We were lucky to catch up with Isabel “chavela” Figueroa recently and have shared our conversation below.

Isabel “Chavela”, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

As an artist, I feel very deeply when it comes to my work and I put my love and care into whatever I create. Painting murals at the Balderrama park in Oceanside, California so far has been the most meaningful to me because it hits close to home. When I first heard about the project I knew I just had to get involved because that park is the heart of Pozole, the community my family is from. It got its name back in the early 1900s when Anita Cruz Romero immigrated from Mexico to the US as a widowed mother needing to make a living to care for her son. She started cooking and selling posole to nearby farmworkers and a community formed dubbing it the Pozole neighborhood ever since. Flash forward to the 1970s my grandparents settled in the neighborhood after having their own journey immigrating from Jalisco to the US and this is the place my parents grew up in. This project started taking place early February of 2024 and it began as community meetings proposing the locals to speak up about what they want to see in a mural in their park. By this time I already had built a reputation of my own having painted a large mural called La Sagrada Ofrenda (the Sacred Offering) just outside of the neighborhood highlighting the story of how it got its name back in 2020. That project came with its own struggles since it was painted almost in protest of the murals being commissioned by the city using artists from other places; as a local, I along with many others felt the city gentrifying and wanting to bring art that just felt generic and underrepresented Oceanside’s diverse culture to cater to its growing tourism. These murals in the park are the first time the community has felt seen in the history of Oceanside since historically, it has been a primarily Mexican community cast aside by the city and labeled as a gang ridden area with a bad reputation. Through the murals we wanted to change that narrative so we organized a group of local artists including myself to come up with ideas to make the park feel alive and booming with culture and art. The piece I chose to create is called “Pozole, la sopa de lo divino” (Pozole, the soup of the divine) which portrays the history of the dish itself and our culture’s long standing relationship with agriculture, science, community and spirituality. Splashed with bright and bold colors depicting our indigenous ancestors cultivating fruits and vegetables from the Chinampas constructed in the middle of a lake for efficient farming. Pozolé is a dish created for ceremonies and consumed to nourish the body and soul to give to the gods such as Tlaloc to ensure rich rainfall and a bountiful harvest by sacrificing to Xipe Totec the god of spring and renewal and Chicomecoatl the goddess off maíze. Every piece in this mural holds deep symbolism of how we are connected to each other and the divine through the land. The men farming and fishing and the women harvesting and preparing the pozolé are the essence of community and how it takes a village sacrifice and hard work to create this meal. In which the gods give back to those who care for them by watching over the people and hearing their call. Each time you eat a bowl of pozolé you are filled with the energy of the hands who harvested and prepared the meal as well as the energy of the gods who sent down the abundance to bring us together. I feel deeply connected to this subject since my grandpa worked in agriculture his whole life and how my aunt and mom cook posole around Christmas time and it brings everyone together. Food is how we share our culture and make memories and that’s what the neighborhood was founded on, a woman’s need for survival carrying generations of struggle and ancestral knowledge to create and bring people together.

