Week 4

 

The Smithsonian's !Printing The Revolution! exhibition preview was stirring. Many of the topics we've read about and  discussed in class were brought up by the artists. 

Juan Fuentes talked about being inspired from the Vietnamese saying, "One struggle many fronts," which strengthened his commitment to communities of color throughout the world through art. How taking his first class with a Chicano instructor, Rupert Garcia, and an apprenticeship with Malaquias Montoya affected his education and teaching career. Access to education and mentorship are the tools Sybil Venegas wrote about in Conditions For Producing Chicana Art.

My favorite speaker was Ester Hernandez, especially when she spoke of growing up in El Movimiento, her family supporting her art and making stencils out of grape leaves as a child. Hernandez's work on the Virgin de Guadalupe and Chicana identity adds to the layers of diversity to the Chicanx lexicon. The joy in her voice when mentioning the LGBTQ+ community being visible and making work and her closing statement, "We're all the face of El Movimiento," is the perfect description for the exhibit and continuing tradition of social justice and identity in Chicanx art.