Zhang，Xinyu Week 4

According to Tomas Ybarra-Frausto，Rasquachismo describes the attitude and lifestyle of Chicanos who are at the bottom of the social ladder, or the underprivileged in society, to use their limited material conditions or resources to recreate in order to satisfy their material and spiritual needs. From an artistic point of view, it is an act of ingeniously and happily piecing together objects that are readily available to create vibrant and useful objects.

In my opinion, the emergence of Rasquachismo, although first used to describe a worldview of the working class of Mexican descent and the aesthetics behind it, is a phenomenon that exists all over the world because when people have limited material conditions, they use the limited objects around them to create more possibilities to satisfy needs beyond those material conditions. In many countries and regions, there are phenomena such as people making percussion instruments out of used stainless steel pots and pans, putting together a painting out of discarded mineral water bottles, making a new dress or carpet out of a few pieces of worn-out clothes and fabrics. In my opinion, Rasquachismo is a wonderful way of life because behind these actions is the pursuit of a better life and artistic aesthetics. Despite the limited objective material conditions, human creativity is infinite.

Personally, even though I am not of Mexican descent, Rasquachismo is also present in my life. As you can see in this photo, this is a decorative green plant that sits in my kitchen. Technically, this is not a bottle of greenery, as the plant has only branches and leaves and no roots. The branches were scratched off by my cat from one of my pots of greenery. At first, I just wanted to clean them up as garbage, but later I found that the branches and leaves were growing well, so I found a glass vase that was to be discarded, cleaned it, and used it as a vase for the branches and leaves, and placed them in my kitchen as decoration. Since then, my kitchen has been alive and vibrant.

These are my personal views and opinions on Rasquachismo.