Week 10 Reflection

When I first arrived at UCLA 3 and a half years ago, I would have never imagined that I'd end up in the Chicano Studies department, let alone have the opportunity to take a studio art course within the field. From the get-go week one where we did the class activity on coming up with artists and categorizing them as male, female, or non-identifying, if became very clear that even as a collective, our knowledge on artists was overwhelmingly on male artists like Picasso, Dali, and Michaelangelo. On top of being male-dominated, the list we came up with was very Anglo-dominated. From that moment, I knew that my knowledge on Chicana and non-mainstream artists would greatly evolve and expand over the following months.

And I was absolutely correct. Throughout the course, some themes that were very pertinent to me in the artists we examined included the questioning of cultural practices and figures in the Chicanx/Latinx community and their re-imaginations and reconstructions, as well as the role of activism and political commentary in art. With presentations like Ofelia Esparza's and in my artist research project on Margarita Cabrera, I also got an understanding of the importance and impact of community art for the sake of uplifting and telling stories. Additionally, now, when I stroll around East LA and when I go back home and I'm strolling around Oakland or the Mission in San Francisco, I can come across murals and be able to identify the artist who created them and the meaning behind the art.

Lastly, I really enjoyed the studio art component of this course. My art creation abilities really only go as far as collaging and from time to time, video editing, but through this course, I learned and improved at a lot of the skills that are fundamental to visual art. I appreciated learning techniques like shading and looking at real life objects (like hands) and trying to replicate them on paper, and really noticed that over the course of the quarter, I made a lot of improvements and created some art that I'm proud of. 

Thank you so much to Professor Lopez Garspar de Alba, Paola, and to all of my classmates for sharing your stories and art with me!

Week 9

An artist that really stood out to me in last week's presentations was Judy Baca. Specifically, I loved learning about the Great Wall of Los Angeles. I've never had the opportunity to visit the wall, but from what I have learned about it, it's a mural that was created in the 1950s that pays homage largely to the unison and coexistence of communities of color and other mixed backgrounds in Los Angeles, and was creating with the helping hands of over 400 youth and their families, representing different backgrounds. Through each year that the half-mile mural was worked on, there were community gatherings to discuss and learn about the histories that were to be added onto the mural, ranging from the Mesozoic era to the 20th century, although the mural continues to be restored today. Being from Northern California, I know very little about muralists in Southern California, so it's amazing to learn about it in this class. Judy Baca's work, among others, is what makes LA feel like my second home. Although I've been living in LA for nearly four years now, it was only over the past year that I really started to explore what Los Angeles has to offer outside of the constraints of the pretentious West LA, and it's the best decision I have ever made. Piñata district, Echo Park, the representation of people who look like me all over this city, and the murals surrounding them have really manifested my love for LA.

Week 8- Monica Kim Garza

One of the works that stood out to me last week in the artist presentations was Monica Kim Garza's 2016 painting, Hell Yeah Mothafuckin Right. This painting is a beautiful and expressive one that celebrates femininity/ womanhood, unrestricted sexuality, and a state of being unapologetic and carefree. I love the color contrasts of this photo, the unapologetic aura that the female subjects give off, and the fact that Kim uses a palm tree as the floating device for the women. All throughout Kim Garza's work, she employs nude/basically nude women in spaces that empower them, and I am absolutely here for it!

Week 7: Margarita Cabrera

For my Artist presentation, I will be investigating the art and life of Margarita Cabrera who was born in Monterrey, Mexico and moved to the US at about 10 years old with her family. Above all, her work and life experiences have lead her to being a sculptor and installation artist, with works centering around the largely political topics of consumerism, migration, labor, among many others. In researching Cabrera’s craft, I loved the finding that the issues she finds important are not only reflected in the external, observable component of her art, but her methods of sculpting and crafting interweave cultural practices as well. For example, in her installation Space in Between of a life-sized sculpture of nopales, the cactus is made out of border patrol uniforms and sewn and embroidered by immigrant workers. On the surface, Cabrera’s art is extremely pleasant to look, but when you delve into how they’re made, even more stories are told.

Here are some other sculptures by Cabrera:

Week 6- Sketchbook Cover

For my sketchbook cover, I will be using an image that most of us know— the Lotería card of the moon, La Luna. The game of Lotería itself has a lot of significance for me because I’ve played it throughout my entire life and some of my favorite memories are of playing Lotería surrounded by a huge group of my competitive family in the heat of the game. The concept of Lotería is just a simple game of bingo, but it accomplishes much more than a game of chance. It really showcases the rich artistry in Mexican culture, while depicting a lot of quintessentially Mexican people and things that are, in their unique ways, interwoven in our customs, traditions, and components of everyday life, such as the cantaro or the maceta. I chose the luna card in particular for a number of reasons. Unlike most things on earth, the presence of the moon is consistent (even though it goes through phases). Seeing the moon in the sky at night is also a unifying force for humanity because as long as you have an unobstructed view, everyone everywhere can see it. Also, I’ve always been really fascinated and amazed by celestial things and I see a lot of beauty in the night sky. There are also a lot of cultural products that I really enjoy like the movie, Bajo la Misma Luna, or Phony Ppl’s song, Why iii Love the Moon (which gets at some of the ideas I talked about) and even King Krule’s album ‘6 Feet Beneath the Moon’. Whichever route I take to talk about the moon, it’s always something positive and pertinent to me, so I decided it would a good choice for my sketchbook cover. If I can think of something more original, I might change it, but for now, this will be my cover stencil. I’m excited to see what everyone comes up with!

