“Your Dreams Are Safe With Me”: Honduran-American Artist Honors Ancestral Women and Queer Joy Through Sacred Foods

Santa Mercita’s June collaboration explores how food traditions carry forward generations of love, survival, and liberation in immigrant communities

Food is Pride explores how culinary traditions become sources of strength, identity, and resistance—particularly for communities facing marginalization or displacement.

SEATTLE, Wash. (June XX, 2025) — In her earliest memory, artist Santa Mercita stands as a toddler beside her grandmother, tiny hands helping prep vegetables in a kitchen filled with the aromas of Central American cooking. Now, decades later and an ocean away from Honduras, that moment has blossomed into a vibrant illustration celebrating the sacred connection between land, love, and the women who nourish generations.

Santa Mercita’s commissioned artwork for Northwest Harvest’s June #ArtistsForFoodJustice collaboration transforms the theme “Food is Pride” into a powerful tribute to campesino heritage, queer visibility, and the profound ways food carries culture across borders and through time.

“Food is a language of survival, culture, love, and dignity,” explains Santa Mercita, the artist name gifted to Thania Guerra by her ancestors. Born in Siguatepeque, Honduras, and now based in Seattle, she creates work that weaves ancestral knowledge with contemporary struggles for liberation.

Sacred Foods as Ancestral Language

At the center of Santa Mercita’s illustration stands a Central American woman representing her ancestors, surrounded by foods that tell the story of a people: corn signifying origins, beans and rice as symbols of survival, bay leaves for protection, and sardines for resilience. Each element carries both nutritional and spiritual significance, reflecting how immigrant communities preserve identity through culinary traditions.

“I sought to honor my heritage and the women in my family who dedicated their lives to nourishing generations,” Santa Mercita explains. “I come from Honduras, and I want to celebrate the campesinos in my lineage and the sacred connection between land, love, and care.”

The work reflects her family’s roots spanning Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador—a Central American diaspora connected by shared foods, shared struggles, and shared dreams of abundance. The name “Honduras,” meaning “depths,” speaks to the artist’s intimate relationship with water and the life it sustains, themes that flow through her vibrant, intentional color palettes.

Queer Joy as Ancestral Healing

Woven throughout the piece is Santa Mercita’s queer identity, which she positions not as separate from her cultural heritage but as integral to it—representing healing and power while honoring ancestors “who couldn’t fully express themselves.”

“My joy and visibility are a tribute to them, a promise that ‘your dreams are safe with me,'” she says, articulating how contemporary LGBTQ+ pride can honor rather than abandon ancestral connections.

This intersectional approach to identity—refusing to separate queerness from cultural pride, or individual liberation from collective memory—offers a nuanced perspective often missing from both food justice and LGBTQ+ advocacy conversations.

Art as Community Empowerment

Santa Mercita’s creative practice extends far beyond individual expression. As a communications specialist and graphic designer for a food justice organization serving Latine communities in Burien, Washington, she uses visual storytelling to build access, trust, and empowerment within immigrant communities.

Her path to this work began in childhood, when living with ADHD made traditional school settings difficult and art became both outlet and focusing tool. Self-taught in painting and digital illustration, she has evolved from creating hyper-realistic portraits to supporting minority-owned businesses through branding that uplifts identity and narrative.

“She is committed to working alongside community-rooted people and organizations, using art as a tool for healing, resistance, and liberation,” her bio notes. “Her work is both personal and collective, a bridge between the wisdom of her ancestors and the future she dreams of building.”

Food is Pride: Celebrating Survival and Dignity

The “Food is Pride” theme, part of Northwest Harvest’s year-long campaign The Meaning of Food, explores how culinary traditions become sources of strength, identity, and resistance—particularly for communities facing marginalization or displacement.

Santa Mercita’s interpretation demonstrates how food pride operates on multiple levels: pride in agricultural heritage and campesino knowledge, pride in women’s nurturing labor across generations, pride in cultural survival despite systemic challenges, and pride in authentic self-expression that honors rather than abandons ancestral wisdom.

#ArtistsForFoodJustice: Centering Community Voices

The monthly collaboration series continues Northwest Harvest’s commitment to centering BIPOC artists whose lived experiences inform powerful commentary on food systems and equity. Each collaboration explores different aspects of food’s meaning while highlighting creators working at the intersections of art, identity, and justice.

“For me, food is memory. It’s my grandmother flipping hot tortillas by hand, turning yesterday’s leftovers into something sacred. It’s how I learned that nourishment is more than a meal—it’s love, resilience, and legacy,” says Carmen Mendez, Northwest Harvest’s Director of Food Access Network and Allocation. “Santa Mercita’s art reminds us that in every grain of rice or ear of corn, we carry the dignity of our people. At Northwest Harvest, we honor that truth by working toward a food system rooted in justice and belonging.”

Northwest Harvest distributes food to 388 partners throughout Washington state while working to address hunger at its systemic roots—an approach that recognizes food insecurity as stemming from inequitable systems rather than individual choices.

Getting Involved

Community members can view Santa Mercita’s interpretation of “Food is Pride” and share their own food stories at northwestharvest.org/meaning-of-food. The artist’s broader work can be explored at santamercita.com.

About Northwest Harvest
Northwest Harvest is an anti-racist, anti-oppression organization committed to transforming an unjust food system into one that is more responsive and accountable to communities most impacted by discrimination. Beyond food distribution, the organization works to shift public opinion and impact institutional policies that perpetuate hunger and poverty in Washington state. Learn more at www.northwestharvest.org.

About Santa Mercita
Santa Mercita is the artist name gifted to Thania Guerra by her ancestors. Born in Siguatepeque, Honduras, and now based in Seattle, she is a self-taught graphic designer, illustrator, and multidisciplinary artist whose work centers storytelling as a form of self-actualization and collective liberation. Working primarily with acrylic on canvas and digital illustration, she explores themes of racialization, trauma, inner worlds, and cultural memory through vibrant, intentional color palettes that reflect her Central American heritage. Learn more at santamercita.com.

High-resolution artwork and artist interviews available upon request.

Media interested in sustained coverage of this year-long community dialogue can contact Zomi Anderson at ZomiA@northwestharvest.org or 772-924-8555.

For general media information and resources, including key facts and statistics about hunger in Washington, please visit our Media Hub.

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