Veronica Xochitl Valadez is an educator, visual artist, Aztec dancer, and community activist. She has diligently worked in various communities in an effort to bring forth positive change through the arts, social movements, and cultural events. Veronica believes in the power of unity in order to promote social justice movements that aim to better the lives of those who are less than fortunate.
Veronica holds a B.A. from UC Santa Barbara in Chicano/a Studies, a Multiple-Subject Teaching Credential from Cal State Channel Islands, and an M.A. in Chicano/a Studies from Cal State Northridge. Additionally, Veronica has been a traditional Aztec Dancer since 1996, which has been instrumental in Veronica's learning about Indigenous cultures, traditions, ceremonies, social structures, history, language, mathematics, calendric systems, astronomy, philosophy, spirituality, and political struggles.
Veronica has been an educator since 1998 when she started teaching traditional Aztec dancing in Santa Barbara in 1998, and has taught danza in Ventura since 2002. She became a bilingual education school teacher in 2001 as a Kindergarten teacher in Ventura, California. Veronica is now a faculty member at Cal State Channel Islands where she teaches Chicana/o Studies and helps to organize cultural events such as "Celebrating la Mujer" and "Con Safos Art Exhibit" with Denise Lugo, who is also a faculty member at CSUCI and well known Chicana/o Arts Curator. Veronica helped to establish "Danza Tlaloc Ollin", the first ever Aztec Dance Club at any University in California of which students join to learn about their Indigenous heritage through the tradition of Aztec dance.
In 2012, Veronica completed her Masters Degree with her written thesis entitled "Dancing Amoxtli: Danza Azteca and Indigenous Body Art as Forms of Resistance". This body of work explores present-day manifestations of Danza Azteca and Mesoamerican body art, and their connection to the development of Chicana/o indigenous identities and resistance against marginalization and erasure of their indigenous heritage.
As explained in her thesis, contemporary Danza Azteca and indigenous body art have their roots in pre-Cuauhtemoc ceremonial dance traditions and rites of passage ceremonies that were at the heart of the religious, political, and artistic foundation of the Aztec civilization. After the Spanish conquest, native forms of knowledge and religious expression, including dance and body adornment, were banned and punishable by death. Those who survived the conquest found ways in which to preserve their cultural traditions in secrecy that have made possible the revival of these traditions today.
During the 1960s and 70s, Danza Azteca sprouted throughout the Southwest among politicized Chicana/o communities. For many Chicanas and Chicanos, this was a positive form of resistance against assimilation and marginalization that took the form of cultural pride and the reclamation of repressed histories. Today, Danza Azteca continues to grow and develop in fascinating ways as the struggle for equal rights continues.
Danza Azteca provides its participants access to embodied recuperations of indigenous epistemologies. Contemporary danzantes (Aztec dancers) express their indigeneity through an aesthetic that includes traditional forms of dress and body adornment through the use of Aztec dance regalia and even tattoos and piercings. By wearing and tattooing Mesoamerican images, glyphs, and symbols, danzantes are reviving and preserving Mesoamerican art, including symbolic representations and expressions of religious philosophies.
The practicing of Danza Azteca and taking on an Indigenous aesthetic through dress and body adornment are a testament to the empowering role that spiritual traditions and artistic expressions have on the formation of the Chicano’s political consciousness and Indigenous identity. Through this study, we can better understand how Chicanas/os are able to resist oppressive ideologies by embracing, celebrating, reviving, and expressing their indigenismo (indigenous identity).
Veronica holds a B.A. from UC Santa Barbara in Chicano/a Studies, a Multiple-Subject Teaching Credential from Cal State Channel Islands, and an M.A. in Chicano/a Studies from Cal State Northridge. Additionally, Veronica has been a traditional Aztec Dancer since 1996, which has been instrumental in Veronica's learning about Indigenous cultures, traditions, ceremonies, social structures, history, language, mathematics, calendric systems, astronomy, philosophy, spirituality, and political struggles.
Veronica has been an educator since 1998 when she started teaching traditional Aztec dancing in Santa Barbara in 1998, and has taught danza in Ventura since 2002. She became a bilingual education school teacher in 2001 as a Kindergarten teacher in Ventura, California. Veronica is now a faculty member at Cal State Channel Islands where she teaches Chicana/o Studies and helps to organize cultural events such as "Celebrating la Mujer" and "Con Safos Art Exhibit" with Denise Lugo, who is also a faculty member at CSUCI and well known Chicana/o Arts Curator. Veronica helped to establish "Danza Tlaloc Ollin", the first ever Aztec Dance Club at any University in California of which students join to learn about their Indigenous heritage through the tradition of Aztec dance.
In 2012, Veronica completed her Masters Degree with her written thesis entitled "Dancing Amoxtli: Danza Azteca and Indigenous Body Art as Forms of Resistance". This body of work explores present-day manifestations of Danza Azteca and Mesoamerican body art, and their connection to the development of Chicana/o indigenous identities and resistance against marginalization and erasure of their indigenous heritage.
As explained in her thesis, contemporary Danza Azteca and indigenous body art have their roots in pre-Cuauhtemoc ceremonial dance traditions and rites of passage ceremonies that were at the heart of the religious, political, and artistic foundation of the Aztec civilization. After the Spanish conquest, native forms of knowledge and religious expression, including dance and body adornment, were banned and punishable by death. Those who survived the conquest found ways in which to preserve their cultural traditions in secrecy that have made possible the revival of these traditions today.
During the 1960s and 70s, Danza Azteca sprouted throughout the Southwest among politicized Chicana/o communities. For many Chicanas and Chicanos, this was a positive form of resistance against assimilation and marginalization that took the form of cultural pride and the reclamation of repressed histories. Today, Danza Azteca continues to grow and develop in fascinating ways as the struggle for equal rights continues.
Danza Azteca provides its participants access to embodied recuperations of indigenous epistemologies. Contemporary danzantes (Aztec dancers) express their indigeneity through an aesthetic that includes traditional forms of dress and body adornment through the use of Aztec dance regalia and even tattoos and piercings. By wearing and tattooing Mesoamerican images, glyphs, and symbols, danzantes are reviving and preserving Mesoamerican art, including symbolic representations and expressions of religious philosophies.
The practicing of Danza Azteca and taking on an Indigenous aesthetic through dress and body adornment are a testament to the empowering role that spiritual traditions and artistic expressions have on the formation of the Chicano’s political consciousness and Indigenous identity. Through this study, we can better understand how Chicanas/os are able to resist oppressive ideologies by embracing, celebrating, reviving, and expressing their indigenismo (indigenous identity).