Meztli Projects

Joel Garcia is founder of Meztli Projects, an Indigenous-based arts & culture collaborative centering Indigeneity into the creative practice of Los Angeles by using arts-based strategies to support, advocate for and organize to highlight Native/Indigenous Artists and systems-impacted youth. Meztli Projects operates out of Apachianga (East Los Angeles) in Tovaangar (Los Angeles County) lands stewarded since time immemorial by families and villages now known as the Acjachemen, Chumash, Tataviam and Tongva Tribal Nations.

Somebody sees something in you

“I grew up in the projects here in East LA. It wasn’t until a series of killings that Ruben Guevara, who is this LA icon of Chicano culture, launched an organization ‘Arts 4 City Youth’ to do arts programming. Ruben commissioned Paul Botello to do a mural at the projects. That’s how I began my apprenticeship with him. But beyond that, there was no arts programming. So, for me it took one person to advocate for resources to then hire this one artist that then eventually hired me. Very quickly my apprenticeship with Paul revolved around murals and that was in high school. I graduated and then went straight into Otis College of Art and Design. While I was at Otis, I got shot during my first semester. It was pretty traumatic for my family, but it was probably the best thing that could have happened because it made me slow down and redirected my creative practice to focus on ‘artivism’ and culturally-based work. I wasn’t out running around aimlessly. And so, in the two months that I was stuck at home, I learned Photoshop and Illustrator. At the same time, my friend’s band had gotten signed to Epitaph Records. I had been doing T-shirts, flyers for them and covers for their tapes. I delivered the album design and art to the record label. They liked what I did and then they kept bringing me back. I went from working with backyard artists to international artists. And so that idea of nurturing people comes from that path of, okay, somebody sees something in you and they’re going to do their best to provide a whole ecosystem of resources — holistic, in every sense of that word. And I just thought, ‘This is great if everybody has this.’”

LACDMH Strategic Plan Points: 1a.1 education, 1a.2 engagement, 1a.3 follow up, 1b.1 housing, 1b.2 kin, 1b.3 purpose, 1c.1 assessment, 2.3 restorative care, 4.2 organizational process, 4.3 organizational outcomes.