Chicana artist Cecelia Perez is everywhere, collaborating with the San Francisco Giants, Sacramento Kings, skateboard company DGK, and the worldwide clothing store Zumiez.
For the second straight year, Perez’s artwork is featured in the Giants’ Artist Series, which celebrates the intersection between sports, art, and Bay Area culture.
When you walk inside the Giants Dugout Store, the first thing you see is Perez’s retail collection. Her artwork tells a story of San Francisco through the lens of a Chicana, through Perez’s eyes. Her mission is to represent the Chicano culture she loves, and her work is resonating with fans. Her collection constantly sells out.
“I think what people love the most is the Chicano flavor that she’s bringing in and the colors and the bold,” said Giants retail strategy manager Erica Davis. “It’s all very much quintessential Bay Area culture. When you see it, you know it. She has an incredible fan base, and just seeing everything through Cecelia’s perspective is just beautiful.”
“I have my first-issue Giants merchandise,” Perez said while pointing to the T-shirt hanging on her wall that she designed for the Giants’ Artist Series last year. “I have it as a little trophy up here.”
Perez’s artwork is an expression of who she is: a proud second-generation Chicana. The term refers to people of Mexican descent born and raised in the U.S., who straddle both cultures and identify with the Chicano Movement of the 1960s.
Her work brings a Chicana perspective to a culture that she says is often told through the male lens. It embodies both masculine and feminine energies, incorporating old-school custom lowriders while also featuring Chicanas at the center of her artwork, ultimately uplifting the female voice. It’s edgy, heartfelt, and authentically her own.
“I’m very proud, and I’m very unapologetic when it comes to being a Chicana artist,” said Perez. “My artwork speaks for itself, and my background growing up speaks for itself as well, so I have no qualms whatsoever in just being myself.”
“These cars are in our car club called Sin Nombre Mi Familia, and I incorporate our vehicles in a lot of my artwork,” said Perez while showing the low riders in her car club that she featured in both seasons of the Giants’ Artist Series and in her DGK skateboard collection.
When she was first starting out, she said it was difficult. But giving up was never an option for her. She said quitting meant giving up on her parents’ hard work to give her a good life.
“The painting right here is of my dad,” said Perez, pointing to a special painting on her wall. “I painted this right after he passed away. It was a means of artistic therapy for myself, so it really helped me cope with his loss.”
Perez’s father was an entrepreneur, journalist, musician, and activist who fought for Chicano representation within the United Farm Workers of America. Cesar Chavez himself asked Cecelia’s dad and his band Nomas Tres to perform at his father’s funeral. Through Perez’s artwork, she continues her father’s legacy of activism.
“Ultra proud,” said her brother Ricardo Perez. “Cecelia’s thought process and being able to encapsulate the Chicano lifestyle, you know, has been prominent, of course, in her art, and you know, in large part due to our general upbringing.”
Cecelia’s brand at Zumiez is called Hey Ruca.
“Everything that I do is actually in my father’s honor,” said Perez. “The last really big milestone I was able to achieve with him being able to see me throw the first pitch for the Giants last year, and so that was like a really big deal for me, and it felt like a movie ending.”
Perez’s artwork is a love letter to her family and community, celebrating Chicano style, strength, beauty, and resilience.