Patssi Valdez

The image that resonated the most with me was the image of Patssi Valdez in front of the LACMA museum.  It accurately presents the struggle that many Chicano/a artists faced during this period.  Much of their art went unrecognized for many years and was not considered to be artistic.  Most of these artists actively participated in creating political art in which it help mobilize the Chicano community.  Although artistic in its own way, many were not taken seriously until there artwork help promote activist movements.  It was interesting to me that Miranda shared with us Valdez’s participation in ASCO.  Given the definition of this word in Spanish, referring to something in disgust, help me understand Valdez’s activism.  To establish a group with such connotation was brilliant because at the time many Americans felt disgust toward the Latino population.  Their artwork was also seen with disgust and they were not recognized as true artist.  The image with Valdez in front of the museum showed how they used graffiti in a different form.  Graffiti has a negative image in our society because it’s related with law breaking and gang affiliation.  These artists used it to demonstrate that in order to be considered true “fine” artist they must first break norms, and therefore graffiti the front of the LACMA museum.