Week 4: Rasquache and Domesticana

In “rasquachismo” by Tomás Ybarra-frausto, he describes rasquachismo as “a consciousness seeking to subvert and turn ruling paradigms upside down.” He explains that rasquache is influenced by the working class sensibility and the fact that things are often coming apart, meaning that people have to make due with what they have. The author mentions that due to their limited resources, people don’t often throw things away, but instead save and recycle different items. People come to use old tires as plant containers, empty black bottles as garden ornaments and old coffee cans as flower pots. It is interesting to see how people turn regular items at their disposal and give them another purpose. Although some associate it with vulgarity and bad taste, once you take a moment to further examine rasquache, you are able to see the complexity and ingenuity it involves. 
In “Chicana Domesticana”, Amalia Mesa-Bians explains that it was clear early in the Chicano art movement that serious differences were being made among men and women. Chicana artist have long been concerned with the roles of questioning gender relations. The author explains that there was a expansion of feminine rasquachismo, which worked to establish a sensibility for the struggle for identity, sexuality, and power felt by Chicanas. Chicana artists have been able to produce rasquache works in order to form a resistance against the subjugation of women in the domestic sphere.