Sandia: Carmen Lomas Graza

Carmen Lomas Graza’s images are centered around the realities she experienced living in Texas and exposes cultural norms specific to religion and traditions that made up her childhood. At first glance, her work depicts celebratory reunions and vivid colors that have sometimes been referred to as “childish,” yet, here’s so much more including, racial conflicts as well as economic and educational disparities. From her multiple pieces, three of her works which impacted me the most include Curandera, Sandia and Heaven and Hell, as these all resonated with my own culture and personal upbringing.

Growing up in the Central Valley, Sandia, perfectly depicts a great part of my childhood. When it was hot, and watermelon season, my dad would come back from working in the fields with sandias, we would then gather in my aunt’s house, and we would all sit around eating them until it was the middle of the night. This was also the case for birthday parties and family gatherings where our dessert was cold sandia. I loved this piece because it brought me back to home and memories that I didn’t believe to be valuable then. So many years later, I can still remember how that moment felt, over time we lost those traditions due to lack of time or family conflicts, but I’m glad that these traditions are recorded in art and children’s books so our future generations can see and picture community and family gatherings.

I attained my first book from Lomaz Garza at a book fair, my mother picked it out for me, I now understand that she knew that this book carried traditions and essential memories. Lomaz Garza's intention was to recreate a memory that brought her back to home and explained the definition of family through something so simple as sharing a watermelon.