Week 2: CARA exhibition reading response

After reading the Gaspar de Albas Chapter 3, I was left feeling uncomfortable and filthy to say the least. It is horrible how women were completely neglected to show their artwork and it clearly showed how underrepresented women were.  Just by looking at the statistics, of the fourteen pieces in the "Cultural Icons", only one was done by a woman. Of the three groups that were selected for special recognition within the Chicano Art movement, absolutely none of them dealt with the concerns of what a women went through. Women were not able to express how they felt, verbally and artistically speaking, which makes absolutely no sense since every that specific movement involved all the Chicanx people. As quoted by Yolanda M. Lopez, a Chicana artist, it was necessary  for Chicanas to represent part of the movement, since their artwork challenged the "sexist and stereotypical notions within the Chicano Art Movement. I feel like times have changed and our eyes have become more open than they were before. We have to start considering not only the race of an individual and the cultural beliefs, but exactly how they identify as. Ultimately, this was basically what Gaspar de Albas writing hoped for us to do. Her message seemed very clear that in order for us to continue moving forward as a people, we must first understand and accept one another. If that doesn't occur, then we will continue fighting with each other instead of fighting for what is really worth fighting; acceptance.