Spencer, Tadeo (Week 4)

Rasquachismo is the creation of something out of nothing, and it is associated predominantly with Chicanx and Latinx culture. The “nothing” aspect refers to cheap or used materials like empty candles, scraps of paper, and other mundane objects. An artist can apply this creative approach to many different art forms – writing, painting, sculpting, etc. Art that has been labeled rasquache cannot be separated from the circumstances that necessitated the use of “junk” to create it. This often makes it a product of frugality.

 

To be rasquache, a piece must have a certain quality of “thriftiness.” Cheap sculptures of santitos, bright colors (perhaps due to lead paint), and papel picado commonly appear as motifs in this style. Because of this tendency, rasquachismo is often associated with the ofrenda or altar. Take, for example, my grandmother’s altar:

 

Note the many sculptures my grandmother purchased from Catholic stores, most likely for less than $10 each. By arranging these religious elements together, my grandmother brings the church to her home, and she often prays at this altar rather than going to church. This exemplifies the essential quality of inventiveness that characterizes rasquachismo.

 

Domesticana is a specific type of rasquache that reflects resistance to both the social system grounded in racism and the subjugation of women within Chicanx culture. A Chicano is forced to use whatever materials he has before him because systemic racism ensures he receives less resources. A Chicana must also resist the lack of resources through inventiveness, but she must also defy Chicano culture itself, which often reinforces gender roles that confine women to the house. Domesticana embodies resistance against intersectional forms of oppression occurring through classism, racism, and sexism.

 

This resistance exposes the essential difference between kitsch art and rasquache art. Kitsch art is cheap, mass-produced, and often sentimental. Kitsch art is not created by a person on a budget, it is created for a person on a budget. In that sense, it lacks the key ingredient of an attitude of resilience and inventiveness embodied in rasquachismo, or as many call it, the “underdog attitude.”