Quirino, Estefania

My name is Estefania Quirino and I am a junior art history major. My parents were both born and raised in Mexico and I was born in Palm Springs, California. It was important for them that their children learn to speak, read, and write in Spanish so that we would not lose our Mexican roots in the United States, so my siblings and I are fluent in Spanish. I decided to take this course because although being an art history major exposes you to art from all around the world, it rarely focuses on Chicana art.

I found the chapter, "Out of the House, the Halo, and the Whore's Mask: The Mirror of Malinshismo," by Gaspar de Alba incredibly interesting and informative. The way in which he describes the CARA exhibition and how the Chicana artists' voices were being ignored in favor of the Chicanos. This reinforces the fact that, as Alba mentioned, Chicanos within the Chicana/o community are at the top of the hierarchical power structure that continues to oppresses Chicanas. As de Alba was focusing on individual artworks by Chicanas I noticed that their art had a lot to do with the female reproductive system. Which makes me question whether the Chicanas who had art featured in the CARA exhibition were also excluding women who cannot have children. Do you think that this kind of Chicana art that focuses so much on female reproduction is exclusionary to those Chicanas who cannot have children?