Maciel, Sarah: Research Abstracts for Lucila Villaseñor Grijalva

“Curatorial Strategies on the Art Scene During the Feminist Movement: Los Angeles in the 1970s.” Curating Differently : Feminisms, Exhibitions and Curatorial Spaces, edited by Jessica Sjöholm Skrubbe, Cambridge Scholars Publisher, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucla/detail.action?docID=4535042.

In this chapter from the book entitled Curating Differently: Feminisms, Exhibitions and Curatorial Spaces, the author investigates the construction of exhibitions and art organizations through alternative methods and feminist frameworks during the 1970s in Los Angeles, particularly those enacted by self-identifying Chicana artists. The source explores the development of feminist art spaces that marked the 1970s art movement, which eventually inspired the Chicana art scene and its focus on intersectional oppression. The text notes the stylistic evolution of this movement, especially its affinity for murals—a reflection of Chicana feminism’s dedication to collaboration, collectivity, and community building. This valuable information contextualizes the formation of Chicanx art centers in Los Angeles, which Lucila Grijalva, as a mural artist, was greatly involved in and supported by. Notably, the chapter confirms Grijalva’s primary involvement in the Mechicano Art Center and the existence of her solo installation at the venue. The text also discusses the history and work of the organization, including its pursuit of community building and creative activism against racism. Ultimately, by detailing the intention of Mechicano Art Center, this resource also simultaneously describes Grijalva's intention as a participating muralist. 

Davalos, Karen Mary. “LOOKING AT THE ARCHIVE: Mechicano Art Center and Goez Art Studios and

Gallery.” Chicana/o Remix: Art and Errata Since the Sixties, NYU Press, 2017, pp. 63–96,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1gk090z.8.

In this chapter from a scholarly book entitled Chicana/o Remix: Art and Errata Since the Sixties, written by Karen Mary Davalos, the author discusses the valuable social context in which the Mechicano Art Center was erected. The text explains the organization’s dedication to offering various artistic programs to educate and inspire the Chicanx community by offering a space for creative expression. The broad range of collaboration allowed for greater inclusion of female Chicana artists, including Lucila Villaseñor Grijalva, which Davalos notes was a rarity during the given time and social climate. According to the chapter, the accessibility of the center made art education more available to the community, which notably reflects Grijalva’s proclaimed desire to develop the minds of Chicanx community members in Los Angeles. The chapter details the ambition of the organization that Grijalva worked closely and shared aspirations with. Overall, the text verifies her participation in the Mechicano Center and discusses its social development in detail.

“Oral History Interview with Lucila ‘Lucille’ Villaseñor Grijalva”, interview by Denise Lugo, August 8, 2018, transcript, John Spoor Broome Library Institutional Repository, http://hdl.handle.net/10139/5464. 

In this transcript of an oral interview from the Broome Library Collections, Denise Lugo, the interviewer and a professor at Cal State Channel Islands, investigates the personal and artistic life of artist Lucila Villaseñor Grijalva. The resource provides insight into her familial upbringing, artistic apprenticeship, and education. Specifically, Grijalva speaks about her Catholic yet open-minded Mexican household, her attendance at the Otis Art Institute, and her transition into the public art sphere. The interview mainly discusses Grijalva’s experience working within the Mechicano Art Center, a groundbreaking Chicano Art organization in Los Angeles, including testimonies regarding her creative inspiration and the center’s effect on the community. Notably, she remembers feeling supported and accepted by her fellow artists within the center, including Carlos Almarez, who was a trailblazer of the Mexican-American art movement. Also, Grijalva explains that her involvement was inspired by her desire to help educate the community about art and its activism. She emphasizes her affinity for incorporating and reinventing placas, or gang-affiliated graffiti initials, as a way of empathizing with the social dynamics of the barrio, the desire to be remembered, and the goal of challenging exclusion. Overall, the resource offers an insightful and intimate narration of Grijalva’s life and creative experiences.  

Ribera D’Ebre, Rodrigo. “An Urban History: The Influence of Street Gangs in Contemporary Art.” Los Angeles Review of Books, 14 December 2015, lareviewofbooks.org/article/an-urban-history-the-influence-of-street-gangs-on-contemporary-art/. Accessed 11 October 2021. 

    In this essay from Los Angeles Review of Books, a literary review magazine, Rodrigo Ribera D’Ebre, a published author and director, contextualizes the development of graffiti style within the Chicanx mural movement in Los Angeles and discusses its roots in a long history of gang resistance against systemic oppression. Specifically, the essay details the history of racism and stereotyping against Chicanx peoples, which inspired resistance through art. D’Ebre describes how this exclusion led to the development of distinct characteristics within graffiti art, particularly its inclusion of placas or markers of gang affiliation and other elements of personal identity, which was heavily present in the work of Lucila Villaseñor Grijalva. The writer defines this style as a way of refusing erasure and protecting one’s legacy and identity, since it utilizes symbols that establish and defend one’s existence as a Chicanx person. As the essay explains, these distinct artistic elements were employed by popular Chicanx mural artists, thus demonstrating its prevalence in the movement. Most notably, the writer refers to Grijalva’s artword as a key example of gang-style art, thus depicting her as an exemplary figure in graffiti-style mural building. Overall, this resource serves as an important explanation of this style, which was profoundly relevant to Grijalva’s work within a unique period of the Chicanx art movement.