Rasquachismo was a term that I had never heard of before, but reading Gonzalez’s essay on this word was very interesting. Rasquachismo is defined as the perspective of the “downtrodden”, people who are oppressed by those who have power, the underdog. Rasquachismo is a combination of resistance and resilience that permit Chicano men to live their lives with dignity.
I thought that it was interesting that she referred to rasquachismo as being similar to holding something together with the most broken down items, or art activists taking and repurposing new items to create new aesthetics using rasquachismo as a tool. Artistically, rasquachismo allows Chicano artists to reflect on how they are portrayed in popular culture and explore their own sense of identity. Also important to the definition, is understanding the historical and social treatment of Chicanos in society, and how oppression, among many other things, created the need for rasquachismo in Chicano communities.
In my own life, rasquachismo was reflective of the life of my great grandmother. Being in a single income household in San Francisco and raising five children with her husband, money was tight. However, she was always resourceful and found ways to reuse items and create things out of nothing to give her family the best life possible as it continued to grow with some of my mom’s generation living with them in her home too. One of my favorite things that she would do was take old glass bottles and turn them into vases and candle holders for decor around the house. I would help her find bottles and paint them fun colors, and even today I do the same thing with my roommates and repurpose glass bottles into functional and unique pieces. She saved money for her family while simultaneously creating something new and exciting, and I always admire the job she did building our family and working to help them have the best lives possible.
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