Julia Orquera Bianco es una artista y ecologista argentina, y directora interina del programa MFA, University of Cincinnati. Julia está a cargo del pre-concert workshop (taller de arte previo al concierto) de Alma Latina el 1 de febrero de 2026 , de 7:00-8:00 PM en The Well, 2454 Gilbert Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45206.
Julia conversa con Lorena Mora-Mowry sobre su infancia y adolescencia en Argentina, el impacto de los factores culturales en su arte; su pasión por el arte, que la ha llevado a completar estudios en Argentina, México, California y Cincinnati. Julia explica lo que para ella significa ser una “artista y ecologista” y por qué es crucial usar el arte para explorar, criticar y promover la conciencia ecológica.
Julia habla sobre el workshop (taller) que “explora la cultura occidental moderna, la memoria colectiva y la migración desde la perspectiva de una extranjera”. Para Julia, es importante crear un taller para reflexionar sobre la identidad, la pertenencia y su relación con el pasado, el presente y el lugar. Utilizar “el legado familiar de trabajo, artesanía, música y narración para construir conocimiento y comprensión de sí mismos, los demás y el entorno, experimentando mientras recuerda”. Como profesora de la Maestría en Bellas Artes (MFA) y directora interina del programa MFA en la Universidad de Cincinnati, Julia concluye el conversatorio diciendo: ser artista, inmigrante o ambas cosas es posible, aunque no es fácil. Enfatiza la importancia de perseguir los sueños para crear hogares y comunidades dondequiera que estemos. Julia destaca el valor de dar y recibir amor, un rasgo central de la identidad latinoamericana.
Alma Latina, un concierto en español presentado por Concertnova y curado por el violonchelista mexicano-americano Nicholas Mariscal, el 22 de febrero de 2026 en el ARCO. El programa presenta música de compositores latinoamericanos con historias inspiradas en las experiencias de las comunidades inmigrantes de Cincinnati. Celebra la herencia latina e hispana a través de su repertorio, la memoria cultural, la resiliencia y la conexión humana.
La transcripción completa de la entrevista está disponible en el podcast de Latina Today en Apple Podcasts.
In English
This is Lorena Mora-Mowry. With us today is Julia Orquera Bianco. She is an artist and environmentalist born in Argentina. She lived in Mexico before moving to the United States. She is currently working at the University of Cincinnati. Welcome, Julia.
Julia: Thank you, Lorena.
Lorena: Well, we’re going to talk about a workshop you’ll be leading this Sunday, the 25th, later on, but since we all have a story, we want to hear yours. You were born in Argentina. Tell us a little about your childhood and adolescence, and how cultural factors have influenced your art.
Julia: Thank you. Thank you for that question and for having me on your program. My childhood… I come from a working-class family. I am the granddaughter of Italian immigrants who came to Argentina after World War II. So, my mother is the daughter of immigrants. Therefore, my childhood was very humble, with a lot of freedom, access to many parks, lots of running around, and many friends. Actually, I was always very creative — I loved drawing and painting. My mother started me in painting classes when I was eight years old. My first official painting is from when I was eight, and she still has it at her house. My mother owns an art gallery with all my paintings from that time until now.
And then when I had to start what would be high school, which in the United States is divided into middle school and high school, but in Argentina, it’s all one block, so to speak. High school is five or six years long. I enrolled in an art school. It’s like a technical school, like a trade school here, but with an artistic focus. So I was also drawing and painting from the very first year. And that really impacted me a lot. We had a very small group. We learned many things. We did a lot of work with metals, stained glass, bookbinding, composition, and art history.
So, from a very young age, I had a lot of exposure to the world and history of art. And I’ve always been involved with museums and things like that. So I think that, despite having a very humble childhood, my mother was also very interested in art, very intellectual, very well-read.
My mother is a writer. At the time, she wasn’t working as a writer; she had an administrative job, but she always had a very strong inclination towards the arts. A great influence, and then there was my grandmother on my father’s side. She also had a very interesting story, and she was always a great influence. A person who came from the countryside, very talented, with a lot of knowledge about clothing, and, what do you call it, she trained as a seamstress as well. So she taught me to sew, and much of my contemporary art practice is actually very inspired by sewing and these more textile techniques.
So yes, a childhood, an adolescence very much permeated by art, but also by crafts, by domestic life.
Lorena: What do you remember most about that childhood and youth? Because I see there’s a lot of freedom to create, but what do you bring here, and what do you carry with you when you create your art?
Julia: Yes, well, with my family, we always had a good time in the sense of going on a lot of road trips. I mean, we’d get in the car, the car was falling apart, pieces were falling off, but we would go camping, and we had a great time, we traveled through many provinces like that with my dad, my mom, my siblings, and me. So, a lot of connection with nature, a lot of, yes, camaraderie, this sense of adventure, and again, the theme of freedom, and then this more internal aspect.”
