Class Reflection

This class has exposed me to many new Chicana artists. I enjoyed the class lecture and being able to learn what political/cultural circumstance influenced the art of Chicanas. I had never taken an art class, much less one on Women of Color, so it was awesome that we got to center their narratives throughout this quarter. What I found the most interesting was how all the Chicana artists made art with a purpose and was always tied to community struggle and liberation. 

I also enjoyed the practical art tools taught in class and the journal we had to use. I liked the style of the journey because it resembled a codex, so I often felt we were continuing to do practices our ancestors did. The drawing assignments were challenging since I do not draw often, but it was nice to remember that creating is healing. I especially enjoyed using the watercolor pencils and the making the stencil.

The artwork that resonated with me the most were those of Carmen Lomas Garza and Yolanda M. Lopez. Garza's work reminded me of home where traditional medicine is practiced and where the family is central to life. The color she used in her art reflected the vibrant love and culture found in the Chicanx community. Lopez's political prints were important for the movimiento and was an example of the political work Chicanas have always been doing.

Thank you Professor Lopez for this class and for the palabra you shared with us all. 

Week 8: Liliana Navarro Presentation

The artwork of Liliana Navarro stood out to me during class presentations for many reasons, one being the colors used and the other being the powerful narratives of Womxn she chooses to tell. Liliana is a young Chicana from the Bay Area who has gained a large social media presence due to her art that highlights the experiences of Chicanx people. The piece "Brown Warrior" stood out to me because it was a reflection of Indigenous struggle and resurgence. The use of "war paint" and feathers are used to assert her Indigneiety while the title suggests that she finds pride in her roots. As a brown Xicana I struggled with appreciating the color of my skin but have now found power and beauty in it. I think this piece can serve as a tool to educate young girls of color that their skin is beautiful and that they come from a long history of Warriors.

Presentation: Natalia Anciso

The presentation that resonated with me from last week was the art of Natalia Ancisco. 

The artwork presented above title "don't shoot" is very similar to the pieces shown in class. The thing that calls to me the most about Ancisco's pieces are the contrast use of beautiful flowers and colors with simultaneous violence. In the piece above Ancisco is commenting on the violence the Black people experience at the hands of the police (the state). The piece makes me think about all those who have fallen to state violence and although the flowers add color to the piece it seems to be in a paradoxical way.
From the presentation, I learned that the artist deliberately paints about topics that show the realities of everyday black/brown people in all its complexity. The use of contrasting colors can serve as a commentary for the harsh material conditions people of color face, with the color disorienting readers to question the use of the flowers since the pieces are usually not something pretty to look at. Ancisco uses color pencils to draw directly on cloth which further makes her style unique. Lastly, I think the art of Natalia Ancisco offers us a path to begin conversations about police brutality, womxn's movement and other struggles people of color face.

Judy Baca: La Memoria De Nuestra Tierra

Judy Baca's artwork has consistently challenged dominant narratives of history that tend to erase  Chicanx and Indigenous peoples. The mural above, entitled, La Memoria de Nuestra Tierra (1996), shows the complex stories that are stored in the very land we occupy today. The title of the piece prompts us to think about the land we stand on and the changes it had overgone over the past 500 years and the way the earth has been hurt since contact. There are elements of both Indigenous peoples from mexico and the united states in the mural; the Indigenous "earth godess" is depicted with Maya or Nahua regela and then at the center of the painting there is a Kiva (Hopi ceremony).  This demonstrates our shared history now and then, filled with colonial violence but also Indigenous Resistence.

According to Baca the earth godess is shown in "three poses, asleep, awakening and militant". Beneath the earth godess we also see a crowd of people ready to fight. To me this represents a vision of a political and decolonial reawakening, one where Indigenous peoples are at the front lines of regaining their lands.The earth remembers what has been done and so do the people. I think in many ways this piece is a refelction of a brutal history but also a call to action for revoultion.

Carmen Lomas Garza

Carmen Lomas Garza's paintings tell the stories of the Chicanx community in a colorful manner with important underlying messages. I am drawn to her art because of the spiritual components she incorporates and Indigenous narratives. Garza's art is also very political since she shares the parts of Chicanx hxstory that reveals the evils of colonialism, while still centering the fact that we are still here vibrant and thriving.

Burning of the Codices 2002

                                                   

In the piece entitled Burning of the Codices (2002), Garza shows us the way the spaniards burnt the knowledge of our peoples. This is something I think about sometimes when I'm sitting in the UCLA libraries and I see all the books we have but all the books that are lost forever. Our knowledge was a big threat to the spanish and in many ways continues to be a threat. Although the goal of colonization was to rid us of our knowledge, yet that was not possible.

Earache Treatment 1989

Curandera (Faith Healer) 1989

In the pieces entitled, Earache Treatment (1989) and Curandera (1989) we see that Indigenous forms of healing were preserved and continue to be practiced in Chicanx Indigenous communities. The vibrant colors Garza uses shows the strength of our people. The colors remind me that no matter what we have been through our world is still filled with vibrancy because we know who we come from. The Indigenous healing practices shown in the art pieces remind me of my abuelitas who both were Indigenous Healers and Parteras. When I was a child they would give me limpias and give me home remedies if I got sick. I did not understand back then what they were doing or the importance of it. I am grateful that they are still here to pass on the knowledge to me because the future of the Chicanx community depends on us remembering who we are. Garza's art allows for conversations to happen around Indigeneity. 

