Questions for Professor Gaspar de Alba

Question for Out of the House, the Halo, and the Whore's Mask: the Mirror of Malinchismo:

The article mentions that when reviewers were asked thirteen years after the CARA exhibition if Chicana artists were given the attention they deserved, they said yes. Why did they believe that Chicana artists were given the attention they deserved when evidence showed otherwise? There were a disproportionate number of pieces produced by men in comparison to women and the numbers prove it. Professor Gaspar de Alba shares important figures such as one hundred more Chicano artists were represented than Chicanas. The Chicanas that were represented made up a small number of the exhibits. Professor Gaspar de Alba supports this claim by sharing that one in fourteen pieces in the “Cultural Icons” room was created by a woman, one in twenty-seven pieces in the “Urban Images” room was created by a woman, and so on.

Question for There's No Place Like Aztlan: Embodied Aesthetics in Chicana Art:

Aztlan is an imaginary land Chicanos/as have built their ideologies on. As Professor Gaspar de Alba mentions, it is the foundation of the most basic tenant of Chicanismo – so why is it that after decades of fighting the oppressor, Chicanos/as are still fighting for equality among different platforms whether it is in education, in the workplace, etc. especially women and how is Aztlan still relevant today? I ask the second question because many people are not familiar with the mythic place that is Aztlan and what it represents. Myself being one of them. Although people may be politically and socially conscious of what it means to be a Chicano/a, there might still be a disconnect between what it means to “return to Aztlan” and what it means to be a Chicano/a and fight for equality.