Chicana Futurism (Week 9)

    Published in 2002 by Catherine S. Ramírez, Deus Ex Machina is a comment on the contemporary manifestations of Chicana identity within the scope of Mexican-American tradition, the technological progress of the twentieth- and twenty-first century, and the work of Chicanafuturist artist Marion C. Martinez. The essay's opening quote, uttered by cultural theorist Stuart Hall, encapsulates the condition of reviving traditional mediums of art in the modern day: the return of the ancestral past is permanently "transformed by the technologies and identities of the present." Marion C. Martinez illustrates this marriage of a folkloric past and digitized present, often looking ahead towards the collective future of the Chinanx community as this relationship will develop.

Marion C. Martinez, Oratorio a la Virgencita, 2000

     In this sculptural piece by Marion C. Martinez, the artist utilizes a discarded circuit board to reconstruct an image of La Virgen de Guadalupe, in the traditional frame of an oratorio. The convergence of nineteenth- and twenty-first century materials and aesthetics are very evident: the carved wooden structure is decorated with embossed roses, and painted designs reminiscent of the sun and moon, making the imagery surrounding la Virgen very traditional. The figure of the Virgen, however, is abstracted with the texture of the machine. The choice to use circuitry in this piece seems to be a comment on the existance of life on the periphery in rural, northern New Mexico, a region burdened with "transuranic" waste from the nation's military industrial complex.

    Inspired by the radical "Afrofuturist" movements of recent years, "Chicanafuturism" examines the relationship between Latinx/indigenous people of color and technological advancement, infused with a hopeful, empowering, and creative narrative. Whereas many Indo-Hispanic individuals have been limited by the Western gaze to a dated existence, inspired only by folk art of the past, "Martinez's work challenges racist, classist, and sexist stereotypes that primitivize Hispanas and exclude them from the domain of science, technology, and reason as it reshapes the tools of the information age" (Ramírez 157). Chicanafuturism is used as a mode of articulating the many past, present, and future identities of Chicanas, who exist at the intersection of spiritual, ancestral knowledge and modern, scientific advancement.