Indigenous Artist

Imanalla mashikuna. Nukaka runashimi shutimi kani Yura Sapi. My Kichwa name is Yura Sapi. It means roots of the tree. My castellano name is Viviana Vargas Salvatierra. I'm an interdisciplinary artist, activist, arts manager, educator, facilitator, and founder of Advancing Arts Forward, a movement to advance equity, inclusion, and justice through the arts by creating liberated spaces that uplift, heal, and encourage us to change the world. I also co-created Balistikal, a healing and arts space that centers LGBTIQ+ community in so-called Latin America, especially Afro & Indigenous community. I'm actively considering my role in the fight for liberation beyond the U.S. borders thinking specifically about anti-racism, decolonization, and transformative justice. Yupaychani.

INDIGENOUS ANCESTRY

Other

SELF-IDENTIFICATION

Runa (Kichwa) from Central Ecuador & Andean Native