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Latin American representation in the art world is minimal, but Marcela Guerrero is determined to do everything possible to change that. The art historian, who last year became the first Puerto Rican to become a senior curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, is making an intense effort to promote Latin art.
Marcela has promoted acquisitions and exhibitions at the Whitney that include Latin artists, as well as adaptations so that art reaches a broader population, including mural texts and bilingual catalogs.
Marcela, who has a PhD in Art History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, had just entered the Whitney Museum in 2017 when one of the most devastating natural disasters to hit her native Puerto Rico occurred: Hurricane Maria. Like many Puerto Ricans, this event left its mark on her, and from her position in the art world, she wanted to raise awareness about what happened.
On the fifth anniversary of the tragedy, the exhibition 'No Existe Un Mundo Poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria,' curated by Guerrero, was inaugurated. The exhibition explores how artists have responded to the transformative years since that event by bringing together more than fifty works of art made in the last five years by an intergenerational group of more than fifteen artists from Puerto Rico and the diaspora, as detailed by the Whitney Museum.
"There is a reason to follow your instinct, your heart, your passion, and to do it with honesty and integrity."
This exhibition, presented as the first academic exhibition focused on Puerto Rican art organized by a major American museum in almost half a century, earned Marcela a promotion from associate curator to senior curator, a very significant position not only for her but for Latinos in American art.
Scott Rothkopf, director of the Whitney Museum, has highlighted Marcela’s great work. Before she arrived at the Whitney, she was at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and before that, she worked in the Latin American art department at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.
"She’s a true visionary. She’s had a really transformative impact on the museum in terms of programming, in terms of how we think about Latinx, around translation, around audiences, around our partnerships, and around who we consider our community to be.”
Today, at 44 years old, she has a brilliant resume to admire: she recently formed part of the curatorial team of the exhibition 'Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945,' and will also be in charge of curating, together with Drew Sawyer, the next edition of The Whitney Biennial, scheduled for 2026.