Reflection Post

As this quarter ends and I think back to all the people that we have gone over in class I am happy to be able to name more Chicana and Latina artists. I never realized how important it is to have Chicana and Latina artists and I never gave much thought to the lack of well-known Latina artists. Through this class, I definitely learned that representation matters and seeing someone who looks like you and can tell their story that is similar to yours matters as well. I also learned that there are so many different forms of art and artists can express themselves in more ways than just paintings. I found that performance artists and installation artists were the most interesting to me. I think these artists made the most controversial art that may not be for everyone but tell their story nonetheless. Throughout the course, my favorite artist was Carmen Lomas Garza because I remembered a part of my childhood that I was forgetting and I was able to see myself and my family and culture in her work. To me, her work was the most realistic and reflected my upbringing, which is what drew me to her work.

I think that this class is valuable in learning more about the Chicana experience and it is important for Chicanas in school to learn about artists who represent them and are aware of the ways in which Chicanas and Latinas are able to artistically express themselves and their experience.

Presentations: Xandra Ibarra

Throughout this second week of presentations, I found Xandra Ibarra very interesting and different from any other artists we looked at. I think what caught my eye is that she is a performance artist, something foreign to me. I never found performance artists to be serious artists and sometimes I don't fully understand what they are doing. I think this confusion drew me towards Xandra because she made me think hard about what her acts mean and what she is commenting about. Through the presentation, it was made clear that she uses her body to test the boundaries between racial and sexual stereotypes. I found that she uses her own body to create a conversation between racial, sexual, gender, and colonial subjects. I think that her performances are extreme because they need to be because without this extremity they would not invoke such strong feelings. I also think that some of her performances are supposed to make people feel uncomfortable so that members of her audience that aren't familiar with her work can form an opinion and talk about the issues she tackles. Overall, I don't fully understand all of Xandra's work, but I think that its okay to be left dumbfounded or speechless when viewing art, and I think it makes people want to understand it more.

Presentation: Patssi Valdez

One piece of artwork that stood out to me during this week of presentations was The Magic Room by Patssi Valdez. Specifically, I liked the story behind her images and the way in which the three selected images show Patssi's journey towards a more stable life and mental health. I liked how the three images showed the transformation from a hectic and anxious life to a calm frame of mind. I think this backstory helped me understand the art better and appreciate how she used her skills to work through her emotions and maybe help others who may feel the same way. I liked The Magic Room because it clearly shows the way in which Patssi felt like her home was hectic and unsafe, maybe due to the way that the setting affected her mentally. Some ways that Patssi communicated this feeling of anxiety and lack of safety is through her sharp imagery. I liked how she made the chairs look sharp and unstable as well as the forks and the snake-looking objects. There are also other objects that show the craziness of the space like a caution cone, gymnastic rings, and spilled glasses. The floor is also chaotic, showing that its hard to maneuver as the ground looks like its constantly spinning. The bars on the windows, although common, also add to the effect as well as the big, red curtains. The vibrant colors tie this entire work together and Patssi does a great job of showing how she felt living in this space and her journey towards a more healthy mindset and life.

Judith F Baca: The Great Wall of Los Angeles

The Great Wall of Los Angeles is a large mural, over 2,000 feet in length, in North Hollywood. this mural, designed by Judith Baca, shows the history is Los Angeles and California before human conquest to the 1980s. The Great Wall of Los Angeles depicts images of events in history that covers Japanese Internment, Civil Rights movements, treaties, and riots. One of the most striking features of the mural is the section "Division of the Barrios & Chavez Ravine. In this image we see police tearing families and neighborhoods apart as the Los Angeles freeways are built and as the Dodgers Stadium uprooted countless families and small businesses. Although this was not one of the bigger issues that are tackled in this long mural, it is something that is often forgotten or unknown. The building of the many Los Angeles freeways displaced communities around Los Angeles, pushing farther and farther into distanced areas and further segregating Los Angeles communities. The same occurred when the community, Chavez Ravine was torn apart and where the Dodger Stadium now stands. This is relatively unknown but it important because of the injustice of this action. The Chavez Ravine was originally acquired to build public housing but instead built this stadium, displacing a whole community for the benefit of the city. This piece of information is important for people to have, especially Los Angeles natives, and the inclusion of it in this mural is the only way that the history of Los Angeles can truly be told.