Week 5- Carmen Lomas Garza

Carmen Lomas Garza’s 2003 work, Tamalada, is one that stood out to me right off the bat. I came into this course fully expecting that I had absolutely no familiarity with the Chicana Artists that we would soon discuss (besides the mainstream ones like Frida Kahlo), but I was very pleasantly surprised to instantly recognize this piece by Lomas Garza from my early childhood. Though I cannot pinpoint exactly where or how this image was ingrained in my mind from an early age, it’s impact and meaning for me and other Mexicans/ Latinos is unquestionable. This image looks nearly identical to my grandma, Mami Esther’s kitchen, especially around the holidays. To me, this image is a perfect representation of the core family family value in Mexican culture. Surrounding the unifying role of food, the family in the photo working on the tamales is of all ages and inclusive of both men and women. The subtlety of the grandma pivoted away from the rest of her family and doing her own thing reminds me of my grandma’s matriarchal role in our family, making sure that everything is being done right. Additionally, the tiled floor, the image of The Last Supper and the mercado calendar are a perfect representation of Mami Esther’s kitchen. The cantarito by the stovetop, likely filled with some type of atole, and the molcajete to grind up the chiles for the chili paste are so reminiscent of the amazing flavors classic in the Mexican taste pallet. This image really succeeds in making me want to teleport to my grandma’s kitchen or to Mexico and be surrounded by this feeling of warmth, a content, the holiday spirit, and my family. I think that’s what a lot of Carmen Lomas Garza’s work is all about.

Yolanda López, Runner: On My Own (1997) First off, I will be changing my artist for the research project to Margarita Cabrera, a Texas-born Chicana whose art installations largely revolve around US-Mexican relations and the situation and politics of Mexicans living in the United States. As for this week’s study of Yolanda Lopez, one of her works that I found fascinating and relatable were the paintings incorporated in her A Donde Vas Chicana? Getting through College series. I really appreciated the overarching idea of the series and its ability to serve as a means of resistance to derogatory narratives against Latinos that tends to places us in spaces not at all tied to higher education or upward mobility. In terms of the more literal significance of the series, the paintings are autobiographical works that illustrate López navigating the physical space of her campus, an institution that was not (and is still not) catered to students of color like her. As both a woman and a Chicana, the paintings in this series also represent agency and self-sufficiency. Particularly, I love the Runner: On My Own painting from this series. Her independence and autonomy is illustrated by the juxtaposition of the parking lot filled with cars that are a means of moving around, yet she chooses her own path of using her own two feet to get the job done. 

Yolanda López, Runner: On My Own (1997)

First off, I will be changing my artist for the research project to Margarita Cabrera, a Texas-born Chicana whose art installations largely revolve around US-Mexican relations and the situation and politics of Mexicans living in the United States. 

As for this week’s study of Yolanda Lopez, one of her works that I found fascinating and relatable were the paintings incorporated in her A Donde Vas Chicana? Getting through College series. I really appreciated the overarching idea of the series and its ability to serve as a means of resistance to derogatory narratives against Latinos that tends to places us in spaces not at all tied to higher education or upward mobility. In terms of the more literal significance of the series, the paintings are autobiographical works that illustrate López navigating the physical space of her campus, an institution that was not (and is still not) catered to students of color like her. As both a woman and a Chicana, the paintings in this series also represent agency and self-sufficiency. Particularly, I love the Runner: On My Own painting from this series. Her independence and autonomy is illustrated by the juxtaposition of the parking lot filled with cars that are a means of moving around, yet she chooses her own path of using her own two feet to move and transcend through spaces as she pleases.

Ester Hernández

Hello again!

For the project, I have decided to focus my research on Ester Hernández, a San Francisco based visual artist. In her works, she's challenged the traditional nuclear family that is particularly prevalent in the expectations of Latino communities, to instead illustrate our evolving world. From the little I know about her, it's clear that she is not one bit afraid to defy taboo of Mexican traditionalism by illustrating an array of Chicano identities that break away from the stereotypical molds to empower individuals, especially nontraditional women to be politicized and vocal, all while intertwining elements of environment, spirituality, and community.

2020HernándezTijeroAna.

Hello everyone! My name is Ana  and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I am nearing the end of my 4 years at UCLA with a major in Chicano Studies and two minors in Music Industry and Cognitive Science. Right now, Music Industry seems like the most obvious post-grad career path for me, but I have somewhat intertwined that with my interest and love for Chicano Studies, such as in an Ethnomusicology of Latin America course I took my sophomore year, and in generally exposing myself with how diversity informs music and other art forms (and particularly supporting/ backing Black and Brown artists). So although I have not formally done any research, I do have these tendencies in my explorations, and I am really excited to expand the breadth of my knowledge through this course to include other non-music art mediums.