In the essay “Border Arte” by Gloria Anzaldúa, the author paints a painful truth about Chicanos and their struggle with their identity. In a culture where your indigeneity was quite literally stripped away by European colonizers, it is obviously grounds for confusion. Gloria talks about her time at the Denver Museum of Natural History, where she visits the World of Moctezuma exhibition. She is led around different artifacts and cultural pieces, guided by a white mans voice on the Walkman. She considers this voice quite paradoxical to be guiding the viewer through an Aztec exhibition. Gloria also mentions hearing white viewers in the room with her gasp in horror and amazement as they view the “exotic” pieces. White people were also the curators of this exhibit, which is the only way it became a viable exhibit for the public. Why couldn’t it be presented by Chicanos, or indigenous people who actually have a personal connection to this art? This angers Anzaldúa, and rightfully so. In order for people like her to learn more about their culture, they have to look at it through a western and Eurocentric lens. This further confuses people of this culture, as they have been stripped of their history for years. First they are colonized and robbed of their indigenous heritage, then the same colonizers are taking control of the narrative that tells their history. It’s a sad ironic and unjust daily life of being a Chicano.
It makes me very sad that Chicano border art and historical art is being culturally appropriated and misrepresented by the wrong narrators. I hope that in the future people from their own culture can be the curators of their lineages art work and artifacts. The exhibit in the Denve Museum depicted Aztecs as extinct, when they are very much alive and still practicing their culture. Hopefully in the future they can take control of their own narrative.
That was an excellent summary of the essay, Priya!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you in that it is upsetting to see history and culture being appropriated and seen/shared/spoken about through an Anglo lens.
Reading your post made me think of conversation I had with someone about how Chicanxs/Latinxs have to do a lot of learning and unlearning when it comes to history. One thing the person said that really struck me was that they commented about how I attend UCLA and have to pay to learn this history. I never thought abut the fact that knowledge of our true history and culture has a price on it. I wish that were not the case because it messes with people's minds not knowing the truth about their identity.