“Voices in Ink”: Drawing Memories in Las Vueltas, Chalatenango, El Salvador - Exhibition February 2026

On February 27, 2026, the Las Vueltas Research Team opened  “Voices in Ink” at the MacOdrum Library, Carleton University (Canada). The team includes community organizers Heidi Calderón, Nelson Rodríguez, Marvin Alas, and Juan Carlos; Salvadoran-Canadian artist Jessica Larios; Nicaraguan-Canadian research assistant Sabrina Del Bello Guatemala; and assistant professor of Anthropology Beatriz Juárez-Rodríguez (Carleton University). 

The exhibition marks the culmination of seven months of collaborative creative work. “Voices in Ink” showcases the power of community-based comics as a medium for storytelling and advocacy, one that bridges personal memory, community history, and political struggle.

The opening event brought together scholars and students from Carleton University. In a conversational panel, Prof. Beatriz Juárez-Rodríguez, Joint Chair Prof. Marie-Ève Carrier-Moisan, and illustrator Jessica Larios discussed collaborative ethnography, participatory and decolonial methodologies, and the role of visual storytelling in sustaining memory and deepening intergenerational conversations about justice in El Salvador.

The event concluded with a reflective wall activity, inviting participants to draw or write responses to the question: “What story, memory, or struggle from your community or lived experience would you like to see told as a comic, graphic narrative, or illustrated piece?"

The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador research initiative is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Western University, Carleton University, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Research Fund.