The Sacramento Poderosas utilize art as a form of activism, transforming walls into spaces of resistance, healing, and cultural affirmation. As a women-led, community-driven collective, they preserve Xicanx, Latinx and Indigenous herstories through workshops, storytelling, and collaborative mural-making. They use community spaces to construct and display compelling positive images, thereby engaging the broader community.
Their work focuses on increasing advocacy for their communities, and expressing contemporary civil rights, including farmworker rights, immigrant rights, the rights of missing Indigenous women, trans and LGBTQ rights, housing rights, and educational equity.
Their mission: to change the narrative around women immigrants and, as culture keepers, lift marginalized voices and spark conversations that build a more equitable society.
How It Began
The idea for a Sacramento Poderosas mural emerged in March 2021, inspired by Chicana and Latina activist groups from Orange County. Guided by Xicanx and Latinx elders of the Sacramento Valley, the Poderosa Mural Committee came together with a shared purpose: to tell their stories and affirm cultural identity through art. From the beginning, the process itself was political — a testament to the power of women and community to claim space, keep their culture alive, and resist oppression.
The First Mural
Their inaugural mural, titled Sacramento Poderosas, painted by visual artists and community members, Ruby Chacon and Isabel Martinez, has traveled throughout California. The work has been exhibited at UC Davis, Woodland High School, Sacramento City College, and American River College. The mural and additional paintings by both artists will be displayed at Sacramento State (University) from August 28 to September 26, 2025.
Rich with symbolism — from the resilient nopal cactus, to butterflies representing migration, to hummingbirds embodying courage and joy — the mural depicts the community’s survival and hope. Click here to learn more about the symbolism used on the first Sacramento Poderosas mural.
Its imagery resonates across generations and backgrounds, sparking dialogue about justice, belonging, and cultural pride when they present it and facilitate workshops on the topic in local colleges. All of this is aimed at bringing about change and disrupting racial and gender inequalities.
The mural has captured the attention of the community, earning two feature stories on local television and sparking discussions in various college courses. These discussions have helped clarify how race and gender intersect, and how the combination can amplify stereotypes.
Continuing the Work
With support from Mary’s Pence, Sacramento Poderosas is now working on a new mural about immigrant rights. Artists Ruby Chacón and Isabel Martínez weave ancestral knowledge, women’s stories, and contemporary struggles into a series of powerful paintings that will include QR codes linking viewers to Know Your Rights online information.
Each segment of the work is 3 feet high x 3 feet wide. Three of at least six paintings have been completed (see images), and additional funding is being sought to complete this mural project. The current funding from Mary’s Pence was used to partially reimburse the artists for their creative work, art supplies, workshops, and website design. The works of art can be downloaded and used for free. For more information, you can contact Rhonda Rios Kravitz at [email protected].
Ruby’s work reimagines ancestral deities as protectors of migrant families, while Isabel’s paintings honor her grandmothers as symbols of resilience and dignity. Together, their art reminds us that cultural survival and justice are inseparable — and that women’s stories remain at the heart of resistance. Just last week, Ruby won first place in an anti-ICE art competition. Click here to learn more about the symbolism and the artists’ vision in the Immigrant Rights mural.
‘Recent work on immigrant rights embodies our survival through culture, our resistance to oppression, and the ever-present ancestral knowledge and spirit. These elements are juxtaposed against the horrors we are currently facing with today’s immigration policies that attempt to oppress and erase us,’ says Ruby.
Art as Collective Power
For Sacramento Poderosas, art is more than expression — it is survival, healing, and movement-building. Their murals remind the community that even in the harshest conditions, beauty, resilience, and justice can break through, just as flowers push through concrete.
As one member shared, “This work demands not just passion, but also perseverance, resilience, and the ability to navigate power dynamics. Especially in today’s environment, women-led leadership in social justice work is vital and urgent.”
Sacramento Poderosas believes that art has the power to heal, to resist, and to build a future rooted in justice and solidarity.