What I grasped from the text, to be rasquache means to circumvent the rules set in place by society. These rules are usually unspoken rules regarding a person’s outside appearance and how well they present themselves. Anything that is seen as pertaining to the characteristics of the lower class people is seen as rasquache. These behaviors are inhabited by Chicanos and they are ways of performing tasks that the better off people would deem demeaning or unfitting. But to the rasquache it is a way of life.
This rasquache is not a style or a sudden phase someone decides to stick with for a bit. Rasquache is a way of life that you adopt and adhere to. It is a person making the conscious effort and decision to maintain an attitude and style of non conformity in society.
In regards to art, it refers to the art that was created by the lower class people, which wasn’t fine art in the Anglo Saxon context. This is the art not deemed art so it stays out of museums. Though in doing so, many artists go unnoticed and without credit or notoriety. However, it remains art to an entire community.
I think rasquache may have started off as members of a community not fitting into the ideal role that an Anglo society envisioned. Some may have been viewed as outsiders and as a result they chose to make this a lifestyle instead of an obstacle or constant reminder of their otherness. In doing so, they, the underdogs, came out as spunky or rebels.
A personal example is the manner in which my family lived. Things like bookshelves most families would buy. But my family would look for leftover pieces of wood and use it to construct an entirely new bookshelf. Or instead of going to Michael’s to buy the box with the supplies to assemble the models for school projects like the Trojan Horse, my father would build it with us from scratch. I didn’t understand it then, but he was trying to instill these values of resourcefulness in us. He wanted us to find pride in doing the work ourselves instead of purchasing already completed projects from crafts stores like the other kids. It wasn’t because we couldn’t go out and buy one, but instead my family was trying to instill in me the pride of being able to use my own hands to build instead of going out to spend. I realized the importance of being proud, not ashamed of the way I grew up.
I can appreciate your attitude toward rasquachismo as a rebelliousness and conscious decision to be different. Though one question I kick around in my head is always whether rasquachismo started out as a way of dealing with a lack of materials based on one's own inability to acquire them and then became a methodology of creating art in and of itself, and at what point does that happen? Is rasquache art a mimicking of something marginalized communities perform as part of day-to-day survival?
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