final post

When I first entered the class, I expected it to be boring history class about art. I didn't expect to actually learn techniques like shading or squinting to find the shadows. That is why I am impressed with myself and the progress I made with my hands. I remember being a little sad the first day when not only could i not name a Chicana artist but the only female artist was Annie Lebovitz and Frida Kahlo. Every artist I named was male and none where Latino or Chicano. Going through the class I opened up my definition of art and artist. To me it was someone that is well known, someone who was recognized as an artist. Yet, with the presentations we have done I noticed that to find these artists one really have to look into a community that is just starting out. I have learned with these artists that someone doesn't have to be famous the way Frida is, in fact these artists call themselves it is enough. To most of them it is just an outlet, to others they want to say something to the world. These Chicana artists are incredible and I am glad that now I know more of them, that I can look at some of their work and actually recognize the work.

Be Like Garza

This is my artwork based on Gaza's Una Tarde, in which my family is in the bedroom and we are just watching TV after dinner. The two little ones are my little sisters and they are watching their cartoons while my grandma is on the other side taking a nap after helping (doing) with the work in the kitchen. It reminds me of Una Tarde because its the children with their grandma watching except for mine it is the opposite. I tried to include the same color scheme and lay the image flat to be like most or Garza's work.
I tried to include much detail, with the actions and the location, but instead of getting the whole room I did it from my point of view. Having it in my point of view is different from Garza's because she includes herself in the piece and what she was doing. I felt more comfortable with this view because it seem more natural. I took this photo with my computer and I need to put more detail with saturated color and hopefully make the faces better.

week 8

 Ester Hernandez's work Sun Mad would be one of my favorites this week because I took one look of it and all I would remember would be my grandfather giving me these little boxes or raisins and even the boy who had a crush on me in middle school would give me his because he knew how much I liked them. It funny but this box is my childhood and never did I think anything but good memories about it, it never crossed my mind that it hurt people, that it could even hurt me. It brings up the whole process, of the farmers who collect it and of the people who unknowingly put this in their bodies and worse , are confident enough to feed it to their children not knowing the toxicity. I also wonder why its titled Sun Mad, because it can allude to so many things like people can go mad or get mad. To me the difference is they can be going crazy for one making it and two eating it or they can be angry that this thing that causes harm is almost a sort of secret that no one bothers to say. Also if one thinks about what the original name is, it is Sun Maid, that would bring a whole other connotation to the mix that could allude to the more working aspect of the process and even bring out the stereotypes that Hispanics are the maids.

Got Milk?

Milk the Pass (left ) by Barbara Carrasco would be my favorite so far. I like that it is in a way funny and how it reflects a silliness that people do to fit in. It is relate able to all the people that are either light skinned or can not eat chilies or jalapenos. It reminds everyone that there is no real image of Chicana or Latina. I myself am weird because I am light skinned and the pressure to eat chili was actually minimal, the real test as a kid were Hot Cheetos. I know its weird because now I wont dare eat a chili but I will down Hot Cheetos like a sport.
Which reminds me of what artist I thought it was similar to, I thought it was similar to Yolanda Lopez and the piece she did that would imitate what it meant to be Mexican to the rest of the world with generic cactus and food. ( a mural she made at a school ). It had humor in it because it was titled Things I Never Told My Son About Being Mexican. (right)

Carmen Lomas Garza

 "Una tarde" by Carmen Lomas Garza is interesting because it has so much detail from a her memory that it is amazing because it shows a lot of what customs there are in the home. It is a memory of when a young girl always wanted to come play at her house and how Garza realized it was really because the young lady wanted to see the boy next door. One can see that there is no such thing as a young man and young girl that can be alone together. One can tell that faith is a very important aspect in the home, there is a cross above the old pictures of the grandparents and the image of the virgin of Guadalupe. One can see the traditional grandmother being a chaperon to the young lovers while knitting. Then there is a young Garza on the side of the bed that is twisting the string from the underside of the sheet. This could be because in the memory the only reason the other young lady wanted to come over to play was because of she was in love with the young boy across the way from them. Young Garza's actions bring to light the fact that she doesn't really connect to the happenings that she knows what is happening but it really isn't that important to her. 

stencil for my heart

I know it is typical, that the image that I chose is an angel wing. I  know how done it is, I know that countless of people have done it that it is not very imaginative but either way it is what I chose. Is there a sad childhood story? yes. I grew up a foster kid that was very lucky enough to live with my grandma at certain points of my childhood. Even though I was lucky, I had to get accustomed to Spanish, having Spanish yelled at me and crying silently otherwise she would give me a real reason to cry. I am white and Hispanic all at they same time and I never really learned how to balance it. Don't get me wrong I love my grandma, she that kind of person that even though you want her to shut the hell up, you know that when they are silent it is so much worse. Yet, I never felt like I belonged, I never felt that I could wholeheartedly be open about my life or the things I wanted, I was never a bad kid, but I was never a happy one either. No one knew how to talk to me, how to make me understand. The only person that could ever do that had abandoned me for meth and other drugs. I wanted to be free, free of the ongoing mess that was my life. I wanted to be a person that could just turn my back on everything and leave it behind. I wanted to be my mother, free of everything and everyone.

