Carmen Lomas Garza’s work for me is about family and community. There are multiple favorites, however, Cakewalk 1987, is significant to me. It reminded me of the annual fiesta our local church, Our Lady of Guadalupe, in La Habra would hold and the cakewalk was one of the many things that happened throughout the weekend’s events. I do not recall if it is mentioned in the book, but the idea of seeing the era she captures in most if not all of her work, Cakewalkincluded, appear to be pre-cellphone and pre-beepers, which add to the nostalgic memories I have growing up in my hometown of La Habra and at events and occasions in East L.A. The community and family images she painted are also pre-internet and social media, as opposed to the significant degree we know it today in 2020 and I would further describe the era she captures as “analog,” since I can hear the music played at family parties in her paintings, such as The Intruders, Billy Stewart, The Delphonics. Whether its oldies, soul music, or any freestyle music of the 1908s. I can hear it in her paintings. Where the warmth of her paintings captured “real life” in quotes, since it is a painting, versus “virtual life” happenings that consume us inter-daily on our devices today like our smartphones, the interaction of family and community is what I remember growing up and find in her artwork. That is not to say that people do not interact or listen to each other as much today, it is just done in different modes and through different mediums these days. Lastly, as for Cakewalk, another reason I love it so much is that I was pretty lucky as a kid in that game. I remember more than once running all the way, careful not to drop the whole cake I just won. I remember the last one I ever won was a white cake with yellow frosting. It made it home safely and everyone was happy.
Cakewalk (1987) Carmen Lomas Garza
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