W7 Barbara Carrasco Image Analysis

The artist I will be presenting on is Barbara Carrasco. She was born in El Paso TX in 1955 and later moved to LA and became heavily involved in the United Farm Workers (UFW) movement during her undergraduate career at West LA College and UCLA. As a more light skinned Chicana, she experienced a lot of conflicting messages about her identity, with some people criticizing her for being too white or not Chicana enough. As a result, much of her work centers around imagery that pushes against these common and dominant perceptions of what Chicana means. Similarly, as a Chicana feminist/activist/artist, many of her pieces challenge the patriarchal depictions of women, and strategically calls out the violence that Chicanas experience from this hetero-patriarchal and toxic establishment. This specific image I will focus on is her 1978, Pregnant Woman in a Ball of Yarn sketching. This image (attached below) depicts a pregnant woman whose body, arms and legs, are trapped/ tied up in a ball of yarn. Additionally the yarn is covering her eyes, and mouth (similar to a gag). This specific intentionality of having it cover her mouth reflects the ways that women are often silenced, politically, within our own cultures, and even internally through pervasive and violent ideologies that deem women, especially women of color, worthless.

The fact that her body is nude and on display yet her mouth and eyes are covered also speaks to the reality of how many Chicanas and pregnant women are objectified, exploited, and abused. The connection to the baby shoe sewn out of the yarn also brings in elements of motherhood that can be applied to all aspects of Chicanas lives, whether that be that they are single and pressured into having children, or they are pregnant and discriminated against as a result of it. Or they are mothers and their parenting is criminalized and judged by the state, longstanding cultural traditions and more.
While this image was made in response to the violence she witnessed her sister in law experiencing- having limited educational access as a result of having a child- from cultural impositions of reproductive labor/demand, this image is relevant across shifting spheres of issues that affect Chicanas. As the viewer brings their own interpretations, the knowledge source of how women are systematically, culturally, politically, or otherwise oppressed expands and can be discussed with new formulations, making it always relevant. I think much can be understood and taken form this image so please feel free to add your own interpretations in the comments :).