Laura Alvarez

"At the Park" by Laura Alvarez seems to be a crowd favorite. Others like that the art work shows a woman who can do multiple things, (even be a spy). With the stare this woman or otherwise known as a double agent spy many others have noted that there is a empowered feeling towards the view. Yet, I want to take it a step further and say she is almost saying "screw you", or maybe a very sassy "What do you want?". I feel like it has a sense of anger or maybe I am seeing it because behind her I see a woman resting just watching a child. It greatly contrasts what the maid in the picture is doing, the maid a multitasking spy is working with the child and handing out what seems to be flyers. To me it not just contrast the idea of women and what they are capable of but it also tells me that only certain types of women do this. It can be seen as good or bad. It can say that only Chicana women (or any Latina) are empowered or it can say that only Chicana women (again or any Latina) are forced to work as maids that's why they are good spy. I guess I'll leave it to you, I hope you let me know.

"Your Vote Has Power" Yolanda M. Lopez in Concern with Iconography

In “Documents of 20^th century Latin American and Latino Art” by Shifra M. Goldman has the topic of self-identity that starts in the Chicano/a art movement. Yet, the main idea that she brings up is the fact that a lot of the art that searches for self-identity connects to leitmotifs (which in this case means a certain iconography). Goldman goes into examples such as using indigenous or as the author refers to as Indian people or even the Virgen de Guadalupe, but one that I was interested about was the famous, but not so common worker.

An artist that is famous for her work with the Virgen de Guadalupe art actually has a specific one on a women worker. Yolanda M. Lopez’s Your Vote Has Power (1997) has a Latino woman making a vote while she has a baby strapped to her back. This “worker” has the identity of a Latino woman, who can’t afford to leave her child or duties as a mother even if she goes to work. It is a stance on what power there is to take and what it means to be a woman in a Latino culture who works for her family. Hence, the caption on the bottom that states “woman’s work is never done”.

My Weird Questions for the Reading

When reading “There’s No Place Like Atzlan” by Alicia Gaspar de Alba I understood that there is a complex notion on identity and the “homeland”. I in a way I consider myself Chicana, even though technically I am from a heritage of Salvadoran and German blood, I consider myself to face the same struggles and questions as a Chicana. So I do understand that Atzlan is an idea, that it is a reference to history. I understand that Atzlan is a myth, but does that really mean that Chicanos and Chicanas don’t have a homeland? To me, at least living in Los Angeles, the “homeland” are all the places that are centered with all types of Latinos, places such as East LA or Mission St. in San Francisco. But then again that’s just my thought on it.

I guess for “Out of the House, the Halo, and the Whore’s Mask” also by Alicia Gaspar de Alba, my main concern was for the women that were invited to seen in the big art shows knowing that majority of the artists are men. How should these women feel? How should they feel knowing they are the few of the select women artists being shown? There should be a sense of pride but I understand that there is a “sell out” feeling. A feeling that there is an injustice, that there are others that deserve to be there just as talented as the men.

Wolf, Jozny

Hey everyone,
I am a third year here at UCLA. I want to purse a major in Gender Studies but who knows if I will ever add something else. I grew up in Cudahy, CA, I say this knowing that most of you wont know where that is but it is in between the city of Bell and Huntington Park. If you still don't know then by Downey or lets say south of East LA. I am descendant of Salvy blood and Italian. I grew up Catholic, technically non practicing catholic. So as for my views on the iconic Virgin, (I am going to get political here) I feel like everyone has their opinion and to be honest I don't even know what mine are. I do know that it is a whole guilt trip my grandma uses so I can stay.... chased. I know that there are in consistencies and I know that I does stand for something. One does not have to be religious to see that it is a big part of chicano/a culture and I feel like it is because it stands for a goodness we want to see in the world or in others, a love that transcends everything. I was reading other blog posts and I noticed that a lot of people mention how their grandmothers are the ones that push for the Virgin (even I mentioned it). I think the association has to do with an innocence, not sexual, rather one of kids. I think that is why I like her, because she is suppose to be a mother that goes through all this pain for the love of her son, to me she represents this idea of love that you should just have regardless. But that is just my two cents.

Sonia Romero

Hey everyone I would like to do Sonia Romero, mainly because I like her work and an other reason is because not only is she a print maker she is also a public artist. In fact here is a video of her in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a07fmC2ezBU