Rocio Villanueva

Tierra Sagrada

The Artist

Rocio Villanueva is a ceramic artist, educator, Mexican immigrant, and U.S. Army veteran whose work explores memory, migration, military service, and belonging. She served for eight years, including a deployment to Iraq, before finding in clay a way to express experiences that were difficult to put into words. Ceramics became a means of reconnecting with her Mexican roots, Indigenous ancestry, and family history. Her practice has since expanded from personal reflection to exhibiting, teaching, and creating opportunities for others to work with clay. Villanueva has worked with children, families, veterans, elders, people with disabilities, and community members from diverse backgrounds. Her approach emphasizes welcoming spaces where people can create alongside one another and share their knowledge. Through her art and teaching, she seeks to preserve personal stories, strengthen relationships, and make ceramics more accessible.

Rocio Villanueva

The Project

Rocio Villanueva’s Tierra Sagrada will bring people together through free, bilingual ceramics workshops in Escondido and North San Diego County. Connecting hands-on art-making with storytelling, the project will invite participants to explore identity, family traditions, memory, and belonging. Villanueva plans to engage 100–150 participants, welcoming veterans, immigrant families, Indigenous community members, elders, youth, and neighbors of different backgrounds and abilities. Participants will shape clay into personal expressions of remembrance, gratitude, hope, or connection, with opportunities to share the stories behind their work. Indigenous artists and cultural knowledge holders, veteran artists, and community leaders will be invited to collaborate. Indigenous participants will guide the sharing of traditions and knowledge from their own communities. English and Spanish instruction, adaptive tools, and other accommodations will help reduce barriers to participation. Stories and creative responses gathered during the workshops will inform a new collection of 15–20 ceramic artworks, including vessels, sculptures, and mixed-media pieces. Through both the workshops and the resulting art, Tierra Sagrada will explore how working with earth can carry cultural memory forward and create common ground among people with different histories.

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