Noé Martínez’s practice has questioned the relationship between art, politics and participation, by bringing together biographical accounts of his family’s experience in his native Michoacán, manifestations of ancient indigenous cultures of the region, along with contemporary social mobilizations. Engaging in depthly with local indigenous identities from a contemporary perspective, Martínez’s work asserts the relevance of personal narratives facing Western global history. His work incorporates the evolution of language in relation to the history of the European colonization of Latin America, the vindication of ethnicity in the political processes carried out by the indigenous populations of Mexico, and the political power of memory. His research has recently extended to the colonial history of the Gulf of Mexico, and more specifically the slave trade during the first years of the European invasion. In his paintings, both the exit of Huasteco natives and the entry of Africans from Cape Verde, Angola, Congo, and Mozambique are unraveled as a story that was put away in the high sea, the colonial documents, and the continuation of colonial relations in everyday life.