Cartoons, culture and care: Latino artist creates bilingual mental health universe

Artist Rocky Casillas Aguirre has created a mental health universe populated by a ragtag cast of characters.

Twitch is the protagonist. He’s bright orange, with big cartoon eyes and very cute.

“He’s a little campfire flame, and he represents the kid in all of us who sees the world with curious eyes and has lots of questions,” Casillas Aguirre says.

Then there’s his best friend and mentor, Mystic Weenie, an ancient hot dog.

“He’s about 5,000 years old, has a lot of wisdom, has seen a lot of things.” 

Joining them is the easy-going Pablo. “A little Mexican snail who travels the world with his little knapsack full of snacks,” Casillas Aguirre says. “He wants to learn about different cultures, different ways of life, and his motto is, ‘Slow your roll.’”

There’s a talking brain, Dr. Lola the Axolotl and many more. They go on healing journeys together, riding a rainbow of emotions and learning mindfulness. Now, they are on view at the Northfield Arts Guild for Casilla Aguirre’s first solo show, “U are the Universe (Eres El Universo),” a bilingual all-ages immersive exhibition about mental health. 

How art became a lifeline

The gallery is filled with more than 70 comics, animations and sculptures that employ both English and Spanish, including a medicine cabinet with fake prescriptions for meditation (meditación), laughter (risa), fresh air (aire fresco) and cat cuddles (abraza un gato). 

In a series of comics, Twitch advises on the different kinds of meditation (sound, breath, walking and more). A comic guide explains “How the body responds to stress/Cómo responde el cuerpo al estrés” with cartoons of a howling amygdala (amígdala) and dancing adrenal glands (glándulas suprarrenales).

The exhibition is inspired by Casillas Aguirre’s own challenges with mental health. When the pandemic hit, he began to struggle with anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and hallucinations.

“I didn’t grow up talking about mental health at home, so I didn’t have any resources or tools that I could lean on,” he says.

He saw doctors and therapists, and started meditating and drawing.

“I took refuge in art, which is something that I’ve done all of my life, as a little kid,” Casillas Aguirre says. “Between meditating and just practicing self-care and drawing my feelings, I found a new purpose, my art found new purpose, and that was to communicate about mental health.”

Casillas Aguirre has a background in conservation biology and was the executive director at Sharing Our Roots, a nonprofit regenerative agriculture farm outside of Northfield, but he decided to become a full-time artist.

“A lot of my art is geared towards youth, because I'm trying to create the resources that I didn't have growing up in hopes that the kids of today will grow up to be happy, healthy adults tomorrow,” Casillas Aguirre says.

He has done art sessions with students at Bridgewater Elementary and has a partnership with the Northfield Public Library, where some of his murals are on view in the children’s section. The library also has copies of his children’s book featuring Twitch and Mystic Weenie: “Where Did the Anxiety Go?”, which is also published in Spanish, Somali and Swahili.

Looking at mental health from a Latino perspective

The artist’s work is also geared towards the Latino community. Angelica Linder, the library outreach manager who does bilingual programming, says Casillas Aguirre is bringing awareness to an important issue.

“Our community, we are not taught how to express our feelings. You just tough it up and move on and then that's it,” Linder says.

She likes Casillas Aguirre’s colorful artwork because it makes mental health discussions more approachable and positive. She calls it a “combination of his heritage, the mental health aspect, bringing awareness to some strong issues in our community, and all through art without feeling sad after looking at it.”

Casillas Aguirre was born in Tijuana, Mexico, but he spent most of his life in Northfield. 

At the gallery, he stands in front of one of his posters. It features a little cartoon figure wearing an Aztec headdress surrounded by thought bubbles in English and Spanish. For the piece, Casillas Aguirre interviewed people in the local Latino communities about their anxieties and used their responses, anonymously.

“Looking at mental health from a Latino perspective, there are a lot of things that Latinos are stressed out from that the white co