Isabel “Chavela”, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

All my life I have been an artist and art is as synonymous with my being as breathing and eating. I have been drawing ever since I learned to hold a pencil and I always had a mind filled with ideas just waiting to be put on paper. In elementary school, I learned about legendary artists such as Frida Khalo, Vincent Van Gough and Henry Matisse and up until that point I thought you had to die in order for your art to be recognized. After seeing reality T.V shows like LA Ink and Ink Master I was hooked by the idea of being a tattoo artist because it gave me hope that my dream of making a living off of my art could be a reality. Through highschool, I began to take my art seriously, especially painting and working with other mediums like ceramics and embroidery because why should I limit myself to one thing? My teenage years are where I unknowingly worked the hardest to create an image for myself; I yearned to stand out, only thinking about tattoos and how I am going to make it my career. Everyone knew me as the Chicana rockabilly chick that was good at drawing and someday would be covered in tattoos and I feel this had always been a part of who I am long before I realized it. Growing up around lowriders, old school music and everyone in my family being tattooed, those things just felt normal to me and I thought it was normal to everyone until I realized not many kids my age shared the same experience. My family has been known for being artistic, so I feel that set me up to be catapulted into the art scene in Oceanside; having connections is the most important tool an artist can have and soon I would be commissioned to paint my very first mural. It was a massive thing for me to take on at the time and being only 20 years old when I did that, it was the largest thing I had ever painted. I had major impostor syndrome on top of all the other wonderful hoops you have to jump through when dealing with the city’s rules and regulations and I had to learn to use my own discernment when working with others. After executing this piece, I was noticed by the local college and other artists in town who wanted to hear me speak and share my story so I began to do lots of public speaking and art workshops with our local art museum and community college. After having my first breakout piece, I finally got to pick up a tattoo machine and I began to practice the craft; luckily for me, I had my friends and family to support me. This blossomed a new path for me and tattooing close friends and family helped to build a small clientele which led me to make new friends and grow as an artist. Now, I pride myself on creating a safe and relaxing environment for anyone who gets tattooed by me because I believe you shouldn’t feel anything less than calm and relaxed when you have a needle poking you a million times per second. I hear many of my clients say they were nervous to get tattooed or that they don’t like to go into shops because they feel intimidated, so many appreciate that I create a space for them to feel like they can ask questions or have a good chat while getting their new ink. What makes me most proud in my artistic journey is that I’ve been lucky enough to make a significant cultural impact in my city by putting up murals that highlight the local culture and that I may have helped the people in my community to feel seen. I also feel proud to have learned so much so that I am able to be someone young artists can look up to in their own journeys and they won’t feel so alone because I can pass on the wisdom from my own experience. My hope for any new clients I will have or other artists/fellow art lovers I will meet can know that I am a person that wears many hats and I enjoy sharing a good chat about anything and everything but most importantly, I want them to know that, I care . When it comes to tattooing I am always striving to be better and that every client I assist has a good experience and leaves with a smile on their face because tattoos have a lot of power in helping one’s image of themselves. But for my art as a whole, each piece that I create is an extension of myself so I want people to know that when you look into the art I create you are experiencing a whole world of my design and that there is weight in every small detail you see.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

What I think many non creative people don’t quite understand is that being a creative is more than just a job or having a hobby. Sometimes you can find yourself lost in it; you can become consumed by your work and have a constant storm of emotions filling your head. Most people also don’t quite understand that being an artist is a 24/7, 365 days a week kind of thing. It really is a lifestyle, because when you’re not at work or fulfilling other responsibilities you’re trying to get a good sketch in or are just thinking of all the projects you wish to do. Time is also everything, when you have a full time job every moment of spare time you have is precious. Personally, I’ve spent years just trying to figure out my personal style and to this day that is still evolving. There are days you feel you’re not doing enough to hone your craft (trust there’s too many mediums I’ve picked up to practice them all constantly) and there are days where you think you just might not want to pick up a brush again. But, as for many things it is important that you get back up and try again even if you don’t think it’s great since, it is better to try and fail than to never try at all. Art is such a uniquely human creation and I encourage those who even feel like they don’t have an artistic bone in their body to at least try since you never know what it can do for you. It teaches values that can be applied in any field, any place and in anyone’s day to day and they’re extremely simple. Patience and consistency is key to becoming great at anything, invest in the right equipment whether it be actual tools or just taking the time to learn something new because it’ll make your life way easier, and lastly, don’t take it too seriously you’ll ruin the part that makes it fun. In short, we all have something to learn from each other and I hope to teach those who are willing to learn about the hard work, dedication and effort put into creating things that make life worth living for.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

There is a lot about being an artist that I find rewarding, especially in painting murals. It’s great to bring art to my community and I love to see the looks on peoples’ faces when they resonate with the piece. With my most recent mural I’ve completed, I often see people stepping back to take pictures and that really makes me happy. While I was painting my first mural ( La Sagrada Ofrenda) there was a moment when I had stopped to take a breather and I saw a mother and her son, maybe about three or four years old. She was pushing him in his stroller when she stopped to look at the piece and she looked at him then pointed up and said “look, that’s your culture”. It still makes me tear up to this day when I think about it, even if it was a small moment it had a big impact on how I feel about painting murals. To know that she saw herself in that mural; to know that what I have created will be seen by children who will also resonate with it, and that their children will see it and feel the same is the highest honor one can feel. Public art, I feel, has a weight many don’t realize since Oceanside at the time didn’t have any murals that represented the Latino community until my mural was painted. After that it opened the door for more opportunities such as the murals at the Balderrama Park and I think that the beauty of art is that it can open doors for new opportunities while uplifting those who cross its path. Being an artist really is cemented in my soul as a catalyst for expressing myself not only emotionally but is how I show my love for my culture, history, science, etc. and the love I have for the raw, enduring human spirit.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @Pinche.chavi / https://www.instagram.com/pinche.chavi/profilecard/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
• Other:
  https://www.tiktok.com/@pinche.chavi?_t=8rKCzmLIukQ&[email protected]

Image Credits

@gloriatorresphotography