María Esther Fernández on Creating a Nexus for Chicanx Art and Research

In January 2022, A.i.A. spoke with María Esther Fernández, artistic director of the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture (aka the Cheech), which was founded by actor Cheech Marin in cooperation with the Riverside Art Museum in California. The center was born of Marin’s passion for collecting Chicanx art and his awareness of its relative lack of museum representation. The Cheech will serve as both an exhibition space and a community art center. Fernández, o