Lorena: But without worrying, if you didn’t have money, because you don’t need money to make art, you make it with what you find, and I feel that was quite an important impact for you. But you were already there seeing all these things, right? How did you discover the passion you had, which led you to go to university in Argentina and complete your studies in Mexico, in California, and in Cincinnati? And what did you do to develop yourself, to become what you call yourself, an artist and environmentalist?
Julia: Yes, good, excellent question. What really, what really, how can I say, propelled or boosted my artistic career to a more professional level was… I tried to study other things, I tried. And I did two years in sociology, I did three years in photography, and all of this in Argentina, and eventually I realized that I had no other choice, that I had to go to art school. So I… I worked very, very hard to pay for my degree and finish it, and after finishing my degree, I realized that in Argentina it was going to be very difficult for me to have a professional career as an artist. And that was my… one of my reasons, and the second reason for my migration, right? Was that I wanted to get a master’s degree in art.
So, I looked around and decided that… well, that I was going to try to do it in Mexico. So, the impetus, let’s say, the professional impetus, or in some way, if you can call it ambition, which is not a bad thing, it’s simply a kind of desire to progress professionally. It’s very connected to my immigration process, isn’t it? So, I decided to try my luck in Mexico, let’s say. And I was in Mexico for about two and a half to three years. But it was like, well, starting from scratch, maybe even less than scratch. And I ended up meeting a lot of people and working within what is the art world. Let’s say, the art industry, but not necessarily studying and not necessarily working much as an artist.
I developed myself as an educator. That is, I taught at a high school, and I also taught at what would be the University of Guadalajara, in Puerto Vallarta. And it was very good. I met many artists who told me about the United States. So I started to look at how they developed professionally here. And finally, through one of those connections I made in the United States, I was invited, let’s say, to apply to the USC program, which is the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. And well, I applied to the program, and I got in.
And basically, that was a very important step, because a Master of Fine Arts really gives you the tools to develop yourself as a professional artist, whether in academia or in the art industry.”
Lorena: Tell me a little about that aspect of being both an artist and an environmentalist. And I’d like you to talk about why it’s so important for you to create this movement, to be part of this art of exploring, criticizing, and promoting ecological awareness. Why is this work you do so important to you?
Julia: Of course, I call myself an artist and an environmentalist because I view the word ecology more holistically, you could say, right? If you look at the meaning of those two words, which are oikos and logos, ecology can be interpreted as the intelligence of the search for the soul in some way. The idea of ecology is a concept that is very much related to the search for home. And home not necessarily as a house, but even as an inner home, right? It’s like the search for the soul and for home. So, my work with nature is super important to me.
And as an immigrant, I have discovered that through my contact with and my knowledge of nature, and my study of nature in different aspects, I can connect with the place where I live in a way that could be said to be not only scientific, but also spiritual, right? Because for me, God is in nature, and nature is everywhere. So, there’s not a big difference. I think that, at least for my migratory process, it has been very important to feel that I can literally put down roots in a place. And the way I can feel at home, this idea of the ecology of home, is through understanding what is happening in the place where I live. And knowledge of nature really gives me that.”
Lorena: You’re going to be presenting a workshop, you’ll be exploring modern Western culture, collective memory, and migration from the perspective of a foreigner. Can you tell me more about it? And why is it so important for you to create a workshop to reflect on identity, belonging, and their relationship to the past, present, and place?
Julia: Yes, of course. Well, the workshop is related to a concert that is, let’s say, promoted and organized by Concertnova, which is a local organization in Cincinnati. And the title of this series is Alma Latina. In this series, they’re going to be paying tribute to and raising awareness of Latin American composers, right? So, that’s super important, especially given the times we’re currently living in, very important, the visibility of these, of these, of these creations and these, yes, creations with such cultural impact. The workshop is, it’s a kind of session in which I’m going to be mixing or, there will be several practices that are part of my artistic practice that will be intersecting.
A little bit of it will be about mindfulness, so, a little bit of connection with oneself. There will be a short meditation and visualization practice. I was invited to this workshop, I think because it’s understood that the butterfly, especially the monarch butterfly, but there are other migratory butterflies, but the monarch butterfly is in some way the symbol of the migrant, right? So the person who invited me to give this workshop, Briana Matske, had the idea of having a workshop to create paper butterflies that would then be installed in the room where the concert will take place. So, based on that, the participants of this workshop will be able to create their own butterflies. I’m working with a series of migratory butterflies, not only the monarch, but other, let’s say, butterfly patterns. And I’ll be leading that activity as well.”
