Barbara Carrasco

The artist I will be choosing is Barbara Carrasco.

In thinking through the "Out of the House" piece by Alicia Gaspar de Alba I appreciated the way in which she called out how the CARA exhibit took Chicana artwork that was intended to serve as a form of feminist critique to the norm and instead used it as a way to re-enforce patriarchal notions and gendered ideologies of Chicanas as mothers or as sexual objects of Chicano desire.

I loved that she related the virgin/whore/mother trichotomy and described the nuances of how these constructions play out or are often reinforced in specific art forms. If we want to talk about liberation, I think we need to decolonize our epistemologies and move away from a colonial historiography that glorifies Chicano nationalist views stemming from the Movimiento of the 60's. Essential to obtaining liberation is destroying the hierarchical and violent modes of being that such nationalist models follow, such as with the suppression of queer and lesbian Chicanas in the Chicano movement. Its a huge disservice to Chicanas when Chicanos fail to step aside and humble themselves. If people feel a need to elevate themselves and reconstruct the same power dynamics amongst Chicanas/os/xs, then the struggle for liberation becomes void, because it continues to reproduce the same colonial violence just with different actors.

One of the things that really resonated with me was the reclaiming and re-envisioning of La Malinche, La Llorona, and La Virgen. Its important to recognize how these archetypal and cultural figures can be used and retold for the purpose of social control. I think the need to strike down toxic masculinity and the construction of strict gendered roles is crucial for re imagining a new way of living, embodying and interacting with one another.

I guess a few questions that came out of this reading for me is:
How do we begin to deconstruct/challenge/ abolish deeply entrenched patriarchy, colonialism, and Chicanismo in our culture? & How can we all engage in radical resistance that does not reproduce the same uneven power dynamics, violence, and brokenness?