Oda a Volcán, an ode to She*
Aída Esmeralda * alexis torres marroquín * Luz Del Carmen Salama-Tobar
Noemí Delgado * Reyna Delcid-Villegas * Tichacoco
*She our beloved witness, our long-time disenfranchised relative, who awaits, rages, harvests, replenishes, and becomes. She, the volcano, sacred space, ancient wisdom, site of ecological violence, site of human rights violations, mother of restoration, rematriation, and memory. She was the first to bear and witness settler-colonialism, in that way her experiences parallel those of her caretakers and children- who continue to face and defy the violence of settler nation-states.
Oda a Volcán, an ode to She*, reflects the artists’ understanding of their practice as a site to challenge coloniality, extraction, and erasure. Responding to Volcánes as both relatives and representatives of ancestors who must be honored and protected, six femme and queer artists from the Salvadoran Diaspora manifest what Kency Cornejo describes as visual disobedience. This offering takes on the form of sculpture and installation, shaped by how the artists invite community work, spirituality, relation to land, historical reclamation, and the protection of passed-down conocimientos (ancestral wisdom) into the material world to invoke resistance and redignification.
Oda a Volcán opens on Wednesday, December 9th, 2026 from 6pm-10pm. Following the opening, a lecture series will take place on Tuesday, December 15th in the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center’s Flamboyán. Of the isthmus | del istmo will center the voices of Salvadoran artists, scholars, change-makers, and elders from feminist, queer, abolitionist, and indigenous perspectives. Oda a Volcán will culminate on Friday, January 8th, 2027 with a poetry night and an open-mic session.
Curated by Orquídya/Tichacoco, Oda a Volcán was created as part of The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center’s Van Lier Fellowship supported by The New York Community Trust.
Opening: Dec 9, 6-10 pm
Of the isthmus | del istmo Lecture Series: December 15
Closing/poetry night: January 8