The
presentation on Carlee Fernandez struck a close chord with my own Chicana
identity. When viewing her work, one can see she is fully into contemporary
modern art and ranges far from stereotypical Chicano or Chicana art aesthetics
and style. Not only does her art drastically differ, but also that is the
reason in which she does not identify as a Chicana artist. Her reasoning is
that she doesn't identify closely and have a strong relationship with the
parent of Latino descent. The reason why this resonates with me is similar and
different to her story. My father's father was from New Mexico and was Mexican,
but his mother left his father when he was a baby and they moved to Hawaii.
There my father's mother remarried and had two more sons, my uncles. It wasn’t
until my father was eighteen or so that he sought out his biological father. My
dad was brought up out of touch with his Latino roots, and therefore had to
work to understand his heritage. He relearned what he could, and I was raised
with just that, and am still filling in spots for myself. Carlee Fernandez's
confused feelings and little understanding of her Chicano side led her to be
questioning of it. When faced with the overwhelmingly pigeon holed
representation of what Chicana art is supposed to be, Carlee rejected it. In
total, Chicana and Chicano culture must push to communicate its complexity, and
encourage people like Carlee to embrace the label of a Chicana artist in order
to display its depth and breadth.
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