Born in México City, México, Ana Laura Rivera is a visual artist living and working in the New York metropolitan area, whose work has been shown in solo and selected exhibitions in México and the United States.  Known primarily as a first-rate printmaker, her unique Postmodern iconology reflects and reveals her firm commitment to Latina-feminist activism. For instance, her prints metaphorically utilize Pre-Columbian symbols as hieroglyphs illuminating an enduring and illustrious history of Latina-feminist defiance, nonconformity, and opposition to all forms of oppression, including colonization, imperialism, totalitarianism as well as run-of-the-mill Machismo-oppression.   Rivera's use of colors adheres to the ‘earthen-hued’ Mexican palette that is traditionally identified with her culture.   Paradoxically, Rivera's work affords a new visual language, which synthesizes the rupture and the continuity of Mexico’s vast and rich ancient and contemporary artistic traditions.  In "432 and Counting,” Rivera exposes the cruel situation at Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where women are being unjustly killed for merely pursuing the American Dream and they are being betrayed by a government that does nothing to stop it.  She uses clear Mexican iconography such as the calaveras, skulls that are usually made in miniature to celebrate a loved one on the Day of the Dead. These skulls are usually adorned in different colors and have the name of the dead person on their foreheads.  In her piece, however, Rivera leaves that space blank as a reminder of the apathy of the government that sees these women as Jane Does. The repetition of these skulls gives us a sense of the hundreds of dead women; these images are combined with the lithographic images of a female body bound and tied, which is depicted in the same exact way that women are daily being found murdered on deserted fields in Juarez.  The inscriptions on the bottom part of the print are descriptive of the situation both in English and Spanish the same way a devout Mexican would do on an ex-voto image when asking for a miracle from God.  These ex- votos are traditionally seen in churches around Mexico depicting unfortunate situations, or expressing gratitude, or are asking for a miracle (divine intervention). Just as Rivera does in most of her prints, she combines more than one method; in this case, it is waterless lithography and serigraphy.     For more information about Ana Laura Rivera please