Beemer, Bri Week 10 Reflection

The concept that I learned in this class “Chicana Art and Artists” that I will now reflect on is the idea of rasquachismo. I found this to be a very interesting concept of making due with what you have and the creativity required to repurpose items. It is an aesthetic philosophy that can privilege practicality over traditional aesthetic appeals, but not exclusively so. I think reusing materials is a smart way to not make waste. I feel that I have utilized the concept of rasquachismo in my own life. Some of the examples are using a paperclip to extend a choker necklace, as mentioned in a previous blog post. Additionally, I upcycled my dad’s old shirt by cropping it and ironing a patch onto it. Then, I sewed the cropped-off fabric into a produce bag which was actually pretty hard to hand sew and I now understand why people use thimbles. I think in this way, rasquachismo can have some meaningful overlap with domesticana as women can reclaim traditionally feminine activities like sewing and cooking and use them as creative outlets. This is why one of my goals for the new year is to learn more about these activities and hopefully even get a sewing machine so that I can do and make more things for myself, instead of buying everything. There is value to traditional femininity and traditional femininity, so I think people who don’t want to conform to those should be able to without devaluing the original concepts. Bringing it back to rasquachismo, it’s interesting that the spirit of this idea can be found in many common expressions like “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and “waste not, want not.” Rasquachismo can be an interesting philosophy to use to analyze art and culture.