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Today we are celebrating Lucinda Hinojos aka “La Morena,” the first Chicana and Indigenous artist to be selected by the NFL to create artwork in Super Bowl history. Lucinda is a visual artist and cultural organizer showcasing her Native American/Mexican roots and activism through her art. Her murals focus on the power of community, culture, and current political issues, healing as well as the inspiration and guidance of her ancestors.
Her artwork was featured on the Super Bowl LVII tickets, a Wilson commemorative football and a 9,500-square-foot mural at the Monarch Theatre in Phoenix. The mural is a collaborative creative effort with a number of Indigenous artists including Carrie “CC” Curley (San Carlos Apache) Anitra “Yukue” Molina (Pascua Yaqui) and Eunique Yazzie (Navajo/Diné), as well as supporting community artists Jesse Yazzie (Navajo/Diné), Giovannie Dixon and Missy Mahan (Euchee/Mvskoke and Tohono O’odham).
In an interview with Well and Good, Lucinda said her artwork for the NFL partnership is “something that Native people, Chicano people, and people of color can finally see themselves in and connect to.”
Her artwork represented the culture and history of Arizona with a reflection of the White Tank Mountains on the Lombardi Trophy and depictions of a Fancy Shawl dancer and an Azteca dancer, which pay homage to the Indigenous tribes in Arizona.
“For me, this is a really huge deal because not many people know that here in Arizona we have 22 tribes, nor do they even know the land that we’re on, so with everything that I’m doing with this painting, it ties into those elements,” Hinojos shared in an article for Forbes.com. “This painting represents celebrating the Super Bowl, but at the same time, it’s also honoring both of my cultures, the Chicano culture and my Indigenous culture.”