Week 10 Reflection Post

When I started the course, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I came in with 0 art knowledge, and even knew even less about specific artists, let alone Chicana artists. I don't say this degrading, but rather to point out the lack of representation and attention these amazing artists receive. Thanks to this course, I was exposed to a variety of issues addressed through different forms of art. Although all of the artists we reviewed and learned about had many great art pieces and conveyed messages, one artist that stuck with me from the moment I learned about her was Carmen Lomas Garza. When we got assigned the reading, I was immediately intrigued by the cover art of the book. The nopales and tunas being picked by eating utensils, it reminded me of my grandpa, and how much he used to boast about his nopales growing the best tunas in the neighborhood. As I went along reading her story and viewing her paintings, I found myself getting the feeling of homeness, more and more. Seeing the big family "reunions," where everyone was helping cook a big meal- it looked just like Christmas every year at my grandma's house. The neighborhood events, where everyone is interacting, without shying away or feeling left out- it feels like home, not knowing everyone, but having the courage to start a conversation because you know your affection and interest will be reciprocated. These are just a few examples of why Carmen Lomas Garza's work was so captivating to me, and I am glad I was able to learn about these paintings, because for too long I have felt underrepresented, and ignored, by society. Not just because I identify as Chicanx, but because as a woman of color, it is difficult to see my stories widely popularized in media. Seeing all of these Chicana artists pouring their hearts out, so that people like me can relate to even just one painting, it was an amazing experience, and I am glad I was able to live it in this course.

art by: http://katkillah.tumblr.com

Extra Credit: Black Experience Mural

The "Black Experience" Mural located next to Panda Express in Ackerman Union was painted in the 70's, but was covered up in 1992. The mural gave representation to students who had been and were continuing to be discriminated against in the institution. Covering this up, for 20 years, was like a blow to this group of students. This was painted in response to the Kenn State University shooting, and by covering it up, the message conveyed was that the university was neglecting the injustice of this specific situation. The people portrayed in the mural are made up of smaller components- black soldiers, frightened children's faces, and other components of black history in America. Covering this up, was covering up that this ever happened.

I personally don't understand the point of covering the piece. Of course, the times when this was placed on the wall were controversial, but big-scale activist paintings should've been supported, if it wasn't out in public, at least in a school that's meant to be a safe space for students. I feel like the covering up of this piece isolated the students and made them feel more separate than before this was ever a mural. It emphasized how little support they were receiving from the institution they were attending, and for 20 years, were ignored. Now that it is uncovered, this story is important to have others learn. We like to blind ourselves to the hatred and racism that this campus has experienced and continues to have, because it is our way to cope with the idea that we aren't welcomed here. As a Chicana, I understand the importance of standing in solidarity with my POC peers, we are all united in this fight against a racist society. I am glad to have learned about this mural, and am glad that I can let others know about the events that occurred with it. 

Presentations Pt. 2 - Laura Aguilar

An artist that stood out to me was Laura Aguilar. Her work was nothing like I'd ever seen before. This especially was the reason why I was most attracted to her work. In a world where we are used to seeing women depicted with "ideal" bodies on every magazine, tv show, movie, and advertisement, people like Aguilar are what we need to push more. We've come to normalize this toxic mindset of a "perfect" body, and whether we're too fat or too skin, and Aguilar works against that idea. She has collections of nude pictures that depict her, someone who in today's society would be - and probably has been- fat shamed, going about her life and posing in different places. She does so without a care in the world, but with a great purpose- to show that being big and being different isn't being wrong, and those out there too afraid to accept themselves and love themselves shouldn't care what others have to say. One image that captivated me was the one where she is wrapped in a Mexican and an American flag, and looks as if she's trapped in between them. I personally can identify with this image, because as a Chicana, I have never felt like I was ever "truly" American or Mexican. My family from Mexico would tease me for developing Americanized customs and Americans continuously judge Mexicans and stereotype us as criminals and lazy people. Knowing these things, I didn't feel like I could identify as either, and it took me time to realize, that I am not one or the other, but a combination of both, equally. This image portrays this idea just like I feel it, because she is being tied down by both flags, each preventing her from different things, but both affecting her.

