Carmen Lomas Garza: Earache Treatment

One of my favorite works from Carmen Lomas Garza is the Earache Treatment, specifically the close-up image. I particularly like this canvas because Garza not only revisits a piece of her childhood but also incorporates an important message in it. In the overall piece, Garza displays an image of her mother and father enacting a home remedy to treat earaches. According to Carmen, her mother would take a sheet of newspaper, roll it up to resemble a cone, place it in her father's ear, and briefly lighting it on fire before throwing it in the water (53).

Garza later revisits her former work in the close-up version to concentrate on details that enhance the piece. By going back to her old pieces, Garza shows the importance an individual's past can have on her present self. In this reformed piece, Garza zooms into the image of her father getting the treatment. As the newspaper burns above her father's ear, it is as if the information from the paper is being funneled into the father's ear as the mother burns the tip. In order to inform people about Chicanx rights, this information needs to be funneled into the community and used to ignite their spirits.

I personally like this piece because of its ties to Garza's family life. I find that I most admire pieces of art that not only connect to societal issues but also contain a piece of the artist herself. By including a piece of her childhood, I feel that Garza displays a level of openness with her viewers that is often missing in other pieces of work. Although I am not a Chicana, I imagine that many could relate to these cultural routines/traditions displayed in her work.