Ester Hernandez and Alicia Gaspar de Alba Reaction

Hello class! I specified that I will be presenting on the Chicana artist Ester Hernández under the Presentations 2020 tab earlier this week. Ester is a printmaker and illustrator based in the San Francisco area whose work confronts stereotypes of Chicana/Latina women by portraying the diverse experiences they have. 

I found Alicia Gaspar de Alba's article "Out of the House, the Halo, and the Whore's Mask: The Mirror of Malinchismo" to be enlightening on the way that female artists are excluded from exhibitions that claim to be inclusive. I really appreciated her breakdown of what feminism means to different groups, and how limiting it is to analyze things like the CARA exhibition through a single lens. I also appreciated the call to a diverse breadth of work regarding the Chicana artists experience, one that includes isolation and rage and sexuality that does not involve the male gaze. The way the article pointed out how CARA exuded male privilege and perpetuated stereotypes of Chicana artists was very vivid, and I appreciated Gaspar de Alba's weighed criticism. What I found most powerful in the article was how she shed light on the way that Chicana artists are outsiders to "the dominant codes of Chicanismo"(p.20). I think it is important to realize how gender identity can isolate those who are not male from their ethnic community. 

My question is: What was the initial reaction to this article? And how have things changed for Chicana artists since?