Guiding Winds: Rosalia Torres-Weiner

The history of humanity is a story of movement—groups migrating over land and water, carrying their ancestral practices with them. Traces remain, even when a tribe has moved on or hostile outsiders try to erase those traditions. Stories and symbols integrate, creating cultural strata that create a timeline of all who lived on a land. The maps and explanations throughout museum galleries illustrate this—sometimes overtly, other times subtly.  

Rosalía Torres-Weiner began her story in Mexico City and then emigrated north to the United States, first to Los Angeles and then east to Charlotte, where she has lived for over 25 years. Self-taught, she started as a mural artist and has since developed a studio practice that encompasses traditional painting, theater performance, arts education, and augmented reality. She balances technological innovation with the ancient symbols of her Latinx heritage, melding indigenous and European traditions.  

Over the last decade, Torres-Weiner has increasingly focused on the stories of other travelers, especially undocumented children living in the United States. She has developed arts programs specifically to help young people process the trauma that develops from extended periods of anxiety—and for many, the loss of one or both parents because of deportation. Torres-Weiner now calls herself an “ARTivist,” the better to encompass her role as artist, muralist, and social activist.  

“I wanted to bring arts to our community, especially now that people are afraid to go out to buy groceries and bread. My idea is to bring the arts to underserved neighborhoods and provide art workshops, especially for children. Art is powerful and not just to hang on the wall. It’s a weapon to express our stories.”