That Stubborn Resistance is a celebration, rooted in the past, of the present contributions of Central Americans and Mexicans in the United States. The exhibition, featuring both existing and new artworks created by members of the Los Angeles artists group La Piedra, envisions resistance as the refusal to accept or comply. The artwork explores themes of war, memory, and healing. In their own words, the artists of La Piedra highlight “how all social struggles, whether contemporary or future, are the continuity of the historical legacy of other deeds.” The name La Piedra alludes to the artists’ collective history of resilience. Like many other immigrants from the Central American region, most of La Piedra’s members had to flee their countries. To find refuge in the United States, they left behind family, careers, and their aspirations. Struggles for social justice have inspired and nourished their art, while that art has accompanied and informed feats carried out by different peoples in their search for better societies free of oppression.

 

The artworks in the exhibition are complemented by oral history videos that trace personal and community histories, highlighting the reconstruction of the artists’ lives: raising families, establishing communities, and gradually reshaping the Los Angeles landscape through their

multi-layered social and cultural contributions. Individually and collectively, they have participated in numerous art exhibitions and public art programs in the U.S. since 1979. In 1997, they participated in the first-ever cross-cultural art exchange with El Salvador, known as The Great Table. Three panels of the 14-panel polyptych are on display here.

 

La Piedra convenes twice a month at the Siqueiros Gallery in Mid-City to create, educate, and participate in community. They fight for recognition in the art world and find ways to refuse invisibility in U.S. society and culture while holding their homelands close to their hearts.