Cultural Collective for the youth in Cuetzalan

TILTIK – Cultural Collective for Youth in Cuetzalan

Progress Report | 2022–2025

Tiltik is a cultural collective based in Cuetzalan del Progreso, Puebla, dedicated to supporting children and young people through visual arts, cultural memory, and community-based creative processes. Our work focuses on access to arts education, intercultural dialogue, and the strengthening of local identity through collective creation.

2022: Foundations and Scholarships

Between October and December 2022, Tiltik launched the second edition of its art scholarship program, benefiting 25 young people from different communities in the municipality of Cuetzalan. Scholarships covered artistic materials and classes at no cost, and—with the support of the local government—transportation stipends enabled students to travel from their communities.

During this period, Tiltik hosted specialized workshops with national and international artists, including Drawing for Tattooing: Mexican Tattoo Art and Creative Process with professor Edgard Gamboa (La Esmeralda), and Experimental Engraving with Alfonso Alatorre, as part of the FONCA-supported project “RecordArte: Engravings and Murals of Náhuat Collective Memory.”

The year concluded with public artistic interventions in community squares, where students exhibited their work and shared visual pieces and Náhuat language phrases that contribute to the preservation of local cultural memory.

2023: Casa Tiltik and Community Expansion

In early 2023, Tiltik opened Casa Tiltik, a dedicated space in the center of Cuetzalan for learning, creation, and collaboration. Throughout the year, we offered ongoing drawing, painting, and printmaking classes for children and youth, alongside mentoring and community-based artistic processes.

Guest artists and collaborators included Chad Odyart (Cali-graffiti workshop in Tzoquiaco), Denis Berrios (mural painting and introductory cubism workshops in Cuetzalan and San Miguel Tzinacapan), Luc Delannoy (mental health and art workshops through Neuroartes), and Cinthya Mazariegos (French bookbinding and children’s theater).

One of the year’s highlights was the Xiloxochicomej Mural Festival in the community of Xiloxochico, where national and international artists worked alongside local youth to create murals and offer free workshops in drawing, linocut, printmaking, handmade paper, and theater.

2024: Continuity and Public Exhibition

During 2024, Tiltik sustained regular drawing and painting classes for children and youth in Cuetzalan del Progreso.

In November 2024, Tiltik presented the pictorial exhibition “Todos Santos” in Cuetzalan, a collective show honoring memory, ritual, and ancestral traditions through contemporary visual language.

2025: Expansion and Cultural Memory

Starting in April 2025, Tiltik closed its doors in the center of Cuetzalan City, and instead expanded its artistic activities to new community spaces:

• Ongoing drawing and painting classes at Kali Tiltik, San Miguel Tzinacapan

• Ongoing drawing, painting and engraving classes in Tiltik San Andrés Tzicuilan

In November 2025, Tiltik held a second edition of the “Todos Santos” exhibition, continuing the exploration of remembrance, community, and cultural continuity through visual arts.

Though these two last years we haven't been able to do big activities such as mural festivals, the members of Tiltik continue to work steadily teaching art to youth and children, and to paint different spaces, such as schools, with murals. Each year reaffirms our belief that art is not only a means of expression, but a powerful tool for healing, cultural continuity, and social transformation.

Thank you for believing in our work and for supporting this collective journey.