Blog post week 3: Shifra Goldman

In Shifra M Goldman’s article, her discussion on Chino/Chicana art development occurred out of a search for self-identity in the midst of heavily influenced euro-centric racism that swirled around the indigenous communities of America as well as the Mexican communities. Shifra makes an important point of the 1960’s that it was the embracing of Mexican American’s Indigenous heritage that set forth the notion of pride and shed light on the colonial white savagery that the Spanish conquering did. Another point I found interesting in her article was the idea of the romanticized Indian, which through many artists, constructed the idea of the Indigenous person as being heroic and mystic, similar to the concept of Aztan. Another interesting theme that Shifra touches on is the idea of labor. A huge part of the Chicano/Chicana experience and identity is the relationship between the state and the valued labor within Mexican immigrants. So,  considering the circumstances, and it is still sadly true today, the value of the Mexican body in the borders of the Euro-centric American government and society, is placed on the amount of cheap and exploited labor as opposed to the richness of culture and originality on this land. Yolanda Lopez does one of my favorite series, Las Tres Mujeres,  of charcoal drawings on butcher paper. Her interpretation of older women in her life encourages a normative, non-romanticized notion of what it is to be a Mexican, or Mexican American woman, and not in the eyes of westernized ideals of labor or fetishism.