Carmen Lomas Garza

Carmen Lomas Garza was born in Kingsville, Texas, in 1948. She is a Chicana artist who creates paintings about the everyday life of a Mexican-American based on her own memories and experiences. Her artworks are mostly influenced by her family; whether they are the highlights of her childhood or simply her everyday family routines. Many people make children’s books using her paintings because she wants viewers to have their own interpretations of her paintings.

One painting that caught my attention was the Earache Treatment (1989). It is a painting about Garza’s mom doing an ear candle treatment to her husband. It seems that this natural remedy has been used in the Southern states of America for a long time. 

To me, this painting was about how the Chicanx community fought for their rights. In the painting, the father’s ear was blocked by water, so the mother rolled the newspaper into a cone and burned the tip to evaporate the water in the father’s ear. It was like the father’s ear was blocked; Chicanx was discriminated in the U.S, but he could not find a justification to make it right because of the stereotype about Chicanx that the dominant power made. Therefore, the mother rolled a newspaper to form a funnel full of information about discrimination towards the Chicanx community and burned the tip to dilute the information to the father, hoping that the flame would fire up the father’s spirit and he would get enlightenment on how to fight for the Chicanx community.