Presentation - Yreina Cervantez

An artist that was appealing from this week's presentations was Yreina Cervantez. The piece that I found was the most striking and powerful from those presented, and those that I've seen, is La Ofrenda. This is a mural in the First Avenue Bridge in Los Angeles painted in 1989 that has Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of the UFWA. This mainly appealed to me, because most commonly when representing the farm workers union, Dolores is often pushed aside and Cesar Chavez is given all the credit, yet this painting gives all of the attention to Huerta. As I researched Cervantez, I read that because she had minimal exposure to Latinas in popular culture growing up, she made Latinas and her self-portraits an important part of her work. What was intriguing to me about this piece was the fact that it had been tagged over, and was easily fixed, because all that was removed was the top layer that protected it from being tagged. However, in the time it took to re-coat the mural, it was tagged again, and local youth helped repaint it. This artist, as I discovered, paints a lot to help viewers see that Chicanxs are living in their ancestral homelands, and aren't "immigrants."

Judith F. Baca - Nonviolent Resistance (1989)

The painting that most fascinated me throughout the book was this piece, Nonviolent Resistance, which is part of a 4 panel project. This project was meant to embody Baca's The Great Wall, so that it can be enjoyed and viewed around the world, not just locally in LA. The reason this piece stood out to me was the heavy contrast in colors from one side of the "barrier" to the other. On the outside of the destruction, there's a lot of vibrant colors, yet where all the chaos is occurring it is all blue grey/red colors. This creates an obvious separation from the people to the destruction. Baca is emphasizing how when people come together - of all races/ethnicities and backgrounds - the power created and the unity can outshine the negative. This group of marginalized people are opposing the dominant power structures, as Lopez mentions in the book. Regardless of their stance in society, these people know that they can come together and help fight for change, even if it's against big power structures -represented y the military aspect of the background. The fact that she chose many ethnic backgrounds to represent the people clenching their arms together to resist, was also a reason I was captivated. Rather than choosing to make it a Chicanx based art piece, she showed her solidarity with all other minority groups being attacked- just like other groups have stood in solidarity with Chicanxs.

The Earache - Carmen Lomas Garza

One of the pieces I found most interesting from Garza's work is "The Earache." Reading through this book has created a feeling of warmth in me, a feeling of security, almost like home. I see all the images of her childhood, and can picture my family and I living them, as if we've lived the same childhood. The Earache especially caught my attention, because growing up I remember seeing my mom go outside with my sister or brother anytime we'd go to the pool and they were complaining about their ears hurting. I used to tell her she looked crazy from the perspective of outsiders- they'd see her with a funneled newspaper with fire sticking out of a child's ear. I never really understood why she would do it, I just knew it would make my siblings feel better after. I never had to deal with the funneled newspaper experience, which made me all the more curious. Once I grew up and saw her doing it to one of my uncles, it kind of dawned on me- there was water bothering them and the fire was quite literally evaporating it out of their ear. This sense of familiarity in Garza's work is something that I never had before- I never saw people that looked like me or my family depicted in media. It is so important to have artists that portray these images of family and community, it allows many who've often felt left out to relate to them and feel comfort in the representation of their culture.

Yolanda M. Lopez - Nuestra Madre

As Karen Mary Davalos recounts Yolanda M. Lopez's life and how all the events she lived through allowed her to create the pieces she did, we are given insight into what message Lopez wants being portrayed from her art. She wants to dismantle all the stereotypes made about Mexicans and the culture and allow Chicanxs and Mexicanxs to identify their culture as they identify with it, not as it's been so wrongly popularized through the media.

One of the pieces that I felt stood out to me the most, was Lopez's Nuestra Madre (from the Guadalupe series 1981-88). A lot of what Lopez's work consist of is building a piece that allows the audience to see the reality of what stereotypes are built of and see how wrongly portrayed people are. This piece in particular, however, had a more feminist approach- which Lopez's work is dense with- that Chicanas could identify with. Since a lot of feminist work in this era was aimed to benefit white women, including these type of pieces in popular media was essential. Her use of 3 icons from the  Mexican culture to build one figure that stands for values that don't hold women up to unrealistic and unnecessary expectations. She used icons that are often represented for their characteristics in terms of a male-dominated view. For example, Coatlicue being known because her son saved her from being slain by her daughter or La Virgen de Guadalupe who was incredibly prude and would never be unfaithful. Rather than using these common descriptions of these icons, Lopez uses the traits that identify them for who they truly are, strong empowered women. 

