“Hacemos La Ciudad (We Make the City) is a comprehensive civic reimagining initiative that examines and questions how colonial ideology informs civic life, and the existing architecture and infrastructure of our cities.”
“We view cities as holistic, breathing spaces that shape all facets of resident life: from economic justice to social equity and cultural identity. The fabric of being and belongingness is woven into the spaces we inhabit. ”
“Hacemos la Ciudad calls to question who gets to decide how our cities our built, and what values get instilled into our built environments. The project intentionally warps municipal planning processes, creating unusual sites for convening where community members use art to imagine a decolonized civic landscape, and work collaboratively to develop their own, more equitable version of the city.”
“The project is influenced by traditional (Robert Moses and the Panorama of New York) and more radical (The People’s Cultural Plan) planning processes, remixing the two through a yearlong schedule of movement workshops, performances, art installations, and charrettes.”
“From chucherias hot glued together to make building blocks for city planning, to costumes that collage ropa usada with dollar store textures, Hacemos la Ciudad infuses the everyday with the magical, inviting collaborators to rethink how they see the world around them, and to reconsider what is and is not possible. ”
“Hacemos la Ciudad culminates with the construction of a scale model of downtown Brownsville, and the development of the The Plan De Arte Cívico del Pueblo Entero (The Civic Art Plan for All the People), informed by ideas for equity collected from community members throughout the project.”
“The Plan De Arte Cívico del Pueblo Entero is both an artistic representation reflecting the dreams and ambitions of Brownsville residents, and a comprehensive call to action with suggestions for how to work collectively to materialize those dreams. ”
