On Jan. 9, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art hosted the event “Imagining Mañana,” centering the graphic novel anthology “Mañana: Latinx Comics from the 25th Century,” and its editor and publisher, Joamette Gil, who spoke on the comics’ current significance in relation to recent ICE raids. 

The anthology consists of 27 different artists, each of whom showcases comics in the theme of Latinx/e characters and environments, taking place roughly 500 years in the future. Its original publication, released in 2021, was in reaction to the first Trump administration and family separation at the border. 

“People were feeling pretty helpless,” Gil said. “I wanted to get the community together to make something uplifting, something about the future, to sort of remind everyone that we still have one.”

All the comics in the anthology take place so far in advance to push the meaning and to show that Latinx people and their community have a future.

Gil’s anthology made its way onto campus in 2026 through Audrey Lucero, faculty director for the Latinx Scholars Academic Residential Community. She introduced the comic because of its strong message, but reached out to Gil after realizing the anthology’s editor was in Portland. 

“Well, part of it is really because of the time that we’re living in,” Lucero said. “The really fraught experience of being a person of color right now, as being identified as Latinx, and I really want our students in the arc (Academic Residential Community) to feel a confident, strong sense of self and that we do have a future here and everywhere; we’re not going anywhere.” 

They partnered with a handful of resources to bring this event to life, including Books with Pictures, a comic and graphic novel store on the 5th Street Market, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, the Oregon Humanities Center and the Division of Equity and Inclusion. They also advertised the event with comic studies. 

Joamette Gil is also the owner and founder of Power & Magic Press, an independent comic publisher based in Portland. The website advertises that they have award-winning comics created by LGBTQ+ and BIPOC creators. Gil has edited all of Power & Magic’s works to date. 

Gil also mentioned that in their field, they are committed to showcasing diverse voices and campaigning for fair pay in the industry. They identify as a Queer Afro-Cuban American and said they are loud about their identity. In other words, if there is an important issue regarding Latinx/e lives that they think isn’t being talked about enough, they will be the ones to bring it up. 

Gil’s need to speak up is part of the reason Gil and Lucero created this event for the student body in the current political environment. “The visibility of these events like this right now in 2026 at this moment is really important,” Lucero said. “And to support these kinds of events and to attend when possible because we need to show up for each other.”

Building community is also something Gil advocated for at this time, instead of being divided. The graphic novel “Mañana,” and the event itself was a way to do that.

Especially in a new time of ICE raids and forced deportation, community and imagination for the future can be hard to come by. Fear is so easily produced that everything else can be forgotten, but creating community through “Mañana” and creating events around it to fight back against what can be considered dark times. 

 “Right now we are living through what kind of feels like an apocalypse,” Gil said. “It’s pretty clear with anyone with eyes that we’re seeing similar activities to what we saw in early Nazi Germany in the United States. It’s difficult to say what the next 10 or 20 years are going to look like for Latinx people, and so I definitely believe in exercising optimism and using creativity to keep ourselves joyful, grounded and farsighted.”

To be future-oriented and collectivity-oriented is something that Gil and Lucero hope to drill into the ground with “Imagining Mañana.” Lucero even made a point to mention that Latinx studies are for every student and every community, to build connections within campus and to help support Latinx and non-Latinx students in times of need.

“My only other message to the student body is be good to your Latinx classmates, f*ck ICE, use your body to protect Black people, Latinx people, trans people, etc,” Gil said. “Just be cool, you know?”