Carmen Lopez Garza was a very interesting artist in the way that she portrayed alternative visions of Chicano familial, communal, and cultural practices. As an intermediary between the art world and the community, she established a commitment to always remember her community despite the institutional and societal forces that had a violent and burdening affect in her histories. She does this in her image called La Feria en Reynoso, 1987. This image really stood out to me not for its colors but also because of how relatable it is in a symbolic way. Although I don’t really live in a borderline town like her image recounts, I do feel as my life is a spilt between Mexican and American lifestyles. In her image, she presents what she remembers when she would go to a fair in a Mexican border town. She drew three booths each which contain their own variety of goods from Mexico. There is also this sense of a duality and mixing of cultures by the way she writes her signs: “Sodas, Coca Cola”, “Fresh, Limon”. The frequent switch between English and Spanish displays the close relations between both sides despite this bringing its conflict of its own. In my life, such coexistence of cultures was something that I was always proud of, but I didn’t really see the implications it had until I grew up. Just like that old saying, “ni de aqua, ni de aya”, where one is never American nor Mexican enough to fit in, this was an identity crisis I had to overcome. But in Garza’s image, she is able to celebrate not only our differences, but also our hybridity in culture, by showing lots of color and people smiling as they are shopping. I really like how she incorporated all different types of factors such as food, clothing, music, and craftsmanships like vases.
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