Week 9: Chicana Futurism (Paden, Lily)

 The article "Deus ex Machina" by Catherine S. Ramirez gave great insight to the ideas surrounding Chicana futurism, and included many details about the history and artwork of the New Mexico region and also told histories of Catholicism. Ramirez writes about how Chicana artists have used computer and computer softwares and hardwares to create traditional images (such as religious figures), which seems to be a way of combining the old and new. Technology and tradition seem to be opposites of some sorts, and combining these two ideas has created an innovative art form. 

Folk art was also a common theme throughout the article, which is thought of as art that reflects its surroundings. For many Chicano and Chicana artists, this can be highly associated with religious images. Saints and Santos were discussed in the article, and were commonly portrayed in pieces done by Chicano and Chicana artists. Ramirez writes "Santos were links to an idealized past," (149). 

Later in the article, Ramirez writes on the exclusion of both African Americans and Chicanos from "the world of science, technology, and reason, and were confined to the domain of superstition, mythology, and intuition," (150). This is an idea that I had never considered before, and find it very interesting how when studying the Chicano culture, perhaps there is a lot of superstitious or mythical associations, but it is partially because of how majorities confine others. Ramirez continues later with “Chicanos have been barred from Western definitions of the human and denigrated as infrahuman. They have been excluded from and objectified by discourses of science… Yet, new technologies have transformed Chicanos, and they have enabled us to articulate (to enunciate and link) past, present, and future identities. This is evident not only in Martinez’s visual art but in also in the work of numerous other Chicana and Chicano cultural workers, such as Teresa Archuleta- Sagel, Elena Baca, and Alma Lopez. (157)

The use of technology by Chicano artists have transformed the art world for these groups, and based on this quotation, it seems that technology has further allowed for Chicano people to find a greater connection between their past and their future.

Art by Marion C. Martinez