Some people identify as undocumented immigrants. Others identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer. Some identify as both—Julio Salgado, visual artist and activist, is one of them.
Salgado presented to UW-Madison students as part of his nationwide “I’m a Queer Artist of Color and I’m Still Alive!” lecture series Tuesday.
“As a queer artist of color, a lot of the time, it’s only when we’re dead that folks celebrate us or they talk about our work,” Salgado said. “And so for me as a queer artist that’s a person of color, I think it’s important for me to talk about my own art while I’m still alive.”
Salgado’s presentation traced the progression of his career as an artist, from his upbringing as an undocumented immigrant living in southern California, to his nine-year pursuit and achievement of a journalism degree. It also delved into his work with fellow artists to bring attention to issues facing both the undocumented community and fellow queer artists of color.
“What I most appreciate about him is that I think we talk about a lot of these things that he brought up in these very academic terms and forget the human aspect, forget the story aspect, forget the faces to them,” Tiffany Lee, LGBT Campus Center program coordinator, said.
One of Salgado’s major works is the #QueerArtistsAlive movement in which he immortalized fellow queer artists of color through his own artistic representations of them. In his “Que Siga la Fiesta: Queer & Trans People of Color Club Takeover” project, he recreated photos of queer people of color at gay nightclubs in order to promote the idea of safe spaces within the LGBTQ community after the June 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting.
Salgado is also active in the undocumented immigrant community. He uses his artwork to foster political activism regarding the DREAM Act. He also works with his own organization, Dreamers Adrift, to “take back the narrative” of immigrant life.
“I think that more than anything, I want people to know that every group has their own narrative and we need to make sure that, especially if you’re part of a minority group, to take back that narrative and to own that narrative because the media or pop culture will do whatever they want to do with your narrative, and so it’s important for us to speak up,” Salgado said.
