Alvaro Sahagun was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico in 1982. He is an artist and educator who creates paintings, performances, and sculptures confronting the palpable inescapability of race, transforming them into acts of cultural reclamation. Like DNA strings of mestizaje, his practice confronts contradiction—Indian/conqueror, violence/unity, and ancient/contemporary. As an immigrant and former laborer, Luis seeks to reveal the aesthetics of relocation and transgenerational trauma by utilizing building materials such as silicone, lumber, drywall, concrete, and hardware as symbols representing working-class immigrants' country.

Alvaro cultivates civic activations for community members, students, and other educators. A unique element fueling his social art practice is his experience growing up feeling invisible to society because he was Brown, undocumented, and poor. This makes him privy to perceptions that most people have not been exposed to. He uses the residue of those traumas to guide the development of meaningful performances, public interventions, discussions, and workshops.