And then, I talked about mindfulness, I talked about the creation of the butterflies, and I talked… And now I’m going to talk about the third element, which is like garlands of solidarity. So, the people who are going to attend, whether they are immigrants or not, whether they are also allies of immigrants, can write their messages of support and solidarity on a strip of paper that is then connected, the edges are connected, and they create a kind of loop, a kind of ring. And then we connect those rings to create garlands that will also be decorating the room. So, the idea behind this workshop is, or was, and still is, to create a space for reflection on what it means for oneself, for someone who is an immigrant, or for people who consider themselves allies of immigrants, what this idea of freedom means, and the idea of movement, and the idea of creating a home wherever one is.
How does it feel in the body, and how do we visualize it, and how in nature these processes are completely natural, and have to do with the cycle, with a larger cycle, right? Ultimately, migration is a global process that has existed for millennia, right? So, how do we visualize that with images that are also perhaps beautiful?
Lorena: And how do we feel like participants in that process, even when we are only allies? In the workshop, you will use your family’s legacy of work, craftsmanship, music, and storytelling to build knowledge and self-understanding. Others and the environment are experienced while you remember. I feel that’s where the part of your mother, your grandmother, really, my mother, comes in.
Julia: The memories we carry as immigrants. And that’s why this workshop is important, to reflect while you work, to understand that the butterfly, the monarch butterfly and any other butterfly, they can create homes,
Lorena: like your mother did, like your grandmother did, like my mother did. And that’s what you see, as I understand it.
Julia: Yes, yes, exactly. And regarding the creative act, one might say. Well, I’m not an artist or I don’t know how to do anything. Well, no, that’s not the case.
In this case, that’s not a limitation. The workshop is designed and created for people who may or may not have any artistic inclination. It’s really about the process of making something, whether it’s sewing or knitting or cooking, all these things where we’re using our hands and also our hearts, they really have a very strong potential for connection.
So, that’s why I think that in this combination of meditation, in which we’ll be truly remembering our ancestors, plus the activity of tracing and cutting out the butterfly, it’s a connecting activity, even an intergenerational connection. That’s what I feel, and that’s what I hope the people who come will be able to connect with in that way.
Lorena: Well, I hope this workshop will be repeated, right?
Julia: Hopefully. I feel it’s important that we try this, because we feel lost. I imagine myself like the monarch butterfly that knows where it’s going. We’re kind of like we haven’t found that yet, because of the collective trauma we’re experiencing and the collective grief we’re also experiencing.
Lorena: But I see you as very talented, and that you’ve learned so much. You have a strength of roots, don’t you? And that you can put down roots everywhere. But I also see your teaching side, right? Now you’re a professor, you’re working at the University of Cincinnati. Tell me a little about your work, which you started suddenly without knowing much, but with a great desire to teach in Mexico. And now you’re at a university that has opened the door for you to expand your art, but also to teach it and share your knowledge. Tell me about that.”
Julia: Yes, for me, teaching isn’t a one-way street. I feel that I learn more than I teach, actually, through this exchange that one builds with their students. I feel that this drive to somehow be a role model for younger generations is really what has shaped me, always striving to be better, because I believe that teaching carries a great responsibility.
So, well, it’s an integral part of my life, not only through UC, right, or the University of Cincinnati, which is, let’s say, my work with academia, but also more informal mentoring with young people who are perhaps artists who need guidance and reach out to me. Now, regarding UC, I am currently the interim director of the Master of Fine Arts program. And everything I learned as a candidate when I was in that program as a student is what I draw upon to think about how to improve the program and how to give the students a better experience.”
Teaching is a very powerful tool, and from a very virtuous perspective, it can be something that isn’t used well, but used correctly, one can truly have a very strong impact on future generations. So, for me, to have started perhaps knowing nothing and more as a student, to now be in a position where I can not only be a role model but also represent others. And thinking about the topic of representation and visibility, it’s very important for me, as a Latina immigrant woman, to be in a position of visibility to inspire younger generations. I encourage you to dream big and to have a strong commitment to your dreams and not to give up, because it is possible.
Lorena: I was going to ask you for advice, and you’ve already given it to me, haven’t you? Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Julia: Simply that being an artist or being an immigrant, or being both, sometimes things happen. It’s not necessarily easy, but again, it is possible. You have to pay attention to that dream and not let it go. And always the most beautiful thing, I think, that I’ve recently discovered is that wherever we are, we can not only create a home, but also a community. So, also rely on those communities, give and receive, because that love is really, I think, what is at the heart of who we are as Latin Americans, right? That love and that connection with the community. So, how can we bring that which is so strong and so important in our lives, wherever we are?”
“Thank you so much, Julia.
Thank you, Lorena.”
From Latina Today: Talking with the artist-environmentalist Julia Orquera Bianco, Jan 24, 2026 – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conversando-con-la-artista-ecologista-julia-orquera/id392607401?i=1000746486943&r=1403.02 This material may be protected by copyright.
