Celia Alvarez Muñoz

Celia Alvarez Muñoz is known for including her innuendo skills in many of her great artworks. Specifically, in her Enlightenment series artist’s books created in the 1980s, consists of themes that include: childhood memory, socio-cultural issues, linguistic clashes, and moral views. For instance, Enlightenment #4: Which Came First? (1982) showcases the socio-cultural challenges of learning English as a Chicanx student, a child’s curiosity of reproduction, and how the truth can be revealed through its distortions. The art piece is composed of five 12x20 color photographs depicting five eggs in a single row with a yolk color backdrop. The perspective of each photograph steadily changes and consist of a text below of an anonymous narrative and a child’s handwriting. This art work is significant because it shows how language can be a form of misrecognition and conflict and it explores the mind of a child who is growing up in a school system that was never created for them. Additionally, the artwork may reflect how the dominant culture enforces false ideologies and white-wash history during a child’s development. The artwork insinuates how the oppressors try to confine the existence of the child’s cultural identity through language. Tejada further explains that Alvarez Muñoz alludes and contests the way dominant society shames and punishes Mexican-American youth’s bi-cultural identity and linguistic skills. He discusses that the artist attempts to portray how language use reflects social history (Tejada, 46). In other words, the artist represents the way language is utilized to fabricate rules and restrictions. It is meant to marginalize individuals who do not fit the status quo. Thus, Alvarez Muñoz Enlightment #4 leaves the viewer to question their existence and use of language.