ShabgahiSani2020 Week 4

In this week’s reading, the ideas of rasquachismo and domesticana are explained as adopting an oppositional stance to dominant culture and articulating a Chicano identity. Rasquachismo is described as neither an idea nor a style but more of an attitude. It first referred to as negative connotations in Mexico, such as being lower class and impoverished.  It can represent the quality exemplified in objects and places or the poor behavior of one. Even the word “Chicano” can be looked down upon because of the essence of a bicultural reality. Rasquachismo stereotyped the majority of Chicanos as poor, disenfranchised and struggling for daily survival. However, the chicano movement of the 1960s redefined the style of rasquachismo. Chicano artists focused on a Chicano self image of wholeness and completion, rather than the cultural identity of Chicanos. Rasquache challenges artists to adopt the the rasquachismo attitude and ideals in order to rediscover and reconstruct their community by creating a positive image of their current instabilities. In other words, it is making the most from what one has. I find this notion very encouraging because we should make the mosts of our lives despite what we are given or have. My family and I moved to the United States from Germany with only four suitcases. After twenty years, we have built a life here and continue to strive to make the best of it. 

The feminist aspects of rasquachismo in the work of Chicana artists can be described as day-to-day experiences with the practices of domestic space. This includes home embellishments, home altar maintenance, healing traditions and personal feminine pose or style. Domesticana brings awareness to the hierarchical roles of male over female and the women’s restrictions with the culture. The work of Chicana artists resignify feminine elements of domestic life. Just like rasquachismo, the purpose of domesticana is to elevate these low cultural perspectives of domestic chores done by women while also altering the ways women are socially positioned.