Carmen Lomas Garza

As a child, I remember going through Carmen Lomas Garza's book, Family Pictures/ Cuadros de Familia and deciding which person in the picture I was and assigning all the people in her pictures names and pretending it was my family who was drawn in the pictures. As a kid, I never gave much thought as to why I liked going through that book, but as an adult, I see that it was because I found a picture and book that directly related to my life, culture, and upbringing. In looking back at the pictures in Family Pictures, I remember going through the picture, Barbacoa para Cumpleaños (above). This picture reminded me of the carne asadas that my family would have when I was young, and I remember liking this picture in Garza's book specifically. In looking at this picture now I see that although her pictures are "childish" in a sense that they can easily be confused with a children's book illustration, they are full of color and are drawn from memory. Something that I also enjoy about the picture is the way in which Garza's culture and traditions are portrayed and the way that she was able to capture her childhood.

Yolanda M. Lopez

In Chapter Three of Davalos' Yolanda M. López, titled Finding a Language, she explores the various series of art that López created in the 1970s at the University of California, San Diego. One of the series stood out to me was, ¿A Donde Vas, Chicana? Davalos explains this series saying, “The monumental size of the ¿A Donde Vas? Images reformulate this history and culture of worship” (74). The image, Runner: On my Own! (right) from this series is very powerful because López counters the stereotypic image and worship of male athletes. In this work, I realized that female athletes, although prevalent, are not glorified the way that male athletes are, and art like this would give young girls and women, especially Chicanas, role models that are strong and powerful, not just leisurely or doing stereotypical female activities, like cooking and cleaning. I thought this painting was powerful and motivating and allowed me to see myself in it, especially since it contains a Chicana running on her school campus. The location of the Chicana running is one of the most important aspects of the painting for me because I see a lack of Chicanas and Latinas on campus and seeing a woman powerfully sprinting pass a school gives me someone I can identify with.

CARA's Politics of Representation

Cesar Martinez's La Fulana

Through reading Professor Gaspar de Alba's chapter, Out of The House, the Halo, and the Whore's Mask: The Mirror of Chicanismo, the two roles women are often categorized as struck me. In other Chicano Studies classes, I have learned about Adelitas during the Mexican Revolution, women who fought with the men, cared for them, fed them, and supported them. Adelitas are stereotypically seen as supporters and loyal but never given full credit for their work. In this description, I recalled the work of the Hijas de Cuauhtemoc during the Chicano Movement at CSU Long Beach, started by Anna Nieto-Gomez. Professor Gaspar de Alba briefly mentions Anna Nieto-Gomez, saying that she was attacked by men during the Chicano Movement, saying she is anti-Chicano for her feminist's beliefs. In this, I found how easy it is to go from being categorized as an Adelita to a Malinche (a traitor). Through the limited categorization of Chicana women, I found that in Chicano art women are still mainly only portrayed in these ways. For example, the artist who created La Fulana, Cesar Martinez casts this "other woman" as a Malinche, a traitor for being a mans lover. Further, it supports the virgin/whore binary that Latina women are typically represented as. As Professor Gaspar de Alba comments, this artwork is one of the lasts that someone sees as they exit the exhibit, furthering the stereotypes Latina and Chicana women face. On the other hand, Adelitas are also portrayed in a sexual manner that also furthers the stereotype of the overly sexual Latina. Popular images of La Adelita have circulated to create an image of the perfect supportive Chicana, ready to fight for la causa, while also being highly sexualized. Although these stereotypes are not new, what is surprising is how stereotypes like these remained present in the CARA's exhibit, with curators mainly being white people who dictate the art used and the order in which it's presented, essentially dictating the story they wish to tell with this exhibit.

