CARA's Politics of Representation

The CARA exhibition was an art exhibition that focused on Chicano and Chicana artist’s work in an effort to highlight their culture and its importance. However, an in depth view of the exhibit done by Alicia Gaspar de Alba’s called into question whether the exhibit was really inclusive at all. With a closer look it was obvious that not only were there more male artists featured than female artists but that the male artists sometimes outnumbered the female artists 26/1 in extreme cases. 

            As professor Alicia Gaspar de Alba pointed out, it is not that there is a lack of female artists to choose from but that female artists have been widely underrepresented throughout history even within the Chicanx community, and are sometimes still seen as lesser than to males. In the chapter, Judith Baca is cited for standing at the front lines of the feminist artist movement and writing books that challenged the social norms for women such as climbing scaffolding and painting large murals, both tasks that were seen as male excusive roles. Chicana artists have been fighting for their space in the art world since its conception and are just recently starting to gain recognition for their talent and determination. It is important that writings such as this, done by Professor Gaspar de Alba, are recognized so that more awareness can be brought to these issues both in the art community, and the Chicano community.