Week 4

For this week's reading in Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology, we were required to read about the ideologies of rasquachismo and domesticana. Rasquachismo is considered to be a taste or attitude rather than a idea or style. This idea was tinkered with during the Mexican/ Chicano art movement since it usually had a bad connotation. It represented a low income community rather than representing positive aspects. The people who used this weals were usually working class Chicanos. This art truly represented resourcefulness and determination. Due to limited resources these people were required to use every material multiple times. They focused on the more elaborate forms of art, and chose to integrate vibrant colors into their pieces rather than using blacks and grey. In addition they also swayed from the white art and rather chose to create art that reflected their current situations. This resulted in Rasquachismo art featuring working class conditions and normal everyday references. 

Domesticana is the Chicana version of Rasquachismo in a sense because it also was a way of aruging against cultural norms.The influences they included in their pieces were related to their church,  community, and home.These topics all aided the Chicana women and more specifically the daily experience of working class Chicanas. They were able to protest gender norms by representing home altars , healing traditions, and personal feminine pose/styles.