As some of my compañerxs already mentioned, Indych-López examines a work by Baca that is socially relevant and politically urgent to today’s reality for young people of color: Killed by a Placa (1974). In this work, Indych-López reveals how Baca channeled her grief into her artwork which ultimately “[spoke] out against the systemic violence that was killing the youth around her” (p. 56). Revealing the slain, slumped body with a gun-shot wound in the middle of his stomach, she also reveals his oversized, muscular hands symbolizing the strength of the 17-year-old boy. There is a placa in graffiti writing over his face referencing his barrio gang name and Baca’s interpretation of how he was killed by the “perpetuation of violent macho behavior in the form of gang warfare” (p. 57).
I would like to highlight how although this was an act of violence due to the process of territorialization found in the "inner-city," it also becomes a point of analysis in the work because we begin to questions what are the systems of oppression that have caused this young person of color to want to become involved in the behavior they are perpetuating, and what are ways in which we can stop criminalizing black and brown bodies. As a member and victim of gang violence through the graffiti utilized in this piece, Baca reveals how the act of claiming public space through forms of expression, whether through a spray can or zoot suit, are perceived as violent in nature, even if not intended to be so. Without the context of the image given by Indych-López, this piece is as relevant as it was during the targeting of Mexican-American and Chicano youths during the zoot suit riots as it is today with the constant attacks by police on young men of color. The work becomes representative of the way the state does not serve to protect and uplift the voices, lives, and experiences of people of color--especially if they are being constantly criminalized by the dominant discourse. I feel as though this image is so powerful in that it also reveals how desensitized we are to an image of a young person of color being killed because we are given news and images about it everyday.
I think this is image is powerful too because it shows the dead body of a young latino man and it is morbid. The colors in the image look dark and bloody adding to the macabre imagery. I also wanted to point out that he doesn't have a face probably symbolic of the fact that now the death of his brown body has been reduced to nothing more than a number and a statistic.
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