Fellow 2025-2026 Federico Cuatlacuatl
Artist and Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Virginia. Cuatlacuatl’s aesthetic oeuvre addresses Nahua Indigenous immigration, social art practice, and cultural sustainability. Building on his own experience as an undocumented immigrant and DACA holder, his creative practice collides Indigeneity and immigration.
At the core of his most recent research and artistic production is the intersection of transborder Indigeneity, migrant Indigenous diasporas, and Nahua futurisms. His work has been featured in international film festivals and exhibitions globally. Cuatlacuatl is a co-founder of the UNDOC+Collective and the founder of the Rasquache Artist Residency in Puebla, México.
Federico Cuatlacuatl visually delineates migration and displacement while smuggling acts of self-preservation, rematriation, and resistance. He smuggles indigenous Mexican traditions and culture to the United States, reclaiming his ancestral Nahua lineage, land, and language. As a DACAmented member of the Nahua community, Cuatlacuatl’s work is shaped by the colonial marginalization and disenfranchisement faced by indigenous communities in México while being deeply rooted in challenging socio-political and economic relations between México and the United States