Angelica Raquel’s work is deeply rooted in the cultural traditions and familial stories of her upbringing in Laredo, Texas. Acting as a new generational storyteller, she draws from folklore, oral histories, and personal experiences to create narratives that bridge the past and present. Inspired by the tales shared by her late grandfather, her work reimagines and expands on leyendas (legends) that explore themes of morality, societal shifts, familial roles, and humanity’s relationship with nature and the unknown. Recurring throughout her practice are powerful women—both magical and protective—who act as guardians against ill-intending forces. These figures, drawn from personal family history and broader cultural archetypes, highlight the roles of women in shaping and safeguarding their communities. Her work also reflects on her own childhood, evoking the wonder and mystery of the land and animals that once defined her family’s beloved ranch. Raquel’s multidisciplinary practice—including painting, drawing, metal tooling, felting, and rug hooking—embraces the rich craft traditions of Latin folk art. Through these varied mediums, she gives physical form to oral traditions, preserving and celebrating the ancestral stories and visual language that continue to shape her artistic voice. Angelica earned a Masters in Fine Arts from The University of Texas at San Antonio and a Bachelors in Fine Arts from Texas State University. She teaches art at Incarnate Word High School in San Antonio. "When I was young, my dreams mostly haunted me. The night was filled with the dread of ghosts and demons; my sleep was fearful, and metaphors I could not understand plagued me until young adulthood. Since my mid-twenties, after the loss of my grandfather who glued my extended family together, I have been combing through my past. Partly because I simply want to remember him and those experiences I won’t get to have again, but also partly to understand myself and how I’ve reached this point of my life. I think back, lovingly to honey dripped memories and a youth spent en el monte, but also to those dreams and night terrors and how they are so intertwined to my personal lore. I still dream, not of dread but of rest and light; these days the waking world is filled with so much fear and death that my mind does not need to play these unconscious hypotheticals to understand it. My hands instead thread it, weave it, and illustrate it; anxieties and lore and all that I devour.” — Angelica Raquel Martinez