Our Story
Joan Zamora, Andi Xoch, and Clover (left to right) at the Vida’s, television show, second season premier party where they live painted.
In the summer of 2016, Andi Xoch and a friend (who wishes to remain unnamed) began to make art together and noticed that the women in their community had little access to art resources. Xoch, who was a teaching artist at Self Help Graphics & Art and had recently left the all-female bicycle brigade known as the Ovarian Psycos, wanted to create another collective that would retain the sisterhood of ex-Ovarian Psyco members. The one-time friends then decided to do a call out on social media and invite women to create art together. Self Help Graphics became the perfect place to meet.
Ni Santas’ name comes from the protest chant, “Ni santas, ni putas, solo mujeres”. Which can be translated to not saints, not sluts, just women. Here we can see Rotmi Enciso’s famous photograph shot on March 8, 1991 in Mexico City.
With a shared attraction to graffiti, painting, and other similar art styles, soon thereafter, many women joined the group. At one point Ni Santas consisted of about thirteen members. As time passed by the collective grew smaller due to a difference in interests, time schedules, and life. The current collective is composed and led by Ni Santas co-founders Joan Zamora, also a former Ovarian Psyco member, and The Clover Signs, who had also joined Ovarian Psycos’ bicycle rides. Andi Xoch had a take a step back since opening up two brick and mortar stores, Latinx With Plants.
While the majority of Ni Santa’s work is rooted in aerosol art, serigraphs, and community altars, every member contributes to incorporate a myriad of art mediums through different skills and style. The goal of the collective is be open to any muxer and manifest the power of muxeres with all artistic backgrounds to learn from each other.
Ni Santas started in the summer of 2016 where they would meet sometimes twice a week at Self Help Graphics & Art in Boyle Heights, California.
Ni Santas is an all women of color collective whose mission is to write their history through art, with responsibility to create socially conscious visual narratives. Ni Santas envision creating a safe space by cultivating a community of women, free of judgment to nourish their emerging artists.
“When you’re brown a women from the hood, whether you’re queer or gender non-conforming, your oppression isn’t only experienced as women, it is any and all those things at the same time so you have to create spaces to be able to articulate those experiences.
Historically we’ve been erased from art, and we have a responsibility to re write history through art creating socially conscious narratives. It empowers us to support each other because we have that trust and healing space among each other. We only get stronger by coming together.”
Ni Santas x Ni Putas x Solo Muxeres