Andres Payan Estrada compares the practices of Tanya Aguiñiga and Porfirio Gutiérrez, highlighting their shared commitment to understand materials like cochineal, cotton, and fiber as carriers of Indigenous and ancestral knowledge. While their approaches overlap, he notes key differences between the two. Aguiñiga incorporates feminist theory into her art practice, connecting cochineal to gender, labor, and her lived experience along the US–Mexico border. In contrast, Gutiérrez’s work emphasizes migration, displacement, and the preservation and transmission of cultural knowledge. Estrada underscores that for both artists, their practices extend beyond the studio, actively engaging community, history, and collective empowerment.