CSUN professor Beatriz Cortez returns from the Arctic, to a $50,000 honor

Climbing calderas in El Salvador. Displaying towering sculptures in New York. Trekking across ice sheets in the Arctic. No two days are the same for California State University, Northridge Professor Beatriz Cortez in her quest to create art, and to learn and teach about Central American culture and human migration.

“I can make a difference and I love this job,” Cortez said, on Tuesday, June 27, just days after a three-week-long trip to the Arctic. “I feel like I’m able to make an important contribution to my community and help grow a space, and this academic discipline.”

Cortez traveled on a ship with more than a dozen other artists, researchers and scientists, as part of The Arctic Circle expedition program. She made the voyage to further understand the spread of ash from a volcanic eruption in El Salvador more than a millennium ago. Ash from the volcano, which she was using as inspiration for a sculpture installation, was found in the Arctic more than 3,600 miles away, compelling her to join the expedition.

“It was very important to go to the Arctic, which is a landscape so completely opposite to the Central American green, lush landscape,” Cortez said. “My search was philosophical. I got to understand the migration of matter — and tried to make sense of what it meant.”

Cortez faced nearly a month of frigid temperatures and limited cell service and internet in the Arctic. Everywhere the group went, they brought warm clothes—and flares to scare off polar bears. Cortez said the experience helped further her artistic practice and provided broader context for her work.

“In my opinion, it’s an expedition that requires a lot of commitment,” Cortez said. “But it was an experience that was life-changing.”

Her journeys allow her to deepen her understanding and share her expertise beyond her CSUN classrooms in Northridge. Her interdisciplinary approach in studying Central American culture has led her across the globe, and in early June it also helped her earn the title of Latinx Artist Fellow, awarded by the U.S. Latinx Art Forum.

The prestigious fellowship was awarded to 15 Latinx artists this year and comes with a $50,000 unrestricted grant for each fellow in order to provide support for their practice. The award serves to “address the systemic and longstanding lack of support” for Latinx artists, the U.S. Latinx Art Forum says.

“Being in the company of this group of artists is such an honor,” Cortez said. “It makes (me) feel seen and understood and that my work has an impact.”

Cortez found out she had been awarded the fellowship during a committee meeting. She said the call was a shock.

“I was amazed at this uplifting news,” Cortez said. “Sometimes being an artist means spending so much time in your studio by yourself, especially during the pandemic. But someone is on the other end and receiving the work that you’re doing.”

Cortez said the grant will go toward her upcoming project of using art to reimagine the 1977 Voyager probe, which launched a capsule into space. The Voyager capsule included information about the vibrance of life on Earth, from classical music to recordings of whales to famous images. But for a capsule meant to capture the diversity and beauty of humanity, Cortez said it lacked proper representation of Latin America and indigenous peoples.

“I’m super interested in the (Voyager) project,” said Cortez, who was born and partially raised in El Salvador. “But it didn’t include our sounds, our points of view, our perspectives. So I think I need to make a new capsule, with new recordings and new information, to document us.”

Some of her other works include a recent installation of three sculptures, entitled “The volcano that left,” at the Storm King Art Center in New York and a solo sculpture exhibition at Williams College in Massachusetts.

Art is one of the many ways through which Cortez studies the impacts of immigration and the complex cultures of various Central American countries, from Guatemala to Nicaragua. In addition to her work as a sculptor, Cortez explores these topics through global field research, writing and teaching.

As the faculty chair and one of the founding members of CSUN’s Department of Central American and Transborder studies, Cortez pushes past the niche world of academia to pass her knowledge along to undergraduate students.

“My experience has been that a lot of knowledge is held by our community, which in many cases has not had access to higher education,” Cortez said. “Teaching students about this, it empowers them to realize that knowledge is there and that it’s appreciated and that it’s useful.”

Cortez said that through her mentorship and her artwork, she wants to inspire younger generations.

“I hope that I am able to make more contributions and continue to give visibility to this community,” Cortez said.