Moda Hoy Symposium | Are we Latinx? Constructs of Inclusivity

Aída Hurtado and Willy Chavarria in conversation with Tanya Meléndez-Escalante about Latinx and Constructs of Inclusivity at the fashion symposium ¡Moda Hoy! Latin American and Latinx Fashion, held on October 7, 2022. The symposium explored the work of fashion designers of Latin American heritage, shedding new light on Latin American and Latinx fashion. Topics included politics, sustainability, art, Indigenous heritage, gender, and popular culture. Aída Hurtado is a professor and the Luis Leal Endowed Chair in the Department of Chicana and Chicano studies at the University of California, Santa Bárbara. She is co-editor of MeXicana Fashions: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction. Willy Chavarria was born in Fresno, California. With a focus on art and commerce, he studied graphic design at the Academy of the Arts and eventually found his home in the creation of fashion. There has always been a sensitive and cinematic approach to his collections, beginning with his label’s launch in 2015. Chavarria takes literal content from his own upbringing in both the agricultural fields and the housing projects of the San Joaquin Valley and combines it with a high fashion sensibility and love for luxury. Tanya Meléndez-Escalante is senior curator of education and public programs at The Museum at FIT. She is a contributing author to the books La comedia y el melodrama en el audiovisual iberoamericano contemporáneo (Iberoamericana-Vervuert, 2015) and Pink: The History of a