Week 10: Quarter Reflection

 I said in my original post for this class that I wasn't an artist myself, but I realize now how art can take different shapes and forms. As a Chicana writer and woman, I can say my writing is art. I really wanted to educate myself on what variety of artists there are as a whole because I could only name one or two. I'm not really familiar with art as a subject so I enjoyed learning about the different forms of art like digital, printmaking, graffiti, etc. and how they connected their work to the culture. I really enjoyed Carmen Lomas Garza's work that displayed typical Mexican family gatherings and traditions, but I really found myself realizing how much her art and other Chicana art take the form of cultural resistance. I wrote about it frequently in my essays, but I applaud how many Chicana women are working in an industry that excludes them and their cultural narratives. As a Chicana woman, I find it difficult to see accurate portrayals of my identity which is another reason I took this class. I was curious to know how Chicana women viewed themselves in an artistic format, but I found out so much more. I was shocked to hear about the own gender discrimination in the Chicano movement. I had no idea that Chicana artists contributed so much to the community and incited great conversation in the art world. 

We read a "Graffiti as Art" essay which really changed my mindset about what art is and looks like. I usually think of Western art like an oil painting or the Mona Lisa. I've always admired graffiti as a form of expression, but I was glad to learn it was artistic. I enjoyed my peer's presentation on Sand One, a Chiana graffiti artist. I didn't know how male-dominated the art industry was and even how that translated to street/public art. I think it's appalling how women don't get as much credit or respect as their male counterparts. I appreciate this class for teaching me more about Chicana art and putting these women at the forefront. I wouldn't have known about them otherwise, and Chicana narratives are important ones to be heard. 

Week 9: Chicana Futurism

 Religious figures are being revisioned by Chicanx artists which makes it a form of rasquache, but the technology and digital aspect transforms their work to what Catherine S. Ramirez calls "chicanafuturism". Ramirez's chapter explores the role that religious figures play with Catholicism and in the Chicana art community. She is particularly concerned with art by Marion C. Martinez and examines the histories of mixed medium art that includes "wood carvings, textiles, baskets, and metalwork" which contains a negative connotation of being "primitive" and "backward" (149). This aspect of critcism makes art movements seen as a linear process. It begs the question that if only modern art is deemed progressive because it is Western despite the culturally rich background and feelings of rasquachismo that Chicana artists use in their work. Ramirez even says, "Hispanos--especially poor, rural, Catholic Hispanos--have been barred from the present and future and fixed in a racialized past" (150). It enforces the hegemonic idea that Mexican people are inferior. We're racialized "others" because we're excluded from what Western culture and science deems imporant and mainstream. This also makes us a tourist attraction because like zoo animals our homes, cultural values, and art is put on display for profit. It only enhances that we are not a part of the community. Ramirez talks about New Mexico being guilty of making Mexicans and their historical past a commodity to showcase this sentiment.

Marion C. Martinez's Cyber Arte uses computer and machine parts. It is the only one in the exhibit used with physical computer parts rather than utilizing the digital. Ramirez emphasizes, "Martinez's work points directly to New Mexico's history as a dumping ground for high-tech trash" (153). Martinez envokes the theme of change showing how even folk art, "a thing of the past", has transformed. Her thoughts and expression are different, but they coin and include Mexicans in the present and future. It includes Chicanos in science, technology, and reason. We are not a thing of the past.

Week 8: Chicano Art

"Chicano Art: Looking Backward" by Shifra M. Goldman critically analyzes and critiques "looking back" at Chicano art as a thing of the past. More importantly, she reviews two art exhibitions and how they contribute to misrepresenting Chicano art. Goldman states, "Chicano art is barely entering the establishment art structure composed of galleries, private collections, museums, critics, and periodicals" (436). She says that Chicano art has not been accepted by the "mainstream" for decades and is manipulated by the market to be profitable by museums and collectors. Thus Chicano art seems as if it has emerged from the Chicano movement itself rather than as an artistic expression. She evaluates that the "retrospective" prospective is harmful because it shows on older generations of artists rather than the change the movement has caused. 

She takes a lens and spotlights Califas which was organized by an art professor from UC Santa Cruz. He had an array of Chicana and Chicano artists including Carmen Lomas Garza, Judy Baca, Roberto Chavez, and more, exhibit one to three of their works. She says their choice of media reflects their community, but involvement in art organizations shows how they create a sense of their own cultural structure (437).  Goldman states that Califas fails to highlight this within its exhibition as it's cramped and doesn't showcase that history. To put it simply, the gallery layout failed to showcase the art in the way it was intended. I'm not an artist myself, so spatial location isn't something I particularly pay attention to, but it's fascinating to hear Goldman's perspective of it. 

