Jackie Barragan is a multi-disciplinary Border artist, community advocate and practitioner of her indigenous healing traditions. She has been dancing since a very early age and studied a variety of dance modalities from ballet to belly dance. She won the Isadora Duncan Choreographer of the year award her senior year in High School and continued to study dance in College. She received her degree in Anthropology and Minor in Dance at the University of Texas at El Paso where she was awarded Outstanding Service to the Anthropology Department.
Additionally, Jackie is a visionary artist and her work is greatly influenced by her ceremonial visions, dreams, and connection to nature. In 2008, she formed the performance art group, La Flamilia, fusing performance art, fire dancing and exhibiting the rich culture of the border by teaming up with Latinx musical groups. She has performed in many community events for Dia De Los Muertos, at fundraiser’s for the Center Against Family and Sexual Violence, and Femme Forme an event showcasing BIPOC and Queer talent.
She also has been practicing her indigenous ceremonial traditions for over 18 years, through sweat lodges and healing practices. She also worked with La Mujer Obrera out of college, an organization formed to advocate for Mexican Women Labor Rights.
In 2019, she applied for a local micro-grant through the Caldo Collective for her first short film documentary JOSIE. She won the grant through an extensive process and up against five finalists. Her short documentary JOSIE is based on the harrowing story of her mother and how she used her anger in her quest to find retribution against a shared predator with her older sister. All while training in Ciudad Juarez and becoming an undefeated martial artist. The film is narrated by her own daughter adding a more intimate perspective into her mother's story.
Her film JOSIE has screened with the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center and Latino Resource Center in San Antonio, TX., the Femme Frontera Filmmaker Showcase, the San Diego Latino Film Festival, the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival, UTEP Women’s History Month, the Plaza Classic Film Festival and has been accepted into the El Paso Film Festival. On August 8th 2021 Jackie received the First Place Award and the Audience choice award at the Plaza Classic Film festival.
In 2021 she was hired by Femme Frontera, a collective of Latinx female-identifying filmmakers based out on the Border who’s purpose is to create more opportunities for Latinx, BIPOC, non-binary, and queer filmmakers.
She has also received a micro-grant from PBS REEL South for her second short documentary called Ome Tlaloc about a local Indigenous border artist.
In 2023 she was chosen for the PBS REEL South Hindsight program where she is the Director, Writer and Producer of her poetic short documentary Echoes of the Rio.