Chicana Sexuality and Gender, Chapter 1

Ester Hernandez's
La Virgen de Guadalupe Defendiendo los Derechos de los Xicanos

In Chapter 1, Blake explains how Chicana and U.S. Mexican artists have reconfigured the images of the four major icons listen previously and how they use their form of expression to describe their experiences. Blake writes, “The artists, authors, or oral historians alter images and narrative representations to coincide with their perspective of themselves and how they exist within the culture” (24). In this passage Blake explains how some Chicana artists are able to rework previous images and stories of these icons in order to better fit their own experiences as a Chicana. I found examples of this from previous courses and in works of art that we have spoken about in class. For example, author Sandra Cisneros was able to refigure and rework her notion of La Virgen de Guadalupe in order to better represent her own sexual experiences in her essay, Guadalupe the Sex Goddess. Similarly, artists have been able to refigure her iconic image by undressing her and showing her undressed form like Alma Lopez’s Our Lady, or show her as a powerful woman like Ester Hernandez’s La Virgen de Guadalupe Defendiendo los Derechos de los Xicanos (The Virgin de Guadalupe Defending the Rights of Chicanos). Through these altered and reworked images of La Virgen de Guadalupe, Chicana artists and authors are able to use her altered image to represent their experience as a Chicana. I found that as we talked about La Virgen in class, I started to see more examples of how artists can rework an image or icon to better represent themselves. I also noticed as the chapters continued how other artists and authors are able to do the same thing for other icons, like La Malinche, Mexica Goddess, and La Llorona. 

Presentation: Sandra Eleta

For the presentation I have chosen to research Sandra Eleta, a Panamanian photographer who photographs daily life in Panama, Cuba, and Colombia. Her photographs feature everyday people, like Campesinos (left), servants, indigenous peoples, and rituals. I think I was drawn to Sandra's work because it shows the beauty of everyday life and allowed some of the subjects in her work to be able to choose the way in which they were portrayed by their choice of pose. I also liked the difference in who she photographs, usually only people with a low income. This struck me because the photography that we see everyday on our cell phones and computers are all of wealthy people in the spotlight, and never of the people who grow our food or serve others. I also think its important that she showcases indigenous life and their traditions because she catalogues their rituals and everyday lives, preserving them in history, something that usually is not the case for indigenous people. I am looking forward to finding more photographs and collections and finding out what led Sandra to photograph and publish these works.

Gonzalez, Celeste

Hello everyone! My name is Celeste Gonzalez and my preferred pronouns are she/her. I am a senior majoring in Communication Studies and minoring in Chicana/o Studies. I transferred to UCLA last year as a junior from Santa Rosa Junior College in Sonoma/Napa, where I call home. Since taking my first Chicana/o Studies class last year, I decided to take more classes and further explore this area of study. I found that these classes were helpful in finding a place at UCLA where I felt like I fit in and can be comfortable. Since taking Chicano M136, Censored! Art on Trial, I learned about the power of art and about some Chicanx artists. Through this class I hope so learn more about Chicana and Latina artists, especially because they are unrepresented in the art community. As a Chicana I think having that representation is important so that I can have art that speaks to me and that I can personally understand.

With regards to the readings, I found it interesting that women are systematically excluded from the art world, leaving only white males. The in-class exercise was mind-opening because I noticed that the first artists that come to most peoples minds are men. Although throughout history women have had little access to education and the tools to succeed in art, the female artists who did succeed, even in the 1500s, are not often taught in art history classes. However, since Chicanas are women and minorities, they have harder challenges to break into the art world. In the readings the writer explains that during the Chicano movement only Chicanos were receiving credit for artwork as Chicanas were excluded, although some did break through the barrier. I think that since there are more Chicana artists in the mainstream now, they should be celebrated and taught so that people like myself feel represented and can find sources of art that speaks to them.