This curriculum reframes the history and practice of design in Latin America, moving beyond aesthetics to examine its vital role as a tool of cultural survival and political action. In a region shaped by colonialism, dictatorship, and systemic inequality, visual communication has never been neutral. It has functioned both as a shield and a spear—preserving vulnerable cultural memory while directly challenging state propaganda and oppressive systems.

Students will explore how designers, artists, and movements have turned everyday materials—ink, pixels, street walls, and textiles—into potent acts of defiance. We will trace this lineage from the woodcut prints of Mexican labor movements to the hacked neon signs of Chile’s social uprisings, analyzing how craft, typography, and digital media are weaponized for justice.

This is more than a design history course; it is a survival guide written in bold typography, guerrilla stencils, and Indigenous textile patterns. Through case studies, projects, and critical theory, students will engage with design not as a service to power, but as a participatory language of resistance, resilience, and identity.