Yolanda M. López : Who's the Illegal Alien Pilgrim?

Who’s the Illegal Alien Pilgrim? (1978), asks us directly to interrogate the question posed on the print. Davalos breaks down the image by sharing that the man portrayed is wearing a “headdress that suggests Aztec or Mayan civilization to indicate that he is indigenous to the land” (53). The print was created during a time of intense anti-immigrant sentiments where president Carter was suggesting building a fence on the southern border, which mirrors the political climate “immigrants” are currently facing. By suggesting that the real “illegal aliens” are the white settlers as opposed to Brown Indigenous peoples who have been here for centuries. This piece truly critiques the white settler logics while reminding Brown people that they are Indigenous to these lands, which Chicanx people tend to forget due to forced assimilation and displacement. 

Davalos shares early testimonies of Yolanda's education where she states, "she was taught that Mayflower pilgrims were her forefathers" and she did not learn about her real roots until she got to college (1). I resonated with this statement from Yolanda's childhood and find that the nation-state intentionally attempts to erase Chicanx history so that we may continue to believe we are nothing but stereotypes or so that we succumb to whiteness. Political Education is needed for youth of color, thus this image becomes what Davalos refers to as a "source of knowledge" for brown youth, to learn about their roots and to find empowerment in them (56).  

CARA exhibit by Alicia Gaspar de Alba

The chapter of Alicia Gaspar de Alba's book critiques the first  Chicano Art exhibit that lacked to highlight Chicanas artwork. As Gaspar de Alba states the fact that more Chicanas were not included demonstrates the "sexual politics of the Chicano Art movement, which was then replayed by the CARA exhibit " (122).  Throughout the chapter, there are multiple examples of the sexual politics the author refers, such as the statement muralist men made about women not being made to be muralist, because it required to much hands-on labor. These blatantly sexist statements have been recurrent in the Chicano Art Movement. Gaspar de Albas asks us to think if Chicanos and Chicanas were resiting the same things? By laying out the two main roles (La Malinche and Adelitas) that defined Chicanas in the movement, we see that Mujeres were facing an extra layer of oppression within their own community. By defining Chicanas through La Malinche, the Chicanos were viewing them as traitors and would sexualize them by viewing them as Adelitas. Gaspar de Alba explains Chicano men channeled their energy to race politics and viewed Chicana Feminisms as sidetracking, and not part of the larger vision for the movement. The conversations being held in the "Feminist Visions" section also recognized that Mujeres were the only ones concerned with feminism. In class and in the chapter Gaspar de Alba also breaks down the different forms of feminism and the fact that this exhibit should be analyzed through various feminist lenses (third world, european, class etc. The positioning of the "Feminist Visions" is also telling, which really surprised me when reading, since the curators placed it in the middle of "traditions" and "futures", which Gaspar de Alba argues replicates the Chicano Movements vision of women being tools to populate the world full of zapatas and adelitas (128,131).  I enjoyed the in-class lecture and this chapter because they gave in-depth context to Chicana Art and the struggles Chicana Artists have faced in the movement.

Chicana Sexuality and Gender by Debra Blake

In section 2 (Chapters 2 and 3) Blake views Chicana Feminisms as grounded in ancestral knowledge and spirituality as a vehicle to guide Chicanas toward liberation. The author sites Allen Gunn in stating that Chicanas utilize spirituality not as a nostalgic thing but rather as a continuity of who they are as Indigenous peoples (84). Furthermore, Blake’s references author Luce Irigaray in saying, “Divinity is what we need to become free, autonomous, sovereign”, where she is referring to women being that divine energy (85). Chicanas find this divine energy in the Mexica Goddesses, such as Coyolxauhqui, who Cherrie Moraga refigures as a “savior” as opposed to her dominant “misogynist” descriptors of being an “evil” (95). In viewing Coyolxauhqui as a savior, women can began identifying with her power as someone who according to Moraga, aimed to “save the culture from [the] misogyny, war, and greed” (95). Furthermore, Blake shares that Moraga viewed the things they tried to oppress in women as the keys to liberation, thus sexuality is tied to regaining power. This process of reclaiming a story that was taken from you is also seen in Chapter 3 where Anzaldua takes back her sexuality by calling on other Mexica Goddesses. 

Presentation: Melanie Cervantes

I will be presenting on Melanie Cervantes, a Xicanx Indigena Printmaker, who aims to radically transform society through her artwork. She works primarily with Third World and Indigenous issues and that is seen throughout her artwork. She is currently based in the Bay Area and co-created the Dignidad Rebelde Printmaking group that's "purpose is to illustrate stories of struggle, resistance and triumph into artwork that can be put back into the hands of the communities who inspire it" (DignidadRebelde.com).  

Melanie's work exemplifies the Indigenous consciousness that has persisted throughout the Xican@/x Movement. Her work stands in solidarity with many movements such as Standingrock, Palestine and other liberation movements. I think the fact she is a printmaker is significant in reference to the Chicana/o Movement where printmaking was an accessible way to get the message out. I hope to share on the political aspects of Chicana/o art and people through the work of an Indigenous Xicanx perspective.