Pachuca With a Razor Blade

Carmen Lomas Garza's painting Pachuca With a Razor Blade portrays a scene of Mexicanas in their adolescence. It depicts three teen girls getting ready to go out. It is unclear what it is they are getting ready for. It is not really necessary to know since knowing that this scene most likely takes place in the 1940s. Pachucas faced a lot of racism and police brutality, so doing their hair and make up could be a way to prepare themselves spiritually for the dangerous world outside. Teen girls partake in rituals as a method of survival. But unlike white girls, pachucas, must prepare for an added layer of oppression when they leave their homes everyday. They must contend with racism and hypersexualization as Chicanas since they are stereotyped as disease carriers and delinquents by the media and the American public. In this painting, the girls are safe within the confines of the pink bedroom complete with a coke bottle and a cat. It is a scene of comfort and a hideaway from the terror of living in a xenophobic country. They do each others hair and makeup and place razor blades in their hair. It's all part of a ritual for survival.

Letter to Laura Molina

Dear Laura Molina,

I was first introduced to your work when my friend and classmate was doing research for her presentation for our Chicana Art class at UCLA. When she told me that the topic of your artwork was about your ex, I became very interested as to why you why would devote so much time to that. In other words, 'what did this guy do?' because it is not surprising to me that a woman would devote so much energy to create something like this. I watched the short film on Naked Dave that you have on your website. I could relate a lot to your tumultous relationship with Dave when you described it as more as a "friendship gone awry." I experienced a similar situation with a relationship that was abusive. I love that you were able to channel so much of your rage and destruction that you experienced because of this relationship into your artwork. I love that so many people are so confused by the fact that you continue to make art about him years later. I have wondered a lot if the pain ever goes away and it's frustrating to have to think about my healing according to other people's convenience. I love that two decades later, you were still making art about an awful relationship that destroyed a big part of yourself. I don't expect everyone to understand that pain. When you lose so much of yourself for another person, I am glad that there is hope to create new parts of yourself through art. To know that we have the ability to grieve and mourn with humor is a wonderful feeling too. Thank you for your art work and for your sharing your pain.


All the best,

Eliana Buenrostro

Response to Pablo Simental on Laura Aguilar

Pablo wrote about how strongly he relates to Laura Aguilar's art as a queer Chicano. He writes about the relationship he has to his own body and the ways in which other people's ideas of it have impacted him personally. He says that Laura touching her big beautiful body made him realize how detrimental his thoughts towards his body have been. Every space and every person we come in contact with will tell us about our body more than we feel we are allowed to. I think about the ways in which my family's words have impacted the ways that have shaped my relationship to my own body. The idea that someone is allowed to take up space is a radical one. It's not something I would have ever heard from my family growing up. "Siéntate bien" is what I would always hear from my mom and dad and my tías. I would hear my tías constantly talk about their own bodies very unfavorably. They would always talk about some imaginary diet they were on. I think it is so traumatizing to think of your body in ways that demand it to work for you and your vision of what an ideal body should be. Skinny, tall, fit, and ABLE especially. There are so many aspects of our physical bodies that are out of our control and I have personally learned the hard way that mobility isn't ever guaranteed. A part of Laura Aguilar's pieces that I really enjoy is that in several of landscape ones she just sits and takes up space. We can't constantly demand of our bodies to move. Sometimes we just need to be.

Laura Aguilar

This week, one of the artists that was presented on in class, was Laura Aguilar. I really like how she uses her body and image for her art. One of her goals in creating her work is to portray positive images of Lesbian Latinas. Aguilar wants to provide more visibility for queer people of color through artistic means in order to dispel harmful stereotypes. Her work is very powerful because nude photography is often taken up by thin and even conventionally attractive people. She is determined to take up space in her home, nature and other settings. In the video we watched in class of Laura Aguilar, she talks about how she does view herself as beautiful in her own way. That makes me very happy. When everyone who fits outside the realm of able bodies, thin sized, light skinned, straight is told they don't matter daily, it's good to see some positivity.

Week 4

The artist whose images were most striking to me was is Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta. In particular, the image that stood out to me was "cualquiera exercise #2." I love that she exploring the discomfort of her physical body in a visual medium. I consider it important to view the body as something that disgusting and unusable sometimes. We hold so many expectations for our physical bodies to accomplish and those sometimes ridiculously high standards for us to uphold. Not all of us are able bodied and seeing this in a artistic medium is so important. Placing the female body in a position in which it is no longer an object of desire and potentially an object of derision matters because of the pressure that all women as well as disabled women experience. What happens when we are no longer able-bodied? Does my prettiness stop mattering once I lose the ability to move? When I am unable to move and am cast aside like trash, will my appearance still matter? I like to see art that plays with a person's physical existence. I see a lot of importance in all aspects of life that place so much importance on a person's value based on their ability to move. It's so demoralizing to base person's value on how much labor they are able to do.

Week 3

For my sketchbook stencil, I chose an image of Frida Kahlo. I chose this image because of how important she has become to me in recent months. I love her art and the messages behind it. I identify in a lot of ways with some of the struggles that she went through in her life. For about a year now, I have been dealing with a debilitating illness. It has kept me physically weak, emotionally drained and just generally tired. In my times of greatest darkness, I turned to her paintings and even some of her diary entries to keep me going. I had periods where I couldn't even get out of bed and it meant a lot to me that I wasn't the first to experience this pain and isolation. I also dealt with an abusive relationship in a similar way that she did, at this time. To me she is an amazing disabled icon, even though I rarely read anything about her that specifically identifies her as "disabled." There is very little visibility for disabled people and I think especially for disabled women of color. There is a limited understanding about what it means to be sick or disabled. I hope that through her visibility as an icon as Chicanisma, more people can come to see that the struggles of sick and disabled people come to be understood and respected.

Week 2

La virgen de Guadalupe is an image I saw everywhere growing up. I saw it in frames and effigies that my mom placed around our home. I saw her when we went to church on Sundays. As I grew older and less religious, I learned that la virgen is an important icon for Mexico, regardless of religion. I remember I was in high school and my brother was in the hospital, that I would pray to la virgen. This was long after I had stopped calling myself catholic. To me, she has represented a symbol of strength in times of crisis.

I really enjoy the feminist interpretations of la virgen. I find the reactions and criticism of them to be very telling about where we are as a society. These interpretations are important because they challenge the white hereropatriarchal status quo. And I like that they're funny. It adds some levity to what was always interpreted as a very somber and serious icon.

Buenrostro, Eliana

My name is Eliana Buenrostro. I am a third year transfer student and I am double majoring in Gender Studies and Chicana/o Studies.

After reading Professor Gaspar de Alba's article entitled, "Out of the House, the Halo and the Whore's Mask: The Mirror of Malinchismo," I am interested to know what profe would say about the relationship between ability and the creation of visual art. There is a specific relationship of subordination between women and men in the art world, which she states in her article. I am curious to know how ability and disability play into the sexual politics and declaration of existence that Chicanas make with their art pieces. Since women are sexualized as artists, it affects their relationship to their body which they use to create art. It is an important topic to discuss, given the way Marcos Raya appropriates Frida's artistic vision and in some ways her mobility and autonomy for his machista agenda.

After reading, "There's No Place Like Aztlán: Embodied Aesthetics in Chicana Art," especially after reading the section about Patssi Valdez, I am wondering also about the relationship between geography and art creation for Chicanas. Patssi's childhood neighborhood was riddled with poverty and violence and as such influenced her art tremendously. Not only are women influenced by the space they aren't allowed in the mainstream art world, but they are also limited from the racist places in which they hail from.