When local artist Helen Yanez paints, she is not only creating artwork but also preserving memory, honoring resilience and opening doors for the next generation.
Her pieces often draw directly from her Purépecha heritage and the family members who embody that history. In her gallery, Yanez proudly points to a portrait of her grandmother.
“This was her when she was 20. She’s still pretty much alive, my grandma. She loves this piece,” Yanez said.
In the painting, her grandmother is wrapped in symbols representing life, death, and the roots of family.
Another watercolor features Yanez herself as a young girl, dressed in traditional clothing.
“That’s me as a 3-year-old. I was dressed in the traditional Purépecha outfit,” she said.
“I was crying a lot … I kind of did not want to showcase that there and in the background you have the outline of a Purépecha goddess,” she said.
These personal works, Yanez says, are a reminder of where she comes from and of the cultural strength she hopes to share with her community.
That same connection to heritage is at the center of Yanez’s work with Corazón del Pueblo, Santa Maria’s only independent arts and culture center. The organization is not tied to city government or larger nonprofits, allowing staff like Yanez to tailor their programs directly to the needs of the community.
The focus, she explained, is on Indigenous and farmworking youth who often go unseen and unsupported.
“So we go to other houses, bring him to here. Then we have two main arts and crafts activities. One was clay work. So they work with clay, and we taught them the Mesoamerican, you know, roots that we have within our cultures. And we did a collective mural where the kiddos depicted those harsh, you know, realities they lived day to day,” she said.
The program is hands-on from start to finish: staff members personally pick up children from their homes, provide meals and make sure they are safely returned at the end of the day. For many participants, it is the only time they can simply be kids.
“We have to feed them … so these kiddos work in the field. So, you know, once you do more than eight-plus hours of physical work, you’re hungry, hungry,” Yanez said.
The impact of that safe space was visible almost immediately.
“Just the second day we had tears,” she said, adding, “the kids opened up to us that they couldn’t sleep at night because they were worried their parents going to be deported. They were forcing themselves to go to work with the parents. So in case something happens, they could be there as a first response to help their parents to be there for them,” Yanez recalled.
Through drawings and murals, children began to express what they could not always say out loud. Some depicted domestic violence, substance abuse and the pressure of growing up too soon. Others showed their desire for safety, joy and the chance to be understood.
For Yanez, those moments of honesty highlight why art matters as both a form of healing and a tool for empowerment. While much of her work centers on young people, Yanez sees art as a bridge across generations.
It’s a mission shaped by her personal journey. Born into a Purépecha family in Michoacán, she grew up surrounded by Indigenous traditions from clay work to jewelry-making to murals telling ancestral stories.
“Well, I come from an indigenous region in Michoacan. The border region. And as an indigenous community, we have art in our culture, from either clay work, jewelry, to murals depicting our stories,” she said.
But she also remembers how hard it was to feel seen. It wasn’t until she pursued art classes in high school and college and discovered works that reflected brown and Indigenous identity that she realized she could claim her voice as an artist.
That realization now shapes her work as both a painter and a program leader. For Yanez, art is not about technique or tradition alone.
“This is just like me expressing what I’m seeing,” she said.
Whether it is a painting of her grandmother’s strength or a mural painted by farmworking youth, each piece carries the same weight: identity, healing and hope.
From her portraits to her programs with children, Yanez is blending culture and community, proving that art can be both deeply personal and profoundly transformative for Santa Maria.
