Zhayra Palma

BFA
Art Studio
Summer 2024 Fellow | 2024-2025 AY Fellow

Zhayra Palma is a writer, speaker and artist, pursuing a BFA in Art Studio at the University of New Mexico.

As a FLAS fellow she has been able to travel to her family’s lands in Áncash, Peru to deepen her understanding of her ancestral Quechua dialect. She continues to learn her family’s Quechua dialect from the north, as well as the southern dialect spoken in the south of Peru and Bolivia whenever she can.

Some of her favorite things in this world include horses, and the beauty and stories found in textiles from the Andes and Amazon of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. She co-operates a small storefront and textile project in Peru that is rooted in the Quechua values of Ayni and Sumaq Kausay, as well as a deep desire for justice-centered commerce.

Central to all of her work is the belief that wealth redistribution is an integral and necessary part of our repair and healing as a society. She has advocated for, and as a part of migrant, poor, stigmatized and criminalized communities for two decades, and is passionate about creative expression and economic redistribution as a way forward.

Born in New York, she grew up between Harlem, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic. Her most cherished childhood memories usually hold some combination of warm rain, talking about dreams, and hearing improvised or memorized poetry. She currently lives part-time in Yucay, Peru, in New Mexico, and traveling to wherever horses or textiles will take her.

“Ujllanakuspa Yaw (may we connect with each other with kindness and understanding, and care for one another)."