punishment rather than chance. In a triptych of eerie graphite drawings, the first panel shows the woman’s body suspended against a tree, followed by her haunting visage in the second panel, and concluding with an image depicting the aftermath of a fatal car crash. The progression underscores the transformation from woman to apparition, emphasizing how unresolved grief or injustice is visually translated into supernatural retribution. The stark imagery demonstrates how folktales function as moral warnings when rendered through art.

Angelica Raquel interprets the same narrative in a colorful painting titled South Texas’s Lady in White, depicting the figure hovering above a moving vehicle. The illuminated frame shows cars driving through darkness toward the ghostly presence, creating a looming sense of inevitability and emphasizing the apparition’s active role within the story. When viewed alongside Chavez’s drawings, Raquel’s work illustrates how artists can reinterpret the same folktale through different visual strategies. Together, these works reveal how feminine power in Southwestern folklore is frequently framed through fear—specifically as vengeance rooted in loss or wrongdoing. The Lady in White becomes a figure who forces confrontation and accountability, prompting reflection on personal actions.

Installation view of Cuentos y Artes. From left to right on white wall: Angelica Raquel's La Bruja y la Curandera and El Gato Blanco: The Wrong Cat and the Fate of Tío Thomas. Image courtesy of Centro de Artes.

Raquel also explores another recurring female role within folktales: the wise yet morally ambiguous healer. She addresses this theme through two artworks based on the story of a curandera who disguises herself as a cat. In the tale, a family asks the curandera to heal their uncle. She instructs them to listen for two cats fighting at night and to kill the black cat to save him. In the chaos, the family throws a brick but kills the white cat instead. When they later find the curandera, she is bruised in the same place as the white cat, and the uncle dies shortly after.

Raquel’s first depiction, La Bruja y la Curandera, shows two opposite-colored cats circling each other with snarling teeth. The painted frame features gilded drawings of two opposing female figures corresponding to each cat, while a cinderblock at the bottom symbolizes both the violent act and the fatal misunderstanding. Raquel emphasizes the consequences of this folktale in her large needle-felted sculpture, El Gato Blanco: The Wrong Cat and the Fate of Tío Thomas. A lifeless cat lies curled beneath a cinderblock, one leg extending into a small human hand that reveals its identity as the curandera in disguise. By translating the story into sculptural form, Raquel underscores how misjudgment and fear of female power result in irreversible harm.

Overall, Cuentos y Arte: Mexican American Folktales of the Southwest demonstrates how folktales are preserved, reshaped, and given new life through visual art. Through their interpretations, Chavez and Raquel foreground powerful female figures who appear as protectors, avengers, and healers. While the exhibition centers on the dialogue between folklore and artistic expression, these works reveal how women’s presence within these stories remains central—serving as both moral force and cultural memory within Southwestern traditions.

Cuentos y Arte: Mexican American Folktales of the Southwest will be open on the second floor until February 22, 2026. Check the Centro de Artes website for more information.