Judithe Hernandez (artist in Murals of Aztlan) in front of one of her murals.

She also critiques Murals of Aztlan, saying it is "artificially construct" (436). She is more critical of how the museum presents it--not the artists themselves. She notes that their murals were sold and made marketable which defeats the purpose of street art. It invalidates the meaning of mural since they're disembodied from the wall and transferred to canvas. She also notes how it was called "folk art" which isn't accurate at all. It just tokenizes the artwork and artists creating it. It is dehumanizing and disappointing to hear how museums and other art institutions pick up Chicano work but whitewash it with their displays and language. For a Chicano artist, I think it would be an honor to have their artwork finally displayed publically, but for the exhibition to misrepresent them and their art--it has to be like a  punch in the gut.

Week 7 - Public Art

I was compelled to write about Judith Baca's chapter on public art "Whose Monument Where?" in the Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology. Judith writes about how public art transformed from the trope of making light of the past and "splendid triumphs" of American history. Baca tells us how public art was used to soothe anxieties around war--painting it without its graphic truth and being bloodless. I think that sort of public artworks as propaganda to contribute to the hegemonic narrative that America as a country can do no wrong. It paints white America as a war hero instead of showing us the true and accurate account of what has happened. 

Baca also talks about the destruction of public places. The urban skyscrapers, malls, and corporate offices take over the public. She used street vendors and how they are criminalized, driven off the street, and seen as loitering as an example. Thankfully now street vendors in LA can operate legally. Still, city developers get control over what public art is displayed on their property. A lot of money can go into a mural project, but often times the art displays a false picture of unity and inclusion. It just depicted people of color as a thing of the past using "relics" such as Aztec goddesses, Native peoples eagles, and Nigerian headpieces (305). 

Tropical America by David Alfaro Siquieros

As for Chicano murals, Baca says, "Chicano murals have provided the leadership and the form for other communities to assert their presence and articulate their issues" (308). She spoke on the impact of the mural on Olvera Street. I've read a journal that Olvera Street was originally proposed by Christine Sterling who was white and wanted to romanticize LA's Spanish past. It made me shocked to see how the Chicano community was limited to expressing their culture in this space. Often times they were made to wear costumes. It was almost as if they were put on display like Main Street on Disneyland. David Alfaro Siquieros painted "Tropical America" on Olvera Street, but it was criticized and whitewashed because it was seen as "communist". It's being restored, but it's frustrating to see Latino public art silenced.  The murals work to influence the community itself and contribute to the youth using graffiti to express as "resisting the privatized public space" (308). I think it's important to have this public expression, but developers need to work with actual Chicano and BIPOC artists. Even so, I think graffiti is a form of public art that should be decriminalized. 

Rasquachismo - Week 6

 Rasquachismo is making do with what you have. It's essentially a Chicano's do-it-yourself project. It was defined as coming from the perspective of the underdog. It's an aesthetic that working-class Chicanos have as they take normal everyday items and transform them to be of use, art, or for other purposes. Nothing goes to waste or things that were thrown away before become reused. It's a form of recycling. A thing around my household that represents rasquachismo is the reusing of tupperware. You can find sewing pins, needles, and thread in old sugar cookie tins. 

Image courtesy of Reddit

I grew up in a working-class household. Often times I wore my sister's hand-me-downs, and my mom was gifted clothes for me and my siblings from other family members with kids. I would happily wear this clothing and sometimes would cut it up, sew patches on it, or even style it differently than usual. I was big on fashion when I was a kid so I made do by making my colors match, putting ribbons in my hair, and picking the best shoes. It was almost as if I were my own canvas of rasquache. 

Another form of rasquache that was more traditionally artistic was arts and crafts. I'd paint over old picture frames and give them a different color. I once painted the merging of the American and Mexican flag to represent my Chicana heritage melding and blending into one another. Inside of it, I framed a poem I wrote and cut out a previous picture of me that was printed as a child. It was for my Chicanx 10A course where we had to be creative with our projects, but make do with what we had already lying around the house. At the time, I didn't know what rasquachismo was, but I realize this project asked us to do exactly that.

