Chavez, Lilibeth (Week 8 )

Armando’s presentation on Brenda Barrio was striking as it highlighted Chicanx art in our own playing field, UCLA. When thinking of art and “notability,” it is easy to get lost in a perspective that views art and artists as something that is not necessarily within our lifetimes or within our communities. Generally when thinking of art it is more so thinking of art more classically, in a museum or preserved for decades before actually displayed. However, Armando presented beautifully on how Brenda’s work not only defies all the barriers and misconceptions of art, but also misconceptions of Chicanx communities while also highlighting disabled bodies. I thought it was very insightful to hear how her work was fueled by her own autoimmune disease and to use art as a form of representation for the disabled world that generally has gone unnoticed. Likewise her attention to health care inequities in her work like “Medicare For All,” is even more impactful considering it has been displayed in hospitals. It serves a major refutation of systems that generally turn away minority communities who tend to suffer from lack of access to health care. Overall her work was beautiful and I think embodied the mind of a young Chicana scholar interested in proscial movements in the sense that her work displays her community and her identity as a Latina but also the intersection between her identity as a Latina and the reality of life in the United States as a Latina/o. I am interested in seeing more of her work and hopefully on UCLA’s campus, as someone who was born and raised in the area it is invigorating to see artists of around my age group making their name and their work known in our same neighborhoods, as well as beyond.