Week 6: Carmen Lomas Garza

One of Carmen Lomas Garza’s visual response to the Quincentenary of when Europeans first reached the Americas was Homenaje a Tenochtitlan: An Installation for the Day of the Dead (Homage to Ancient Mexico City and Doña Marina, “La Malinche”) which was a three-part installation. Cortez states the third part of the installation, altar to Malinche, was 14 x 20 x 20 feet and was created in 1992 out of paper cutouts, acrylic on paper and cloth, copper, gold leaf, wood, feathers, vegetables, flowers and water. Garza dedicated this piece to Malinche, her grandmother, and two friends. It was created to reference the conquest, the reputation Malinche receives, and how those in contemporary times still experience similarities. Garza credits Malinche for being a mediator, but acknowledges the downside by explaining, “I as a Chicana – and a lot of Chicanas – see ourselves in certain ways as Malinches, in that we are the liaisons between two groups of people…we’re seen as traitors because that’s how La Malinche was seen” (76). Moreover, Garza included the photographs of her grandmother and two friends to represent people who taught her values such as caring and loving others as well as the community.