Celeste De Luna

Celeste De Luna (born 1974) is a Mexican-American Chicana visual artist, printmaker, and educator.^[1][2][3]

Celeste De Luna
Born	1974 (age 50–51)
Spouse(s)	Ramon Benitez ​ (m. 1995)​ Ivan Yanes ​ (m. 2001)​
Children	3
Academic background
Education	St. Edward's University, 1998 University of Texas–Pan American, MA Studio Arts, 2009
Thesis	The borderline between the personal and political (2009)
Academic work
Discipline	Visual arts Mexican American Studies
Institutions	University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Northwest Vista College
Website	celestedeluna.com

Early life and education

De Luna was born in 1974 in Aurora, Illinois to Raymundo De Luna and Alicia De Luna.^[4][5] When De Luna was eight years old, her family returned to South Texas.^[5] De Luna is a second‑generation Mexican-American.^[6][5]

In 1998, De Luna graduated from St. Edward's University and began teaching high school in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.^[1][5] De Luna graduated with a Master's in Studio Arts from the University of Texas–Pan American in 2009.^[1][3] De Luna's thesis is entitled "The borderline between the personal and political" and was supervised by Jean Braithwaite, Philip Field, and Richard Phillips.^[5][7]

Career

De Luna previously taught art at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and is currently an assistant professor of Mexican American Studies at Northwest Vista College.^[8][9][10]

Art

Her work explores American identity through multiple lenses.^[6] Her upbringing in Texas influenced many recurring themes in her work, as life in the borderlands, identity, and migration. She has characterized her practice as regional, offering insights into the experiences of undocumented communities.^[5] She considers her work as, “an act against forgetting my Tejana roots. It is a protest against complete assimilation.” Other influences on her work include the flora and fauna of the Lower Rio Grande Valley as well as Catholicism. Artistically, she admires symbolists such as Henri Rousseau and Paul Gauguin, as well as Frida Kahlo and Amalia Mesa-Bains.^[5]

Necrocitizen is a black-and-white woodcut print featured on the cover of the book Fencing in Democracy by Miguel Diaz-Barriga and Margaret Dorsey. The image in this print features a skull, representing De Luna's exploration of oppressive structures imposed on brown bodies and their treatment as second-class citizens.^[11]

BorderLand X-scapes is an art workshop focused on decolonizing the border through a futuristic perspective, emphasizing the experiences and histories o indigenous populations.^[12]

Our Lady of the Checkpoint is a black and white woodcut and vinyl piece on archival paper from 2020. The print features an immigrant version of the Virgin de Guadalupe walking into America barefoot with barbed wire around her.^[13]

Healing Borderland Hand is a linocut from 2023 which features many details, including the Virgin de Guadalupe, a skull, cacti, flowers, a bird, barbed wire, and a bug.^[13] These elements are considered to reflect her Catholic roots and upbringing in Texas. Her art has been included at the Blanton Museum of Art, Mexic-Arte Museum, Mulvane Art Museum, and the UTSA Print Collections. It has been shown at exhibitions in Vancouver, Michoacan, and Estonia.

Her awards and residencies include the Changarrito Residency at the Mexic-Arte Museum; Vermont Studio Center Residency in Johnson, Vermont;Sustainable Arts Foundation Finalist in Printmaking at the Sustainable Arts Foundation for the Tony and Caroline Grant; a Spudnik Press Artist in Residence in Chicago, Illinois; a residency at Activating Vacancy Arts Incubator at building community WORKSHOP in Brownsville, Texas; a Merit Award at the 10th annual Human Rights Art Exhibition for South Texas College in McAllen, Texas; Contemporary Art Month Award Alchemic Reactions Award for Collaborating Artists in San Antonio, Texas; and a Contemporary Art Month Cammie Award with Spare Parts Lady Base Gallery in San Antonio, Texas.^[13]

Las Imaginistas

De Luna is the co-founder of Las Imaginistas, a socially engaged art collective that contributes to various projects aimed at fostering community dialogue and social awareness.^[3][14] Las Imaginstas collaborates with professors from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley to examine the mind and body of Brownsville and challenge colonial ideologies through the city's architecture.^[15] Las Imaginistas received a 2017 Artplace America Creative Placemaking grant and 2018 A Blade of Grass Fellows.^[16]

Personal life

In 1995, De Luna married Ramon Benitez and married Ivan Yanes in 2001.^{[6][5][17][18][4]} De Luna has three children.^[5][4]

As of 2025, De Luna lives in San Antonio and works from her home studio, Metzli Press.^[13]