"My relationship with art has always been political," said 18-year-old artist Christian Arreguin. "My mentors like to call it artivism."
Arreguin is the youth artist-in-residence for Alliance San Diego (ASD), a nonprofit that engages the community in the democratic process.
He wants his art to inspire young people in his Chicano community to vote.
"Historically, my people haven't been represented, and if they are represented, it's not in the most positive light. So for me, it's about wanting to paint the people that I know, the faces that I see," he said.
The more he learned about democracy, the more essential that representation became in his art.
"Even if we just look at the local level with some propositions and some of the things that are on the ballot this season, to me it's something that correlates with my artwork because I am painting the people in my community,” Arreguin said. “And a lot of these propositions will directly be affecting my community members and the people that I know and love."
As an artist, Arreguin is inspired by his mentors Lucas Cruz and Patricia Cruz, both artists and leaders on the Chicano Park Steering Committee.
He said his work and activism are also influenced by the late Chicano artist Yolanda López, who unapologetically challenged both the role of art and who could be represented. Arreguin lit up when speaking of López's life and her connections to San Diego.
"[López's] ties to like political work and activism are very — she's very direct with it, which I hope that that's like the direction my artwork goes," Arreguin said. "She was really an organizer. She was really a political activist. And then she was an artist. So to have that backbone to your work has motivated me to be like, OK, I have to put in some work. And then out of those experiences, you get the inspiration for your artwork."
Arreguin made two poster-style paintings during his residency. One, inspired by Shepard Fairey's Barack Obama "Hope" poster, depicts a young man in a Padres hat holding a ballot.
Another draws on his Michoacán lineage with a monarch butterfly and gold-leaf accents.
The gold-leaf dots represent his ancestors, and the monarch butterfly is special to the Michoacán region — home to Reserva de Biosfera de la Mariposa Monarch, one of North America’s largest monarch migration sites and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
He said this piece of art felt personal for him, as well as political — a way to infuse his ancestry with the momentary significance of voting.
"The vision with the actual painting itself was just to take that isolated moment of someone voting and bringing out the beauty in it," Arreguin said. "I think it's something that people see as very mundane and something that's like, 'I got to go out and vote — this is so boring.' But no, there's a lot of power in that moment, and there's a lot of importance in that moment and you're making a lot of very important decisions when you are taking that moment to vote."
According to recent California state data, young people aged 18-25 make up 11.9% of San Diego County registered voters.
Alliance San Diego’s civic engagement director Itzel Maganda Chavez says reaching young voters requires a tailored approach.
"I think there's definitely a need for organizations to step in and make their content digestible for young people, especially when it comes to elections, what's on the ballot. We really tried this time to produce content that folks would understand in different ways — with infographics, with video explainers. We really just tried to get the word out there a lot," Chavez said.
In addition to the youth artist-in-residence program, ASD has also tried social media content like the "Eating the Ballot" video series, youth canvassers and programs like "Roll to the Polls" to get people to gather and go to voting centers collectively.
This will be Arreguin's first election as a registered voter. He says many of his peers are interested in politics, but not everyone feels their voices matter — yet. And he hopes that his art is one of many ways for young people and underrepresented groups to make a difference.
"The mantra that I keep saying to myself is, 'OK, it doesn't matter if you feel seen or heard, this is part of a bigger picture, like you're claiming space in these areas so that you'll be able to be seen and heard,'" Arreguin said. "And not just myself, but on a larger scale, younger people in general."
