We Defend, We Harvest, We Work! and Mexican Cook, by Michele Ramirez

My ethic is inspired by the rural farming community to which I was born,” writes painter and printmaker Michele Ramirez, whose grandparents grew and harvested crops in California’s Central Valley. In her black-and-white linocuts, Ramirez details the lives of Mexican-American laborers, creating poignant freeze-frame moments. “Despite their critical role in our economy,” says Ramirez, these farmworkers “remain largely invisible—usually viewed from a speeding car as abstract figures grouped in fields.”