Week 10 Reflection

 My intentions of taking this was course was to expand my knowledge on art because I have not taken an art class yet. I did not expect to learn this much and to be inspired by the artists that were introduced to me. At the start of this class, I was not familiar with many Chicanx female artists. As we tried to fill out an empty page with all artists that we knew I was ashamed that I could not name female artist that were Chicanx because that is part of my identity. This class has exposed me to so many wonderful artists from sculptors, to printmaking and to painters. My artist, Brenda Barrios, that was introduced to me by a peer in this class had a great impact on the way I viewed art. One of her pieces holds a special place within me because I was able to relate to the piece. One form of art that we touched upon that I did have some background knowledge was rasquachismo. This form of art is seen throughout our daily life as it is also a method of survival. 

The second thing that struck to me in this class was the amount of support our professor Alma Lopez gives to fellow artist alike. All the books and articles we read and discussed were her fellow’s peers and Chicanx female artists. This exposure she gives to other artist is important because, as we learned, there are so many barriers’ women and Chicanx people have to overcome. From things to gender norms, to financial reason and trying to exist in world where the critiques mainly come from the white male. To go onto a further step, Alma Lopez encouraged us to look for an artist and create a Wikipedia page for her that in the long run can help with their careers. 

New Wikipedia Artist; Brenda Barrios

 Brenda Barrios also known as BB (1998–present) was born and raised in Pasadena, California, USA, and is a first- generation Mexican American. After graduating from Pasadena High School in Pasadena she then began to attend Pasadena Community College. Later she transferred to the University of Los Angeles in the school of the Arts and Architecture department. As a third-year art transfer students she adds messages pertaining to current events. 

Brenda Barrios is a filmmaker, muralist, painting, performer, photographer, and murals. She is known for works focusing on justice movement such as work conditions Mexican Americans face and Black Lives Matters. She shows the importance of expressing social justice through art by showing the impacts her work creates. She has always been fascinated by art, but she took a dive into the art world when she was diagnosed with her disability. Three of her most notable works include Mom Working, Protect Farmworkers and Hospital Feet. The first piece Mom Working was displayed in various location around the world such as New York and London. This piece perfectly displays what it is like to work without medical insurance. The second piece Protect Farmworkers, raises the attention to the farmworkers that had to work when the fires were happening in L.A. These workers have no other choice but to work if they want to afford their groceries and rent, so they had to settle working without hazardous pay. This print was sold, and fifty percent of the proceeds went back to them by the Farmworker Project. Lastly, her third notable piece is Hospital Feet that was a sculpture of feet around five feet tall and with vibrant colors. This piece was inspired by the time she was hospitalized and was left with swollen feet. 

Another piece that she recently created that spoke out to me was a print filled with vibrant colors that represent a bright future as the event pictured was the first Latina supreme court justice swearing in the first black south Asian women vice president. Brenda Barrios shows her political stance in most of her recent print making pieces because she expresses that putting political messages into art is a way to help fight the injustices happening and help our generation go into a better future 

Week 9 Deus Ex Machina

     This article highlights that there can be no easy "return" or recovery" from our ancestral pact even if we try to reproduce the traditions and carry them on or by using new technologies where our identity is present. A form of art is Cyber Art where it is simultaneously mixing both tradition and technology. This form of art mixes the old with the new. In the art exhibition, of Tradition Meets Technology, Cyber Art, in the Changing Gallery of the museum’s Hispanic Heritage Wing consisted of four artists: Teresa Archuleta- Sagel, Elena Baca, Alma Lopez, and Marion C. Martinez. 

    To define Chicanafuturism is a cultural production that attends to the transformation of a culture because of the new and adapting technologies. These new everyday technologies allow for alternative or new narratives of the future, identity and redefine the human. Ramirez states that Chicanafuturism, “offers an ontological and epistemological alternative to that of the Englighment (or rational) subject” (158). Martinez works dips in the chicanafutruism form of narratives where the art works concerns the present and the future by mixing in new technologies. His not only includes the present and the future, but also science into the narratives of Hispanas. By strategically making art by integrating these aspects Martinez is challenging sexist, racist and classist stereotypes. He challenges the acceptance of not permitting space for Hispanas in the domain of science and technology. Martinez’s art powerfully demonstrates the need of change as it relates to technology and science because it can really help people for the better. 

