Week 9- Chicanafuturism

Oratorio a la Virgencita, 2000 Mixed Media 

    Catherine S. Ramírez explores in her article “Deus Ex Machina: Traditions, Technology, and the Chicanafuturist Art of Marion C. Martinez,” explores ideas of Chicanafuturism that is displayed particularly in the art of Marion C. Martinez. Ramírez defines Chicanafuturism as a “Chicano cultural production that attends to cultural transformations resulting from the new and everyday technologies (including their detritus); that excavates, creates, and alters narratives of identity, technology, and the future; that interrogates the promises of science and technology; and that redefines humanism and the human.” She also states that Chicanafuturism directly relates to and features colonial and postcolonial histories and links this past with the present. An example of this is seen in  New Mexico’s Indo-Hispanic tradition of santo productions being created with contemporary technology. The artist Marion C. Martinez does this as some of her artwork, she uses links of the past and makes them out of new and everyday used technology bits. Ramírez states that what this Phenomenon does is link the past, present, and future identities because to reference the past in art, is to experience it in the present, and for it to be transformed by the mediums and artist of the present. 

    I really enjoyed learning about Marion C. Martinez because her artwork is beautiful. As a person who is fond of Afrofuturism and futurism in general, the mixture of the traditional and the spiritual with technology and new materials is very interesting and pleasing to look at, while also bringing up lots of dialogue because the use of symbols. With Oratorio a la Virgencita, Mendez incorporates computer parts and metal as the medium for the depiction of la Virgen de Guadalupe in an oratorio, which sets it apart of the traditional santo tradition in New Mexico. Mendez describes this piece as being “ emblematic of social and cultural transformations and is located at the interface of the Old and New Worlds.”