Zill, Madison Week 5 (Carmen Lomas Garza)

        Carmen Lomas Garza is an artist that captures community and intimate moments. Garza gets personal with her paintings, but the personal stories depicted are relatable. As I was looking through Carmen Lomas Garza by Constance Cortez, the painting that struck me the most was “Cakewalk” (1987) because the scene taking place looked the most familiar to me. 

            Garza’s “Cakewalk” is a scene that captures a community supporting the American GI Forum in their efforts to aide Latino education (Cortez 8). In the painting, the way in which the community is raising money to send more Mexican Americans to university is through a cakewalk (Cortez 8). In a cakewalk, a large circle labeled with numbers is chalked on the ground (Cortez 8). Participants pay to walk in the circle. When the music plays, the participants walk around in the circle. When the music halts, the participants stop on a number (Cortez 8). A number is then randomly called out and the participant on that number gets the cake (Cortez 8). In the painting, the chalked circle is clearly portrayed, people are handing out cakes, and the random number caller is in the center of the circle. The painting captures the liveliness of the event through the diversity of actions performed by the people. There is so much going on in the painting in that people are participating in the cakewalk, figuring out how to play the music, and talking with one another. I related to this painting because I participated in a cakewalk to help my community. 

            My elementary school was brand new. I was there the first day that it opened. During my school’s Halloween event, there was a cakewalk to help raise money for my school. I remember spending hours walking in a circle in hopes of bringing a cake home. Though I might not have completely understood the reason behind the cakewalk at the age of 8, I do remember the feeling of community and being part of something. That is how Garza’s “Cakewalk” made me feel. Garza allowed me to relive that memory. 

 

Carmen Lomas Garza, Cakewalk, 1987. Acrylic on canvas, 36X48 inches. Private Collection

 

Works Cited

Cortez, Constance. Carmen Lomas Garza. Vol. 5, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Press, 2010.