Reading and writing about Carmen Lomas Garza this week was both grounding and inspiring. I was so intrigued to read about her childhood in Texas and understand first hand accounts of deep rooted racism and segregation. At first, I was so shocked that she experienced what she had as a child that I was sure she must've been born much much earlier. After reading more, and realizing that no, that was just life in Texas for minorities in the 1950s and 60s, I was shocked. One story in particular stood out to me: during gym class, the Mexicanos and Black girls were pushed to one side of the locker room, overcrowded and uncomfortable. The young white girls were able to populate the other side, and take a shower first. Garza reflects on how she, and so many of her classmates, internalized this as them being dirty and degraded from these young white girls. Such a memory like this really captures the issues that span from institutionalized racism.
There were so many images of Garza's that I loved, but aside from the three I wrote about in my paper, her painting Quinceañera stands out to me. I am immediately drawn to the beautiful pink dresses making an arch around the old blue car. Although I have never been to a Quinceañera, from pictures and videos I have seen from them it seems to paint it perfectly. The eye never gets tired looking at this painting because there are always new details to see and figures to understand.
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