Carmen Lomas Garza - The Earache (1989)

Although some of my compañerxs already mentioned this image, I would like to expand my own interpretation as to why I found so beautiful about this image. I appreciate their interpretation of it being symbolic of "funneling" the information about the discrimination Latinx/Chicanx people face in society.  However, I also interpret the Earache Treatment (1989) as more than just her mother curing her father's earache, and alienating him from the oppressive situation he is in, but it reveals the importance of community cultural wealth found within communities of color. Tara J. Yosso explains that as people of color, we are consistently being invalidated for the lack of traditional education our communities are able to obtain. There is a difference between education and knowledge though; and I believe Earache Treatment is a perfect example of the community cultural wealth Rosso presents in her research.

Using ancestral knowledge to treat his earache, Lomas Garza's mother reveals how you do not need a formal education and years of med school in order to treat people. People of color have ancestral and cultural knowledge that we do not always think about as being valid sources because they are not accepted or taught in the white-dominant system. From a young age we are socialized to believe that our education and knowledge is based in the classroom, but this inherently serves to make communities of color feel that they do not have anything important to contribute. I find this work to be extremely important for this reason because it acts as an example as to the power our families and cultura holds--despite being told that we have nothing to offer from the communities we come from.