Yolanda Lopez, 1942-2021, was a San Francisco artist and activist with roots in the San Francisco State College strike 1968-69. She went on to a
long engagement with the Mission District community, co-founding Basta Ya! Newspaper in conjunction with the Committee to
Defend Los Siete in 1970. Her art has come to be more recognized since
her passing, with a major show in San Diego in late 2021. In this clip
she discusses her art, the vital centrality of self-representation in her work, how her engagement with advertising and promotion shaped her work, and comments on a number of ongoing cultural expressions from Aztec dancing to murals to the importance of recognizing artists as political actors themselves.