2020CotomJohanna Week 8 blog

I learned about a lot of different artists that make such amazing work. One that stood out to me was Liliana Navarro, presented by Adilen Ochoa. Liliana Navarro art is a representation of Chicano Culture and female empowerment. She typically focuses on portraits, which she uses people she knows, that come off very strong, very powerful, and very brown in a celebratory way. The first image Ochoa presented was the “Brown Warrior”, which is a portrait of herself with a beret, tribal markings, feather earrings, showing strength, & power. She is representing her ingenious past. Particularly her focus is to show that she is “unapologetic, and unafraid to be who she is in her brown skin. The second portrait is of el Cuco, the Chicano singer. Who to many is a representation of the Latino community, as his music switches between Spanish & English (or Spanglish). Cuco’s head is sort of floating in the sky, with clouds, the sun and moon. Ochoa saw his head in the sky as a powerful message to his representation of Chicano in a different artistic way, through music. The third portrait is “Amor Eterno”. Juan Gabriel is depicted by gold rays like the Virgen de Guadalupe and is surrounded by roses. Which shows the beauty and how powerful he was to the Latino community. Ochoa related to how her mom loved him, and I can relate as well. My mom was a huge fan, as are the majority of people I know. Liliana Navarro is an artist who expresses how she defines our brownness, and hopes others see it that way too. 

Camille Rose Garcia 2020CotomJohanna

Camille Rose Garcia is the artist I choose to present on. There was some confusion on the artist I had first decided on. Professor Lopez, in class, told me to update the discussion blog with my new artist. Thank you.

202CotomJohanna Week7

Natalia Anciso is a fifth generation Tejana who grew up in El Rio Grande Valley, and is known for her visual arts and installation arts. As an artist and educator, her works revolves around family, community, and the border culture: where poverty, human trafficking, and the Mexican Drug war was very popular. She began gaining interest in vernacular arts, a genre of art made by untrained artists, or those who didn’t consider themselves an artist. In particular, she began researching pano arte, which are “drawings on handkerchiefs, believed to have emerged from Chicano prisoners in the 1940’s” (Website). She decides to merge pano arte with huipil, “embroidered Mayan textiles worn by indigenous women in Southern and Central America” (Website). Her mash of different genres of art, reconstructs to tell the contemporary stories of life along the Texas/Mexico border. After earning her Master of Fine Arts, California College of the Arts, and her M.A. in Education at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Education; her work shifted towards issues of Education, human rights, class and race, as she was an educator in San Francisco Oakland, and throughout the East Bay. Natalia Anciso’s art revolves around identity, struggles, and lived experiences, and as a tribute to her home from the South Texas borderlands to the Bay Area. The images I choose relate to different issues, but ultimately share the meaning of exposure and in hopes to create dialogue, and solutions. The first image is from the Don’t Shoot Series, which is a reflection of the school system and societal structures that have set urban youth of color, young black & Latino males to fail. This art was in response to the killings of unarmed black males. But it made me realize that this same issue affecting our school system are also what's happening along the border. The same issues stride across our homes. The second piece, is from The Families Belong Together Series, that reflects the rise in separation of families at the border. The last image I chose, was from the Maternidad Series, that relates to before and after childbirth. The piece “sobrevivir” represents parenthood. Particularly, how many women come to the U.S. in hopes for a better life for their family. Many end up working in the crop fields, for long hours under the sun. Their children are the motivation that make them surpass all struggles. They do what's necessary to make sure their children are well. Natalia Anciso hopes for people to inquire about these critical issues, but also to bring light (make changes) unto these horrid issues. 

2020CotomJohanna Week6 Blog

The cover of my module will include a pair of boxing gloves clashing together as a fist bump. The gloves represent my struggle and the hustle to overcome anything that is thrown in my path. Growing up in South Central, we thought there were only two ways out of the hood, and that was to go to college or be the best athlete. Growing up in the hood, I can tell you about many experiences that are unimaginable to many. But, those experiences are part of my journey that have taught me much of who I am today. The gloves are a symbol of my growth, and how I react to things in my life. Every time the gloves clash, that means I’m ready to take on anything. About a year ago, I was dismissed from UCLA, and I could not believe that I had let that go so far. My only job, and I had failed. The gloves remind me of that moment when I was ready to give up, but I had some faith that my UCLA career was not over. The gloves clashing is a reminder of what I am capable of, physically and mentally. I am now a senior who will be graduating this spring, with the help of many, but most importantly myself, for not giving up on one of the best opportunity. 

