Omar Monroy
(she/they)
“I am Omar Monroy, a Trans Ña'ha’Savi artist. My studio,El Techichi, is a love letter to my inner child, the women who raised me, and Rue, the chihuahua whose spirit sparked it all.
I come from fieldworkers and cosmetologists thus working with my hands and the earth is inherited, not chosen. I hand-make each piece in brass, copper, and silver, using only vintage or locally sourced stones as an act of reclamation against an extractive industry.
My work honors gender-diverse ancestors who held sacred roles before colonization. Proof Indigenous people are still here, still sovereign.”
Omar Monroy is a trans artist of Ñuu’Savi descent whose jewelry practice, El Techichi, grew out of something deeply personal, her childhood, the women who raised her, and her chihuahua, Rue, whose spirit set the whole journey in motion. Born in Iztapalapa, Mexico and raised in Huajuapan de León, Oaxaca, Omar moved to Ontario, California at age six. She hand crafts each piece in brass, copper, and sterling silver, using only vintage or locally sourced gemstones as a quiet act of resistance against an extractive industry.
As a Trans Ña'ha Savi person, Omar sees her work as more than adornment, it's a way of carrying forward Indigenous traditions of gender diversity that existed long before colonial binaries were imposed. That sense of continuity and reclamation runs through everything she makes.
She's been featured in MoMA's Creativity Lab, Vogue, and Forbes, led jewelry direction for Indigenous New York Fashion Week, NYCJW and won NYC Jewelry Week's 2024 Here We Are award and recently showed pieces at The Contemporary Native Art Biennial in Canada.