Week 5: La Virgen

My first experience with la Virgen de Guadalupe was when I was a little girl. I used to go to Mexico every summer to visit my grandparents who were Catholic. There was one summer in particular where I had spent the entirety of my summer vacation there, and I remember being so sad that I had to leave my grandma. My mom came to pick me and my siblings up to drive all the way to Guadalajara which was three hours away from our hometown in Nayarit. My grandma wanted to give me a figurine of La Virgen de Guadalupe like the one pictured below. She told me I had to ask my mom if I could take it with me. 

I don't remember being particularly religious then, but my mom was converging to Christianity at the time. She told me I couldn't take the figure because it was wrong. I started crying because I didn't understand. To me, the figure was just a loving gift my grandmother was giving me so I could remember her and my summer of memories. I didn't know the religious connotations behind it. My mom told me it was an icon, and God didn't want us to worship figures. After that, I grew up Christian and following that ideology. I thought la Virgen and Virgin Mary was the same all the way until I went to my community college where I took a Spanish 1 course. My Spanish 1 teacher taught us the history behind la Virgen and how she came as an apparition to Juan Diego. I even learned about the pilgrimage made to her. My grandma (on my mom's side) lives with us now. She is Catholic and has taped an image of la Virgen de Guadalupe against our window. I appreciate what she symbolizes to Catholic followers and those in the Chicanx community, but I'm sad to say I do not relate or see myself in her at all. 

¡Printing the Revolution! Exhibition Preview Post

 The ¡Printing the Revolution! Exhibition showcases Chicanx graphics from Chicanx artists across the U.S. The exhibited art is made up of a wide range of techniques like lithography, interactive conceptual projects, and installation art. It is thematically organized into few groups. The first group is called "Urgent Images". This group includes artistic activism like Barbara Carrasco's Pesticides originally showcased in New York Times Square and Oree Original's portraits of victims of police brutality and gun violence that are shared online for protesters to use. The second group called New Chicano World showcases a cultural reclamation of indigeneity which showcases works by artists like Ester Hernandez.

• Ester Hernandez, La Ofrenda, from the National Chicano Screenprint Taller, 1988-1989, 1988, screenprint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Wight Art Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles, 1991.65.3, © 1988, Self-Help Graphics & Art, Inc.

     The following group is Reimagining Global National which visualizes American histories from the perspective of the person of color. It includes artwork that presents figures who have fought against colonialism and cultural figures like la Virgen de Guadalupe. The last group is Public Interventions Digital Innovations which is how the change of graphics on the internet was added to the work of these POC artists. It makes the exhibit multi-generational and one that spans across time. 

    Ester Hernandez is a Chicana artist featured in this exhibit. She was interviewed by the organizers and she said Mujeres gave form to her life. She found self-expression in the arts and how it could act as a tool for social change. She spoke to other Chicana artists like Dolores Huerta and discussed how the mainstream media portrayed Chicanas as people to fear or pity. Hernandez combats this narrative with her artwork as she joined the Chicana feminist movement and was able to publish her work transforming la Virgen de Guadalupe pictured above. She faced controversy and censorship for the first time but was assertive in being proud of her culture. Furthermore, she spoke of the homophobia within and outside of the Chicanx community. Her and other LGBTQ+ work were being censored because it was grappling with sexuality. She still asserted that "We're all the face of the moviemiento." 

    In response to questions, Hernandez spoke about the changes in Chicanx graphics due to technological advances. She acknowledged how social media spread art to new audiences and how at times it could be an overload of information, but it is an additional tool. She called herself "old school and hands on". She also thanked younger artists and organizations that participated in strikes, celebrations of Dia de los Muertos, and creating informational graphics about the pandemic. She expressed that she was unable to do so because of her age, but it made her hopeful for the future. 

    

  

Adriana Yadira Gallego (Painting)

Adriana Yadira Gallego (1974-present) is a painter known for her visual artwork called Frontera. Her work showcases her upbringing in a border town and social issues like feminism and civil rights. 

Background: She was born in Nogales, Sonora but grew up in Arizona. Her father Carlos was a U.S. citizen and firefighter who she said would tell her stories about recovering fingers from the fence of the border. She is bilingual and went to the University of Arizona with the intention to pursue a law degree, but quickly realized she wanted to do art instead. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1997. She also went through a New York Arts program and studied in Guanajuato. She was the Chief Operating Officer of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures and serves on the national board of directors for Grantmakers of the Arts. She was an art educator and has extensive panel and committee service. She currently resides in Arizona and is an executive director at Arts Foundation for Tuscon and Southern Arizona.  

