Avila, Andrew

    According to Frausto, rasquachismo is neither defined as a style or idea, but that of taste. It’s interesting to note that Frausto elaborates as to the stance of rasquachismo not pertaining to Chicano communities, but being alive within them. He explains its a visceral response, an intellectual cognition that exists within each of us. It's also interesting to note that Frausto iterates that rasquachismo is largely a view from los de abajo, or those from beneath, the ‘underdogs’. While this is true, it’s quite contrasting that one never considered themselves as rasquache but always someone of lower status, as if there is always someone else of lower status. 

    The funny thing is I can recall instances in my life where my Mom did things I didn’t really think were rasquachismo, or rasquache simply because they made sense to me. For instance when we were young and we went grocery shopping, my Mom always had us save the bags from groceries, and she would repurpose them in all these different ways. Even when we got older and shopped on our own, each of us would always give the plastic bags we received at checkout to our mother. If they were plastic, they often found their way into one of the small trash cans my Mother had in each restroom. Other times they were reused to tote objects from place to place, usually when we needed to bring something to a family gathering. If they were paper, which they seldom were when I was growing up, they were often used to cover our books for school. My father also had his share of rasquachismo

practices as well. If we ever finished a jar of jam, salsa, pickles, or olives the jar was always washed and reused to store miscellaneous items in the garage. I can recall old jars filled with nails, and old coffee tins that housed ‘extra parts’ among the tools and practical things that we stored in the garage. Yet, as a kid these things didn't seem rasquache, they simply seemed normal, they seemed practical, even if some of my friends didn't do the same things at home. I think that's why Frausto was accurate when he said rasquachismo is a taste. It's an evolving state determined by the individual in the moment, meaning something can be rasquachismo once or multiple times. Now that I’m older and I’m on my own away at college, I find myself following the examples of rasquachismo my parents modeled. Even though I have reusable bags to take to the grocery store, I often find myself buying an extra bag or two so I can reuse them in the small trash cans we have in my apartment. As an artist I also reuse old jars, and old shoe boxes to store items like pencils, charcoals, and pastels.