2020CotomJohanna: Week5

Carmen Lomas Garza’s Loteria-Primera Tabla celebrates the everyday activities and traditions of her family and her South Texas Latino community. Just like her painting of “la Loteria-Primera Tabla. I remember growing up, all my family used to get together outside and play loteria for 25 cents. No matter how old you were, as soon as you saw the white fold up table, and heard my tio yelling loteria, you knew to grab your change and be ready to gamble. That was part of our routine every weekend, it was part of how we would come together to celebrate our culture and our family. Similar to Garza, growing up in South Central, many didn't fully understand our culture. I remember one day in middle school we had some sort of “game day” and I brought loteria, and classmates were comparing it to bingo. Garza’s own creation of la loteria, is her way of creating art that would be understood by people of all ages and a way to educate others. And me bringing it to school that day is also a way of representing part of our artistic culture, and allow others to learn from us.

2020CotomJohanna: Week 3

Figure 38. Mexican Chair, 1986. Explores the presentation of Raza women as we see ourselves. In American culture we notice the “lack of positive visual representation of Latin America as normal, intelligent human beings”. Her intention with this art piece was to consciously work against these traditional commercial stereotypes. Her use of acrylic paint, toothpicks, and wood on the kitchen chair, is a form of “rasquachismo”, as she found use for non perceived valuable items to make due what's at hand (hizo render las cosas). Her inventive art, is a combination of resistance and resilience attitudes to allow chicano survival and a sense of dignity. 

2020CotomJohanna: Week 2

The Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation (CARA) Exhibition permitted Chicanos and Chicanas to tell their stories through their artwork. Finally Chicano/a artists exposing the true meaning of what it is to be a Chicano and the struggles of the Chicano Movement. Although they finally had received a platform to showcase various issues, they lacked to represent women’s viewpoints. The exclusion of Chicana artist participation, showcases the sexual politics within the Chicano Movement. And it goes way back to the power dynamic among the Chicano/a community. Old popular belief, involved women being subordinates to men, as they were outranked by the powerful, knowledgeable ones. Chicanas have been discriminated against, from the greater community, and amongst their own. The Chicano artist that would attempt to incorporate Chicana’s viewpoints, usually symbolized them as Virgins. Chicanas were a representation of motherhood, by machistas who thought that was the only thing women can achieve. As a Mexicana myself, I still sometimes encounter that machista viewpoint, where they believe women are only good for marriage. Like Gaspar de Alba mentions, women were sent to higher education to find an educated husband, not to create art that fights against these injustices. Men attacked those that were creating art of such nature, they felt it was not a woman's job to be doing such atrocities. 

Question: Going through this class, I noticed Chicana Artist receive a lot of negative backlash, of course from Chicanos. But also from conservative Chicanas. How do you deal with that? Seeing that you would think, other women (Chicanas) would understand where you are coming from.

2020CotomJohanna: Week 1

Hello, my name is Johanna Cotom. I’m majoring in Sociology, minoring in Chicano/a Studies. I will be officially done with UCLA by the end of summer. I’m a commuter from South Central, LA, taking four classes for the first time this quarter. I enrolled into this course at the end of week 2, and I really appreciate the support that has been given to me. One of my friends recommended this class, and I decided to take a shot at it. When I was younger I used to love to draw, nothing serious but it was my hobby. Of course, growing up I stopped completely drawing. It’s nice having the opportunity to start again, and it being part of class. I’m not too familiar with Chicana Art as I would like to, and I was hoping this class could change that. 

2020CotomJohanna Week 4

During the Mexican/Chicano Art Movement, artist take initiative to redefine the term Rasquachismo, which had been negatively used to portray the lower & impoverished class. Art was transforming the “underdog perspective (los de abajo)” into a positive attitude that was rooted in resourcefulness & adaptability. Rasquachismo represents “neither an idea nor a style but more of an attitude or a taste”. Artist favored the elaborate over the simple; bright colors over the dark ones, shimmery and sparkly. Limited sources, meant reusing everything (hacer render las cosas) to achieve desired expressions, just like our “lived reality”. These aesthetic displays project a statement of irreverence, and both defiant & inventive. Their rasquachismo attitudes, show a combination of resistance and resilience for allowing the Chicano working class, to survive and persevere with a sense of dignity. Rasquachismo “rediscovers & reconstructs community empowerment, & artistic/academic agency” for the Chicano community. Domesticana is used in the sense of rasquachismo art, because it reclaims what it means to be a woman in the domestic space. Concerned with the roles as women, artist create altars and capillary to resist majority culture and critics restrictive gender expectations within the Chicano culture, and to reclaim their identity.