Week 8 Border Arte

 The writer of this article Border Arte is a Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory American Scholar. Her name is Gloria E. Anzaldua who focuses on the anger and isolation of occupying the margins of culture identities. In this article, she entails on her experience of the Denver Museum of Natural History that exhibits the Aztec capital city called The World of Moctezuma. Attending these museums, she acknowledges that we have been stripped of our history, our culture and language. We will always find ourselves in a never-ending loop of trying to find what we lost by going through findings and piecing it all together. Yet again we find ourselves learning through the white man. In k-12 school we learn our history through the history of the western. They have access and bought artifacts to display in a museum which they get to direct what we see and do not see. These museums try to label themselves as a bridge between two people, in this case the bridge between the U.S and Mexico. These museums forget to acknowledge the ten- thousand Aztec survivors still living in Mexico, so we learn as if this culture is dead. Anzaldua continues her article to talk about an artist named Santa Barraza who focuses on the reclamation of cultural and historical identity of the mestiza/o. This artist mixes historical figures into modern work of resistance to oppression. In the artwork Nepantla by Santa Barraza we see the iconic depiction of la Virgen de Guadalupe on the back of a brown skinned lady’s shirt with a modern twist of patterns. The lady’s clothing is filled with symbolic patterns from her skirts, to even her hair piece. The background is filled with cactus plants and vast land that seems to be a place for agriculture. 

Week 7 Graffiti is Art

Graffiti is a form of art that has been debated for years whether it really is art or is it just vandalism. Today’s exact definition according to Britinnicas’s dictionary of graffiti is, "form of visual communication, usually illegal, involving the unauthorized marking of public space by an individual or group”. This is intriguing because we can see how society works with the division of classes. For people like Chicanx and Latinx who grew up in the lower income cities we see this form of art as a raw expression and identity of the streets. We hold a special tie to graffiti because it is not meant to be in museums where it is the rich white man’s environment. Graffiti makes them uncomfortable because they do not understand our identity and our world. Graffiti is Art, by Charles Bojorquez emphasizes one's voice (identity) is their art. Graffiti is a form of art that allows artist to express their own vision of their world and their identity. Graffiti is writing its own history into art by adding an art form that has no rules relevant to the widely accepted forms of art. This form of art arrived from different times of history from the shoeshine boys, zoo suiters, to gangs. These artists are creating their own spaces where they feel like they belong “by producing their own graffiti magazines, videos, music, and clothing” (121 Bojorquez). By doing so, they are validating themselves in their true identity and world where art institutions cannot accept them. Graffiti will and should never fit into established art institutions until they are ready to accept our part of history and narratives. The most important takeaway is that graffiti is not the modern form of art rather it is the response to our modern society and challenges they face. Forms of graffiti changes as the times go and there is always a new style or purpose for this art. 

Week 6 Rasquachismo

Rasquachismo is very predominate in the Chicanx communities as it becomes into a response of the harsh realities. To being Rasqauchismo is an art form in minimalism that consists of reusing object, such as everyday items like a water gallon, in order to create something new. Rasquachismo has been created into a sense of style and idea because of its popularity. Many people deal with financial problems where they have to adapt to their situations and become resourceful with what they have available. 

            An experience I think most of share from our parents being impact by Raspauchismo is the Dona Maria’s mole sauce where our parents would use the sauce and after save and wash the cup to be used as an everyday cup. Two more experiences that are very common that I see on social media are the tin cans of cookies which are reused for sewing supplies or butter containers being used to store leftover beans.  In my own experiences, my mom has always reused everything from cups to shoe boxes. Every time my siblings and I would bring beverages from a restaurant my mom would wash the cups and reuse them for our everyday cups. She would even do the same for the plastic straws and utensils. I knew I would see these items packed into my lunches the next days or be my mom’s on the go set of Tupperware. On the way to school I would be having a Starbucks cup with a homemade milkshake in it. Not only do I these things happening in my mom’s household but I also see it in my whole family when I go vist them. I did not know what rasquachismo until I began to study Chicanx studies and I was surprised that my whole upbringing was surrounded by this art form. 

