Rasquachismo is literally a term that is used towards someone or something that comes from the bottom. It's having to work with what is at hand and making it work. Like Yolanda Lopez, or a bigger example is Luis Valdez. Yolanda Lopez in her book mentions how her family was poor so her grandma used what she had available to make something happen. She used to make fashionable clothes out of inexpensive materials. Her use of unrefined materials emerges from her family's rasquache sensibility. Luis Valdez made magic with what he had available and became an Icon to the Chicano community. In the '60s his contributions to the Chicano Movement were of plays on farms in the back of pickup trucks which came to be known as Carpa. They were stories of actual farmworkers In America and the injustices they encountered in the fields. His work at the beginning of the Chicano Movement is defined as Rasquachismo. He made work what was on hand for the working class. My personal experience/example of Rasquachismo or Rasquache is wearing some broken down Nike shoes with holes in them, or in my term, "weak ass shoes." Growing up that's how my friends and I would clown each other when one of us had a faded shirt, pants, or old shoes. We would get on each other's nerves and say "throw that weak ass shirt, pair of pants, or shoes away and buy some new ones you broke ass fool." Those were great times indeed!
Hey Jesus! I loved reading about the examples you gave of rasquachismo such as Yolanda Lopez's and Luis Valdez's work. I especially loved reading about your own experience with rasquachismo. I can totally relate to keeping around beat up shoes and other belongings.
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