Gutierrez, Kimberly (Week 4)

     Rasquachismo indicates undervaluing or looking down upon a status whether that may be through an object or an individual. Thus, it all is looked at through a lens of disvalue. As in the reading, it discusses how the term rasquachismo can be viewed as one’s “taste.” Besides, it made me think of how sometimes cities reconstruct certain parts of neighborhoods to make them appear more aesthetically pleasing to the public. Not only that but it also makes me think of the buildings and restaurants that hold a lot of great cultural history being demolished to make room for modern-looking buildings/architecture. In my community, there is a historic movie theater that has been around since the 1920s, and are considering completely demolishing the building despite its value and history to the community. The thought saddens me because instead of city council officials reopening the theater to its original function motives, they have intentions in deconstructing the building to serve as a different purpose. Ideally, with city council officials coming to a decision to remove these historic buildings that have portrayed an important part and served an immense memorable purpose to the community, they are removing a great part of history that many people from various generations have experienced throughout the years.

    Another personal example of rasquachismo makes me think of how sometimes people may throw away materials such as plastic or cardboard as they are often viewed as non-usable and perhaps non-functional—they can be viewed as looked down upon. As someone who is an artist and loves photography, I recently did a project/series that involved using my oil diffuser box and created a pinhole camera out of cardboard, mimicking a medium format camera. For the most part, I enjoyed the process behind creating it as it could also be a great additional reminder that one can always create a work of art out of items and materials that society may consider as ‘trash.’