—Alicia Mullikin (EL SUEÑO Founder/Director)

EL SUEÑO: THE FLOWERS THAT BLOOM offers a snapshot of and engagement opportunities with EL SUEÑO (meaning “the dream” in spanish), a Seattle-based dance company who uses dance as a platform for community engagement, healing, and empowerment of marginalized communities. Founded by Alicia Mullikin, EL SUEÑO actively weaponizes dance against cultural erasure and systematically deconstructs harmful narratives about brown bodies in hopes of providing representation, cultural restoration, and nurturing environments for the next generation of dance artists. 

At the center of the installation is the company’s logo, an image designed by artist Nalisha Rangel that coalesces the tough chola figure with the nurturing Virgin Mary. Paper flowers hand-folded by community partners and volunteers surround the image, transforming it into an ofrenda—an altar constructed to honor ancestors and lost loved ones; the mural thus invites reflection on what it means to be the recipient of an “American Dream” that has been generations in the making. A looped video featuring b-roll and out-takes from the company’s upcoming film, also titled EL SUEÑO (Mullikin, Muñoz; Spring 2022), offers a glimpse of the woven landscapes of pain and joy echoed in both ancient and contemporary experience that are central to the film and the creative practices of the dancers who are part of it. 

As an additional component of the community-building actions that are central to EL SUEÑO’s work, the installation is the basis for several no-cost engagements, on- and off-site, including opportunities to participate in the construction of the exhibition, movement and other art workshops, and community discussions.