Lopez, Josue (Week 4: Rasquachismo)

In his 1989 essay, Tomas Ybarra-Frausto says that rasquachismo is “neither an idea nor a style but more of an attitude or a taste” (85). Rasquachismo is a sensibility, a lived experience that comes from an “underdog” perspective. Rasquachismo is a spirit of resilience and resourcefulness in the face of the material limitations present in the working-class barrios. Chicano artists use everyday materials to create a highly decorative, unrestrained aesthetic that “seeks to subvert and turn ruling paradigms upside down” (85). In rasquachismo, Chicano artists and intellectuals rediscover identity, meaning, and solidarity through the elevation of everyday life practices and objects. Ranquachismo rejects established paradigms of “high” art, for representations that center the working-class experiences and conditions of the Chicano community. 

If rasquachismo represents resilience and resourcefulness, a fregado pero no jodido attitude, then domesticana takes the rasquechismo attitude one step further by also reinterpreting and reclaiming the domestic space of Chicanas. As Amalia Mesa-Bains points out, domesticana sensibility “posits an approach to feminine space in the contemporary that reconstructs aspects of the domestic, the sacred, and the spiritual” (95). The domesticana aesthetic emancipates Chicanas from dominant gender roles, allowing for highly decorative representation of everyday Chicana experience that subvert Anglo-American cultural identity and challenge patriarchy.

Although I was unaware of the meaning of rasquachismo and domesticana until reading Tomas Ybarra-Frausto’s and Amalia Mesa-Bains’ essays, almost immediately, I understood the meaning of the terms because of my background. Growing up in el barrio of South Los Angeles, my family was always resourceful, repurposing old wood to make new furniture, using old jars to store random items around the house, etc. We would make do with what we had at hand. This rasquache attitude has given me a greater appreciation for the material things I have, but more importantly, it has given me a sense of pride for my community and our culture.

Brown sugar is stored in a Kirkland chocolate container.