Early last month, Roxana Velasquez, executive director and CEO of the San Diego Museum of Art (MOA), was awarded the Distinguished Mexican Award for her 15 years of dedication to bringing diverse artists to the MOA. She said the award means much more to her than simply the recognition, and members of Point Loma Nazarene University feel her passion for uniting cultures through art is important.
The Distinguished Mexicans Award, also known as the “Mexicanos Distinguidos” award, is given to nationals who have outstanding careers and have lived abroad for a minimum of five years. The award was created in 2018, and Velasquez was presented the award by Alicia G. Kerber Palma, the consul general of Mexico in San Diego.
Velasquez grew up in Mexico City, where she experienced art all around her through things like architecture and painting. She said she saw how art can bring and connect people and serve as a reminder of history in general. With these experiences, Velasquez devoted herself to art and strived to understand the power it holds.
“I don’t work for the arts,” Velasquez said. “The arts are my world, my life, so I feel absolutely interconnected.”
She has received multiple awards in the past, including The Knight of the Order of the Crown for crosscultural relations between Belgium and Mexico and the Charles Nathanson Memorial Award for cross-border region building. Velasquez said this award feels especially important because it came from the government of Mexico, her country of origin.
Velasquez has worked for the MOA for the past 15 years. In that time, she has successfully merged the MOA and the Museum of Photographic Arts. This merger helped to bring a spectrum of art together under one roof, giving visitors the ability to see different mediums of art, according to the MOA website.
She has also held multiple exhibits for diverse artists such as “Art and Empire: The Golden Age of Spain,” “From El Greco to Dalí” and “Gauguin to Warhol.”
Velasquez said she believes that since California is multicultural, having diverse artists in a museum creates a space for people across the world to experience the powerful connections art can make to different cultures.
“Being here in this region, which is a bi-national region, I think we are very fortunate. We don’t talk a lot about that,” she said. “Being in a region, which is the largest border crossing, if you will, in the world, and that constantly provides you with the understanding of others and the value of otherness.”
Karah Lain, Point Loma Nazarene University professor of visual art, painting and drawing, said that diverse artwork helps people deepen their humanity.
“This humility can open our hearts towards compassion, love and empathy with those who we might otherwise be prone to ‘other,’” Lain said in an email interview. “For this reason, curating through a lens of diversity and prioritization for the marginalized is a powerful tool to combat hate.”
While the award itself is an honor, Anette RuizRojas Monroy, a Hispanic fourth-year visual arts major at PLNU, said the award has a deeper meaning beyond recognition.
“Mexican artists are not as validated in Mexico,” RuizRojas Monroy said. “And so that’s why I think that prize, it’s like more than 1,000 words that you can say to us, because it’s like representing and validating. Oh, I am being heard. I am being seen as a Mexican.”
Velasquez said the award she received came with congratulations from her community. Most importantly, Velasquez said this award was a chance to explain the purpose of her lifelong dedication to art.
“The world is absolutely, you know, always in turmoils or competitions or problematic issues, challenging subject matters, but there’s a place where we all come together, wherever you are from, and that’s the culture and the arts,” Velasquez said.
Adee Tulcan 
Milla Kuiper