Yolanda Lopez, “Things I Never Told My Son about Being a Mexican”

Not only does Yolanda Lopez create paintings and drawings, she is also a renowned installation artist. One such installation entitled “Things I Never Told My Son about Being a Mexican,” is a testament to the many ways in which Mexican culture is appropriated and degraded. This installation was part of a larger installation entitled “When You Think of Mexico,” which circulated from the late 80’s through the late 90’s. In “Things I Never Told My Son,” Lopez displays all the many mundane objects that depict Mexican culture and Mexicans in a stereotypical or racist manner. These objects range from food wrappers, to toys, to advertisements. According to Dalavos, this work was the way in which Lopez “turns away from the master narrative or Western subject,” and “aligns her work with...artists who work to destroy racist representations by taking up the very material and popular culture of racism.” This installation is a means by which Lopez shows that racism and discrimination is inherent even in the most trivial of items. This installation really was interesting to me because of the fact that there are so many things in our culture that appropriate, stereotype, and marginalize minority cultures, and the Latino culture is one of those cultures. The objects that Lopez collected and displayed in this installation are so everyday and commonplace, they've objects everyone has probably seen a million times but many people probably don't even think about the fact that perhaps the logo on their buritto wrapper is in fact stereotyping Mexicans in a negative way. Her aim was to give people a sense that this is something that is occuring and to especially let Latinos know that they too can "turn away from the master narrative or Western subject."