For Sitalin Sánchez, a second-year master of theological studies degree candidate at Harvard Divinity School, religion and the arts are inseparable. She is an illustrator, designer, poet, dancer, and academic. Art is not her hobby. It is her research.
Growing up in the Indigenous community of San Miguel Tzinacapan, Puebla, México, Sánchez has been surrounded by art her whole life. It has always been a way for her to express her identity and celebrate the life of her community.
“I've been a ceremonial dancer since I was five years old,” Sánchez explained. “Illustration felt like a natural extension of dancing, of praying. It was just another way to express what I was living and what I was experiencing in San Miguel.”
Before coming to HDS, Sánchez worked for a large graphic design company in Mexico where her technical design skills flourished. The environment was competitive, but it was there that Sánchez met coworkers who inspired her to develop her own artistic style and find projects that align with this vision. Sánchez continues to work with several of these coworkers today: Seiji Takahashi, the CEO of Norobu, and Lorena Barradas, whom she considers a friend, sister, and colleague. As these coworkers began to notice her creative talents, her comfort in expressing her abilities grew. The result was Sirena Design Lab.
Sánchez co-founded Sirena Design Lab, her design studio, alongside Barradas in 2022 to share their artwork with the world. Last semester, Sánchez illustrated a book titled, La experiencia de formación en género para comunicadoras de nueve comunidades indígenas de Oaxaca, created in collaboration with the Instituto de Liderazgo Simone de Beauvoir. The book won Mexico’s national design award, the Premio Diseña México. During the illustration process, Sánchez heavily researched the community's daily life in Oaxaca. She made sure that her illustrations were not just beautiful works of art, but meaningful expressions of the life of the community.
The goal of Sánchez’s art reflects her academic research at HDS: She is here to make a change. Her focus at Sirena Design Lab is mainly on branding and editorial design, with a specific focus on NGOs dedicated to women, Indigenous people, environmental activism, or social justice projects. These are the topics Sánchez is passionate about in her studies at HDS and in her design work. For her, this research and art are inseparable.
This past summer, Sánchez interned at Casa Tonalli Studio in East Los Angeles with Altaristas (master altar makers) Rossana and Ofelia Esparza. This coming spring, Sánchez will continue to expand her artistry while assisting the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage with their upcoming Folklife Festival in summer 2024.
In this role, Sánchez will aid in the curatorial process of selecting featured artists, preparing events and talks, and writing for Folklife Magazine. This work allows Sánchez to play a unique role in defining the identity of the festival and communicating this identity through the festival’s magazine and design projects.
Currently, Sánchez is featured in an exhibit at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, titled, "Lumbre. Ilustradoras en México." The exhibit brings light to the lived experience of female artists in Mexico through their illustrations. Sánchez is also presently collaborating with HDS Professor Davíd Carrasco for the Moses Mesoamerican Archive and Research Project at the Peabody Museum, where she is in charge of advertising, marketing, and creating the posters and designs for the Project’s books.
“Professor Carrasco has been the one supporting my career professionally, but also emotionally,” Sánchez said. “If I’ve been able to continue my art, it’s because he has provided me a safe and nourishing space along with other members of the Project such as Professor Scott Sessions, Professor William Fash, PhD candidate Alfredo Garcia Garza, and MTS student Hannah DeSouza. They have been loving, caring, and patient with me.”
Though her main work is in design and illustration, Sánchez is also renowned for her poetry. This semester, she read at the Observatory of the Spanish Language and Hispanic Culture presented by the Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University. Amongst these creative endeavors, dance is the core of Sánchez’s artistic experience. Even thousands of miles from home, she stays in touch with her community, specifically those she participates in ceremonial dances with, Tatomej from Tzinacapan. This sense of community, she explained, is part of the Tzinacapan religious experience.
“We always dance in groups. There is something about the physical presence of sharing time and space with a specific group, with the same music,” Sánchez said. “I cannot give up on dancing and experiencing how all the members become one huge actor. We are all part of this actor that goes and dances. It's bigger than me. In the community, we are 15 groups of ceremonial dancers; we are 600 people dancing. The youngest of our members is one year and 10 months old. The oldest of our members is nearly 90 years old. We have people that dance for 50 years, for 60 years. I'm planning to do it my whole life, if God allows me.”
This artistic expression within the San Miguel Tzinacapan community is one that Sánchez will carry with her for the remainder of her time at HDS, and the rest of her life. Her art—from her illustrations to her poetry to her dance—is all part of the academic process, and vice versa. For Sánchez, research informs art, and art informs research.
—by Scarlett Rose Ford, HDS correspondent
Editor’s note: Find more of Sitalin Sánchez’s art on Instagram, as well as via the Sirena Design Lab.