 

Artwork: Her artwork was exhibited in the Tuscon Museum of Art in 2006 and has been in multiple museums like the National Museum of Mexican Art, Museo de Arte e Historia, and more. She collaborated with artist Claudio Dicochea, a fellow UA alumni, to paint a mural of the Portuguese Holy Ghost Festival in Half Moon Bay, California. They began in June 2003 and unveiled it months later in September. They worked together and lived in Los Angeles for some time, sharing an art studio. They also share a website where you can view Gallego's work with oil painting on canvas. Her work falls under three categories: Resistance, Divine Impulse, and Frontera. Each category has a series of paintings that pertain to the main message. Her most famous series is Frontera as she had it displayed in the Tuscon Museum of Art and in an exhibit called "Mujeres, Mujeres, Mujeres" at Raices Taller 222 Art Gallery and Workshop which she was a founder of.

References: 

1. ^  https://tucson.com/news/local/exhibit-of-womens-art-opens/article_e4413a31-ac5e-550c-ac30-09e4ea49a2b7.html
2. ^ https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/art-from-the-border/Content
^ https://issuu.com/latinopm/docs/august2011/21
^ https://wc.arizona.edu/papers/98/23/04_3.html
https://artsfoundtucson.org/meet-our-new-executive-director/

Q&A for Claudia Zapata

 Q: In what ways is social media activism helpful? What can be said when people deem social media activism as performative and ingenuine?

  A: Zapata's essay exemplifies the power of social media in the section Web 2.0. We all know and love Twitter and Youtube that make a collaborative space. These websites allow us to comment, contribute, and create conversations between thousands of users. The trending page on Twitter keeps up with everyday social media trends and even on mass movements with hashtags like BLM and ACAB. I've found myself finding out national news through there as well. Lately, it's become a space where politics are the main topic. It reflects the general views of the everyday people and creates a space for "artivism" as Fabianna Rodriguez coins herself as an artivist. I've noticed people share BLM petitions, share digital art infographics on social issues on Instagram, and make threads of "ways to help" such as places to donate to or which state representatives to call/write. A lot of users have called this social activism as fake or "performative". Users have also been criticized for not posting at all about these issues. The main concern is surrounding if sharing information about this social/political topic actually help? Although it would be hard to discern a social media user's true feelings and genuine concern for movements like BLM and politics, it would be dismissive to say social media activism doesn't help at all. It creates conversation and brings mass media attention to concerns that need to be addressed. Chicano artists like Lalo Acaraz spread awareness through their art and acts of sharing through social media. With the BLM movement, Oree Original's photographs circulated through Twitter which contributed to sharing the story of Travyon Martin and other victims of police brutality. Without the spreading of artivism and social media activism, I would not be informed on a lot of detrimental social topics that matter today. I think it is harmful to dismiss the power of artivism and social media. Even if someone's intentions are just to "look good", they are spreading information to other users that matter.

Lalo Alcaraz cartoon after pro-Trump and anti-maskers protest in Huntington Beach, CA

Lalo Alcaraz & Andrew McMeel Syndication Copyright 2020

Barrera, Yvette

 Hello everyone.

My name is Yvette Aida Barrera and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I preferred to be called Yvette, but friends have called me by my middle name as well. I'll respond to either! I'm currently a fourth-year (second-year transfer from Orange Coast College) attending UCLA. I'm from Orange County and currently live here due to remote learning. I'm an English major and just declared my minor in the CCAS department this past quarter. I'm really excited to begin taking upper-division Chicanx classes and learn more about my people's histories and culture. I haven't considered research in any field of study, but I am open to exploring more within the realm of Chicanx literature, artists, and authors. I enjoy writing myself and published a short Chicanx story in the Orange Coast Review literary journal. 

My other hobbies include baking, music, and playing videogames. I'm not an artist myself and I think the most I can draw is stick figures, but I have a great appreciation for the different ways art can manifest itself. Whether it be through line-art, graphic design, print, photography, or paint, I can't help but be intrigued. I'm really fascinated by media as a whole itself and how representation should be in all mediums--not only in television or film. Ramos essay's touches on this topic of Chicanx graphic art's lack of acknowledgment in art museums. As a Chicanx person, it's been hard to not know my people's history or see representations of myself in establishments like museums and schools. I can name a few famous artists, but none are artists of color or Chicanx. Therefore I am grateful for being to take classes like this one to contextualize the culture that I used to feel stranger to by being in a country where the white narrative is the predominant one. I look forward to getting to learn more about this class and my peers within it. Here's to a great quarter!