Week 9: Chicana Futurism

 Religious figures are being revisioned by Chicanx artists which makes it a form of rasquache, but the technology and digital aspect transforms their work to what Catherine S. Ramirez calls "chicanafuturism". Ramirez's chapter explores the role that religious figures play with Catholicism and in the Chicana art community. She is particularly concerned with art by Marion C. Martinez and examines the histories of mixed medium art that includes "wood carvings, textiles, baskets, and metalwork" which contains a negative connotation of being "primitive" and "backward" (149). This aspect of critcism makes art movements seen as a linear process. It begs the question that if only modern art is deemed progressive because it is Western despite the culturally rich background and feelings of rasquachismo that Chicana artists use in their work. Ramirez even says, "Hispanos--especially poor, rural, Catholic Hispanos--have been barred from the present and future and fixed in a racialized past" (150). It enforces the hegemonic idea that Mexican people are inferior. We're racialized "others" because we're excluded from what Western culture and science deems imporant and mainstream. This also makes us a tourist attraction because like zoo animals our homes, cultural values, and art is put on display for profit. It only enhances that we are not a part of the community. Ramirez talks about New Mexico being guilty of making Mexicans and their historical past a commodity to showcase this sentiment.

Marion C. Martinez's Cyber Arte uses computer and machine parts. It is the only one in the exhibit used with physical computer parts rather than utilizing the digital. Ramirez emphasizes, "Martinez's work points directly to New Mexico's history as a dumping ground for high-tech trash" (153). Martinez envokes the theme of change showing how even folk art, "a thing of the past", has transformed. Her thoughts and expression are different, but they coin and include Mexicans in the present and future. It includes Chicanos in science, technology, and reason. We are not a thing of the past.