Nicolás González-Medina, woodcut block for “Somos La Resistencia (We Are the Resistance)” (2025) print (all photographs courtesy Nicolás González-Medina)
Oakland-based artist and activist Nicolás González-Medina was among the many almost 1,000 protesters who gathered to advocate for immigrant, LGBTQ+, and girls’s rights in San Francisco’s Mission District for a Day of Resistance on January 18, forward of the presidential inauguration. And he had come ready together with his woodcut printmaking provides.
“Ninety percent of being a political artist is showing up to things,” he instructed Hyperallergic.
For the march protesting the inauguration of Donald Trump — who has once more vowed to deport thousands and thousands of undocumented immigrants — González-Medina selected his design “Somos La Resistencia (We Are the Resistance),” which he printed on picket indicators and roughly 150 shirts worn throughout the occasion.
The print incorporates a half-portrait of a long-haired determine sporting earrings that say “resist” and holding a hand up in defiance. The artist provides his paintings out free of charge at protests, however sometimes sells it on-line.
Protesters in San Francisco’s Mission District on January 18, 2025
“This art piece has Aztec designs because we live in a time when people forget their history,” González-Medina mentioned. “The resistance means that we are still going to be here — you cannot erase us.”
Trump’s threats grew to become a actuality within the days after his inauguration, when he signed orders to finish birthright citizenship for the kids of undocumented dad and mom and greenlight immigration raids in hospitals, faculties, and church buildings. On Sunday, January 26, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported near 1,000 arrests, the very best single-day statistic for the reason that company started sharing numbers on X, in accordance with CNN.
González-Medina mentioned he was impressed by the Black Panther Celebration’s Emory Douglas, who used woodcut prints to create political artwork.
Lengthy earlier than González-Medina’s work grew to become a Bay Space emblem of the wrestle for immigration rights, he was a reputation in activist circles. “The reason why I started making art was because I was tired of arguing with people all the time,” González-Medina instructed Hyperallergic. “I focus on myself, do the work, and at the end of the day, if I’m doing something good, it’s gonna show for itself.”
In 2010, the identical yr he misplaced his mom to most cancers, González-Medina “came out” as undocumented throughout Nationwide Coming Out of the Shadows Day in Chicago, an occasion organized by the Immigrant Youth Justice League. “I’m not afraid anymore. My name is Nico and I’m undocumented,” he mentioned in a speech revealing his standing that day.
González-Medina was born in Guanajuato, Mexico. When he was simply 5 years previous, he moved to Chicago, the place his mother labored in a manufacturing unit. He remained within the metropolis till 2013, when he moved to the Bay Space.
He was one among 5 undocumented activists who got down to stroll from San Francisco to Washington, DC, in 2012 to advocate for the Growth, Reduction, and Training for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which might set up a path to authorized residency for the kids of undocumented immigrants and has did not move US Congress quite a few occasions. The artist mentioned he additionally helped set up a starvation strike at an Obama marketing campaign workplace in Denver, Colorado, in June 2012. Quickly after, the Obama administration created the Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Although he fought to pave a path to everlasting standing for youngsters of undocumented dad and mom, González-Medina mentioned he’s not eligible for DACA as a result of he didn’t end highschool or full a GED, as required by the motion.
Element of Nicolás González-Medina’s “Somos La Resistencia” (2025)
González-Medina didn’t name himself an artist till he moved to Oakland, although he had painted banners for protests earlier than. At one among his first jobs within the Bay Space, González-Medina noticed former Black Panther Celebration Minister Emory Douglas, who created political artwork utilizing woodcut prints, at work.
“He carved so deep into it, it was very sculptural,” González-Medina mentioned. By the next yr, he was making his personal large-scale woodcut prints.
Now mobilizing his personal artwork for change as stories of ICE unfold throughout the nation, González-Medina mentioned he’s used to extremely anti-immigration moments like this one and has been since he was a child.
“The feeling is of uncertainty, there is a lot of fear being spread,” González-Medina instructed Hyperallergic. “But we can look back and remember, ‘Okay, we’ve been through this already.’ I also know that during these next four years, it’s gonna really push people to make art and to get involved.”
Nicolás González-Medina, “We Take Care of Us” (2023)
Nicolás González-Medina, “Queer Resistance” (2023)
Nicolás González-Medina, “Plant the Seeds of your Future” (2022)