CARA Exhibition Critique: Alicia Gaspar de Alba

Although I am not an avid art show visitor, or understand much about the art world, I am aware of the overwhelming neglect women receive in any field. Gaspar de Alba discussed the lack of diversity in the CARA exhibit as she viewed and experienced it, multiple times. She described how it was almost unbelievable how little attention women artists were receiving in this showcase, because not only were the number of women in it already limited, but they were also "pushed to the side" - in terms of men being given more attention and being displayed better than the women's work. The Chicanx movement talks about pushing forward and acknowledging the neglect to this community, but within this movement, and in Chicanx culture, there is a lot of toxic masculinity and machismo embedded. This gives rise to an almost normal routine of women having to try twice as hard as men in the same field just to get half the recognition men receive. A quote that struck me was when Gaspar de Alba mentions "what this exclusion says about the sexual politics of the Chicano Art Movement..." A lot of the time artists won't have their work displayed because it isn't at par, but with the art being provided and the quality, it was almost as if the show hosts were explicitly stating that it was because they were women that they weren't going to pick them.

"Chicana Sexuality and Gender..." Quote

"Women are robbed of subjectivity, agency, and identity; if not for their abject bodies they would be obliterated from being" (page 42).  

For too long, women of color have had their histories written for them. One way that Blake addresses this issue, is by bringing up the stories of women famous within the Mexican culture- la Malinche, la Llorona, la Virgen de Guadalupe, and Mexican goddesses- and demonstrating how they were used as a way to socialize Chicana women to a point where they are too afraid to express their feelings, are extremely prude in hopes of not "shaming" their families, and are willing to do whatever is asked of them. Most of these stories have remained relevant because they serve as a "warning" to daughters to follow in the footsteps of women like la Virgen, and not follow the footsteps of la Malinche or la Llorona. The main reason women receive attention is when they've done something "wrong" with their bodies- having sex before marriage, getting pregnant "too young," showed too much skin with their outfits, etc. Women would basically be invisible if it weren't for these moments of "resistance," even if not intentional, these are building blocks amounting to a future without oppression. Rather than giving alternate versions to these stories, and trying to understand the reasoning for the actions of the women, parents enforce these sexist ideologies, because they feel their daughters will live safer if they abide by the rules that prevent them from becoming a Malinche or Llorona. As more and more Chicanas become aware of the nefarious way they were raised through the telling of these stories, they will learn to take the stories and apply them to their lives and use them to empower their fight against the sexist norms set in the culture, and in their families.

Presentation: Marion C. Martinez

For my presentation, I chose to research and explore Marion Martinez's work. As I scrolled through different artists' work, none called my attention like hers. Martinez creates visuals on circuit boards, which mechanically and electronically are meant to support electronic devices. However, Martinez opts for the less conventional way of using a circuit board, and creates amazing pieces.

Marion Martinez was born in Española, New Mexico and was raised in a farming community. Having spent her early years attending a parochial school in the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, she feels and acknowledges that her life experience was enriched by Native American culture. She spent much of her life creating art, but graduated college to begin a career as a family systems therapist.

In the mid 1980s, Martinez began to explore the concept of video as art, which consequently led to her discovery of computer circuit boards. She began to experiment and create different pieces, and in 1992, her circuit board art debuted in a Las Vegas exhibition - "Something Wild!"

In 1996, once her career in circuit board art had taken off, she closed her psychotherapy practice to focus on her art.

Martinez refers to her art as "Mixed Tech Media" and has received many awards throughout the years. Some include: "Best of Show" awards, "Juror's Awards," "Honorable Mention" awards, an "Award of Merit" in the Manhattan Arts, and many more.

Exposure to artists like Martinez can motivate and inspire many young artists to "think outside the box" and create art that isn't the norm. 

Ornelas, Paola

Hey everyone! I've been struggling to get my laptop to work, but I finally did it! I'm Paola, and I was born and raised in San Diego. Many of you may have heard of the city, however I am from a very small neighborhood literally a couple steps from the border that not many have heard of. It is called San Ysidro. I was initially a Math/Econ major. This past quarter however, I took Chicanx 10B and something in me just clicked, I knew that this is what I wanted to pursue and it was what I wanted my life to revolve around- helping and building my people. Now, I'm a Chicanx major with a minor in Spanish. I have been dancing folklorico for 4 years now, and it is something that helps me feel connected to my heritage and culture and has given me a sense of identity. Currently I'm a part of UCLA's own grupo folkorico (GFU). I am excited to see what this course has to offer, especially since I have a very small understanding and background with anything art related.

Although the readings each discussed a different main topic, they all gave insight into how women in the art industry, and in general, are always given the short end of the stick. Nochlin discusses the lack of resources women faced in the 1800s and Venegas talks about the socioeconomic disadvantages, but they both realize that these were pieces of the puzzle of why there are no women artists. Society has been male-centered for years, this hinders how far a woman can go with their own efforts. If no one believes she will succeed, and she isn't given the tools to, then it is nearly impossible for her to be well known, or even considered at all.