CARA's Politics of Representation

This CARA exhibition written by Alicia Gaspar de Alba was said to be truly inclusive of Chicana Artists in an effort to highlight their culture and its importance. And With a closer look, it was obvious that were there much more male artists featured than female artists. But Gaspar de Alba states that it was not because there were so many more Chicano male artists presented and only a few of works by Chicanas.  One example Gaspar de Alba notes is the portion of the exhibit dedicated to artists expressing the impact of Frida Kahlo. While it is a step forward to highlight the career of a female artist, it was counteractive that all of the artists whose opinions were valued enough to be featured in the exhibit was Chicano. Author Alicia Gaspar de Alba reinforces these ideas because every artist included in the “Feminist Visions” room of the exhibition is female, which conveys that only women should be concerned with women’s liberation, and by including other works by Chicano artists that depict women as either mothers, virgins, or whores, or only as part of patriarchal units. Then She goes on to focus on the artwork of the Chicanas in the exhibition and find the way that the artists use the iconography of La Virgen, La Llorana, and La Malinche and how these three folk figures factor into their identities as Chicanas.