La Virgen De Guadalupe

 

    La Virgen De Guadalupe has a great influence and devotion in my family and friends. Growing up I have always been surrounded with her iconic image; whether it was in church, murals, or street art she is always seen where you ever you turn in Los Angeles. A specific memory I had was when I was about 9 years old, my family and I had gone to our city's church on her birthday to go walk to a mural. There my mom had bought me a straw figure of her to hold up as we were walking. That was the very first moment I found joy in participating in going to celebrate my faith. Although, my parents never enforced Catholicism onto my siblings and I, I have always held La Virgen De Guadalupe ever since that day. Going on to recants years, I can see this same devotion my parents have on my friends. They love to buy her flowers and place them on murals or statues of her that they have in their homes. My friends also have necklaces with her images on it and always wear it because of the love they have for her. They also pray to her for their protection one example, is that my Mom and some of my friends always do a little prayer entering the freeway for protection from her. No matter what I will never been able to escape La Virgen De Guadalupe but to me it is a blessing to always witness the love my close ones have for her. 

     Although, I have always been surrounded by her image it stills has always been hard for me to accept religion into my life because of topics I believe in like gay marriage rights, LGBTQ+ rights and abortion rights. This class, more specifically the work of our professor Alma Lopez has allowed me to open those doors again. She allows me to do so by reimagining a feminist Virgen de Guadalupe. In my opinion, religion and icons should be reimagined to fit to how our society is advancing because if we do not open to this change, we will always be stuck in the past. 

Week Four Discussion Post: The Denver Art Museum Presentation Panel

             The Denver Art Museum revealed their exhibition on January 19, 2021 on Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Mexican Modernism. This exhibition was surrounded with the question and topics of; How Mexican Modernism is still relevant today, the layered identities, reclamation and appropriation. In order to discuss these topics, the exhibition held multiple presentations from their creators. The first artist on the panel who presented was Pablo Helguera who’s work focuses on topic ranging from ethnography, pedagogy and memory and the absurd. Helguera is New York based artist who work to portray his messages in sculpture, drawing, and performance. Other forms he displays his work is by lecture, written fiction, and musical performances. 

Pablo Helguera

            The topic of reclamation and appropriation really spoke out to me when Helguera began to discuss his experiences. Helguera’s activist’s art about the Black Lives Matter movement was heavily influenced upon his uncle Leon Helguera. Leon was most known for his poster making of the wars that contained images such as Uncle Sam. When Pablo Helguera wanted to create a piece, he saw that his uncle was promoting silence in the war time. This is significant because his own uncle was spreading the word to be silent and not speak upon the tragedies that occur within soldiers. In response, Pablo took Leon’s most famous piece and switched the meaning in entirety. This artwork went from spreading silence to acknowledging silence is compliance. Pablo did this so he can challenge society to think about the social injustices and racism occurring. This whole process is what reclamation and appropriation is about and I hope this form of redoing art enters k-12 academia to help reverse the impacts of western art. 

    The Denver Art Museum’s panelist rose some important questions and dialogue in which I learned so much from. Pablo Helgura taught me many things within his presentation, and I will take it upon myself to learn more about artist who have the same mission and Pablo. Overall, I really enjoyed hearing every speaker’s presentation and the exhibition. 

Week 3: Wiki Artist

 Carlotta Hernandez contributed to a great mural that resides in the Chicano park when it opened on April 20, 1970. In the mural called "Tierra Mia" she also payed a tribute to Aztlan because she realizes that we always have to pay tribute to who's land we are on. Carlotta was born on April 13, 1937 in San Diego. She was then raised in National City and Logan Heights. For her higher education she chose to study Mexican American studies and continued to her pursue her careers as being bilingual. 

Reference: 

“Hernandez Terry (Carlotta) Collection.” Online Archive of California, oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt5h4nf5j0/. 

Week 2: Q&A for Claudia E. Zapata Reading

In what ways have technological advancements allowed for Chicanx artists to cultivate their audiences? 

    Technology such as our smartphones have created a negative impact onto our lives as we lose a vast amount of human interaction. Even throughout daily scenes such as going to a dinner with a friend or family we can see people attached their smartphones. This has impacted art because the value of going to museums have lost a big chunk of their value with the newer generations. Newer generations see everything on their phones and can even access what they want with one click. Digital art and broadcasting traditional art onto media has become an adaption that needed to happen in order to keep up with this isolation problem. Furthermore, digital media is more important now due to the pandemic of Covid- 19 we are currently going through. 

