EXPO IV

Gloria Elisa Margarita Sanchez

(she/her/hers)

B.1985

Working and residing in the Harbor Area of Tovaangar (Los Angeles), Gloria “Gem” Sanchez is a Xicana-Filipina American interdisciplinary artist, arts facilitator,and emerging curator that works in fibers, installation, drawing, and painting. Sanchez earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting with a minor in Art Education from Cal State Puvungna (Long Beach) in 2014. She works at Angels Gate Cultural Center as a coordinator for the San Pedro Arts and Cultural District Coalition - Arts United San Pedro. Gloria is on the organizing committee of the Many Winters Gathering of Elders that takes place on Xaraashnga (Angels Gate Cultural Center). She is an alumni artist of Slanguage Studio and is studying to be an occupational therapy practitioner.

Gloria has exhibited work at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Tin Flats, Luna Anais Gallery, Angels Gate Cultural Center, Cerritos College, Downtown Art Center Gallery, Pasadena City College, Orange Coast College, Biola University, LA > < ART, Museum of Latin American Art, Los Angeles Water School, Consulado Mexicano de Los Ángeles, MOCA Geffen Plaza, El Comalito Collective, Pintados Philippine Art Gallery, Flux Art Space, LeiMin Space, and Art Share LA. 

Many Winters Gathering of Elders

The Many Winters Gathering of Elders is an integral event for the Native community of Tovaangar and beyond.

It takes place on traditional Tongva lands on the village site of Xaraashnga, along the coast with views of Pimu. 

As an organizing committee member of the MWGOE, I can attest to the spiritually and socially positive impact our four day ceremony has on community members, both native and non-native. It is life changing and transformational for many relatives. We deeply honor our elders who generously bring knowledge and teachings to guide us into a healthier future for the next seven generations, upholding the practice of sharing through oral tradition around the arbor space. 

This is an event that started in 1992 to counter the 500 year celebration of “columbus discovering america” and, in resistance, our elders generated space for truth telling, healing the community, and celebrating our spiritual survival for over 500 years.

I heard about the MWGOE around the time it reemerged by way of the second generation of organizers- some of whom attended the original gatherings as youth or young adults. In 2019, I finally got the chance to be a volunteer with my best friend, Alex Cuevas ( RIP). It changed my life and reconnected me to the Red Road, which first found me in 2005 as a young adult when I did my first Inipi ceremony at RedWind International Internation, run by Ernie Long Walker Peters (RIP) and Jessie Warrior Woman. I was so happy to volunteer, creating wonderful memories with a beautiful community of like minded people. We’ve lost our connection to our cultures through generations of colonization, migration, ethnic cleansing, and the imposition of white supremacy in amerikkan society. The MWGOE helps initiate that reconnection and wake up our ancestral DNA to remember who we are.