ACERCA DE CHASEN THAJNI
Chasen Thajni is a collective entity founded in 2019 by artist Ulises Matamoros Ascención, in collaboration with members of the Ngiba Indigenous community. It emerged as an open community space, inspired by traditional Ngiba architecture, built through an intervention in the central public square of Ahuatempan (Puebla, Mexico). For three years, this space served as the epicenter of multiple activities: meetings, discussions, assemblies, Ngiba testimonies, Ngiba language classes, and other initiatives that revitalized the cultural presence of the community.
Many of these activities—mostly conducted in the Ngiba language—were broadcast live through an old speaker installed at the Carrillo Gil Museum of Art (CDMX), later at the Museum of the City of Querétaro, and in other venues across the country.
Over time, the project has evolved into a popular committee spread across various regions of the Ngiba nation, expanding its scope and transforming into a living network of work, support, and resistance. From an open physical space, Chasen Thajni has become a dispersed space, sustained by the community and a multiplicity of venues and ephemeral or temporary locations.
Our goal is to create spaces of autonomy, self-determination, and self-representation, recovering and safeguarding our ancestral knowledge. Through a popular committee and community assemblies, we organize projects executed through our four community action programs. We combine artistic, pedagogical, and transdisciplinary methodologies with our ancestral knowledge, generating processes of cultural creation and resistance that activate the histories, knowledge, and experiences of the Ngiba community, making it the primary agent of its own cultural narrative.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To Papá José Trinidad Ascención
To Mamá Natalia Colmena Reyes
To Mamá Alejandra Ascención Colmena
To Lenka Holíková
To the Ascención Family: Alfonso Ascención, Juan Ascención, Miguel Ascención.
To the Matamoros Family: Cirilo Matamoros, Basilio Matamoros, Inocencio Matamoros, Micaela Matamoros.
To the master builder of Casas de Palma, Leobardo Marín; to his parents, Miguel Marín and Carmela Muñoz; to his daughters, Aureliana Marín and Selena Marín; to his wife, Macrina Reyes; and to his assistants, Jesús Juan and Miguel Rodríguez.
To Uncle Francisco (Chico) Ramón, Porfirio Arellano, Benito Juan, Gonzalo Valencia, Magdalena Ochoa, Irene Guadalupe Ramón Orozco, Catalina Orozco, Rosalba de Jesús Vega, Carlos Ramón, Catalina Orozco and Lupita Ramón, Adela Mendoza, Nacho Cruz, Nelly Alatriste, Carlos Bañuelos, Rosalba de Jesús, Juana Vega, Carlos de Jesús, Aideé Mendoza, Autreberta Luis, Paula Castillo, Josefina Pastor, Domingo Erculano, Teresa León, Eva Acevedo, Luis García, Lucio Mendoza, Abel Mendoza, Lalo Hernández, Adacto Hernández, Gladis Hernández, Augusto Hernández, Francisco Pastor, Aurelio Álvarez, Ocotlán Arellano, Zeferino Bazán, Juan Bazán, Lorenza García, Irais Gaspar, Efraín Valentín, Fermín Vidal, Gonzalo Valencia, Adriana Mendoza, Joaquina Flores, Don Félix Orta, Alejandro (the cheerful boy) Álvarez, Carlos Emiliano, Antonio (the sorcerer) Gabriel, Pedro López, Abel Catana.
To the master artisan builders, weavers, and woodcarvers: Don Porfirio Arellano, Adolfo Canalizo, Agustín (Lara), Juan Emiliano, Cirilo Matamoros.
To the fellow residents of Santa Inés Ahuatempan who contributed a palm leaf, a rope, a meal, a drink, or an hour of work. My special thanks to San Antonio Tierra Negra and San Antonio Tierra Colorada.
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