Hide and Seek by Kamil Kotarba

    The article, The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now by Claudia E. Zapata embraces the movement for artist to shift their form of art into media. Claudia E. Zapata brings forth an intriguing discussion about Chicanx artist shifting to digital media in order to continue the cultivating of their audiences. As generations pass, we see the ongoing passing of old trends and norms and the uprising of the next new trends and norms and as this cycle goes on everyone has to adapt to them. Digital media has inspired Chicanx artist to experiment with new forms of art using technology. Not only are they able to create unique pieces that can express exactly what their imaginations holds, but they are able to share it with a grand audience. Through the use of media, they are able to access new platforms and raise more conversations through their art. Further technological advancements have allowed for more interactions where it can serve as a tool for artist to create a conversation for their art and can nurture a relationship between the artist and the audience. The accessibility of art as has allowed for Chicanx artist to cultivate their audiences. 

Extra Credit Art of the State Symposium

 In the Art of the State symposium hosted by the Monterey Museum of Art, the artist that spoke that I was really intrigued with his message was Juan Felipe Herrera. Juan is a poet, a performer, a writer, a teacher, and an activist. He was born in Flower, California and as a son of migrant farmers. He believes that our unique history that whiteness tries to tell needs to be in art, poetry, and media and he calls this information flow. The information flow would contain gender spectrum identity and Chicano power because we need to embrace and retell our identity because there is a lot of whiteness. As this relates to Covid, there is still a lot of whiteness and in times like these we go through challenge a white person cannot convey so we must do it for ourselves. This is important because as this would go into a textbook written by a white man, we need to make it clear that our experiences are unique and cannot be told by another. Our people have struggled with jobs, day care and our migrant workers were forced to work a few miles away from huge forest fires while the whites were told to evacuate.  Juan creates a call to action within his lecture to expand as artist, thinkers and intellectuals. He does this because he believes that we need to be taking more space so we can tell our own narratives and create our own information flows. One unique topic he covered was that we need to connect to inner selves to identify with the Earth and the climate such as the forest fires and the ice caps melting. He does this so we can take action and help solve for climate change because it is our own responsibility to do so as we consume what the Earth has given us. 

Estrada Regina

Hi Everyone!

My name is Regina Estrada. Something interesting is that my name Regina has been traditionally passed down for a long time. My pronouns are (she/her/hers). I was born and raised in Los Angeles. Being raised here has definitely shaped who I am and what my interests are. First, I am grateful to be able to live in a culturally diverse area because it is a form education we cannot obtain from academia. This has exposed me to experience and know the injustices that occur to minorities, like myself, therefore I have chosen my major to be political science and a minor in Chicana and Chicano studies. I am a second-year student who now more than ever realizes my participation in academia is vital in shaping future narratives. My choice of taking this class arose from my lack of knowledge of art when it came to Chicanas. I think art is very powerful that sometimes words can never portray so I look forward to being exposed to powerful creations. I identify as a Chicana so my interest in learning about the history, the political perspective and the cultural perspectives. In recent classes I have learned that it is important to keep learning in order to take space in academic narratives and dialogue. My goal of taking this class is talk away being knowledgeable in how art makes an impact in history and learning through the lens of art instead of words. 

I enjoy watching a lot of shows and movies in different genres, but my favorite is comedy because who doesn’t love a good laugh? I enjoy always trying new things for example, just tried snowboarding and kept falling every 3 seconds but it was so exciting and fun! 

In this week’s reading, “Printing and Collecting the Revolution, The Rise and Impact of Chicanos Graphics, !965 to Now” by E. Carmen Ramos, makes the argument that art can create a tool or “weapon” for a revolution. Art described by Ramos can break the past and be a

tool for political and societal progress. Ramos uses Malaquias Montoya’s prints as her prime example of how it broke down barriers and allowed for Chicanos to reclaim the word. Art is another form of information that does not need words to express a powerful message. As we see in Montoya’s print, shackles being broken to show how the past is being tested and rejected. It gives Chicanas and Chicanos a deep sense of pride where it makes us steer away from being embarrassed to be labeled as “Chicana/o”.  Diving into being a Chicana, art has allowed for them to exclusively show their experiences. This helps Chicanas because it gives them a voice that is unique and separate from the Chicano narratives and experiences.