Week 10- Reflection

Photo by John Fisch, San Antonio.

    I would first like to say that I am very grateful  that I had a chance to take this class. I really enjoyed this class and believe I have learned a lot about the history of Chicanx/Latinx art and now am familiar with a lot of Chicana and Latina artists. At the beginning of this class, as a collective, we were able to name 72 women artists but only 32 of these artists identified as being Chicana/Latina. By the end of this class we were able to name 64 Chicana/Latina artists. The process in which we did this was not only important but it follows within the history of the Chicanx art movement which supports and includes community engagement, outreach, and also activism. Creating a wiki page and presenting our artists allowed me to learn about a great of deal of artists, who some are creating artwork currently or are just beginning their art journeys, but also through it we engaged in activism by creating space so these artists could be acknowledge and put out there so more people can know about them and learn and see their artwork. The whole class learned of a new artists and some even were able to communicate and meet the artists themselves. 

    The one concept I learned that I especially found interesting was the term rasquachismo and domesticana. Rasquachismo being the term for a mentality, a way of being, or as Tomás Ybarra-Frausto describes, “an attitude or a taste.” This attitude and taste comes from the need and manifestation of resourcefulness, adaptability, and creativity and is found within the Chicanx community, where in America their lived reality is one that forces a person to have these qualities because they are not a part of the dominant culture and power dynamics. Domesticana is as much defiant and resourceful as rasquachismo, but this entails women specifically claiming space within environments they have been bounded to and rejecting constricting gender identities and roles within patriarchal Western and Chicano cultures, which happens to be domestic spaces. I learned many things from this class but this is one of the concepts that changed the way I view the world. I have seen this decorative style that I now can name as being rasquachismo and domesticana and I now understand the cultural significance and purpose it serves the people who practice this and live with this mentality. 

Week 9- Chicanafuturism

Oratorio a la Virgencita, 2000 Mixed Media 

    Catherine S. Ramírez explores in her article “Deus Ex Machina: Traditions, Technology, and the Chicanafuturist Art of Marion C. Martinez,” explores ideas of Chicanafuturism that is displayed particularly in the art of Marion C. Martinez. Ramírez defines Chicanafuturism as a “Chicano cultural production that attends to cultural transformations resulting from the new and everyday technologies (including their detritus); that excavates, creates, and alters narratives of identity, technology, and the future; that interrogates the promises of science and technology; and that redefines humanism and the human.” She also states that Chicanafuturism directly relates to and features colonial and postcolonial histories and links this past with the present. An example of this is seen in  New Mexico’s Indo-Hispanic tradition of santo productions being created with contemporary technology. The artist Marion C. Martinez does this as some of her artwork, she uses links of the past and makes them out of new and everyday used technology bits. Ramírez states that what this Phenomenon does is link the past, present, and future identities because to reference the past in art, is to experience it in the present, and for it to be transformed by the mediums and artist of the present. 

    I really enjoyed learning about Marion C. Martinez because her artwork is beautiful. As a person who is fond of Afrofuturism and futurism in general, the mixture of the traditional and the spiritual with technology and new materials is very interesting and pleasing to look at, while also bringing up lots of dialogue because the use of symbols. With Oratorio a la Virgencita, Mendez incorporates computer parts and metal as the medium for the depiction of la Virgen de Guadalupe in an oratorio, which sets it apart of the traditional santo tradition in New Mexico. Mendez describes this piece as being “ emblematic of social and cultural transformations and is located at the interface of the Old and New Worlds.”

Week 8- "Chicano art: Looking Backward "

 Shifra M. Goldman in her article, “Chicano Art: Looking Backward,” confronts hard questions about the future of Chicanx art work and asks the question “should Chicano artists, at the cost of economic security and possible artistic recognition, continue to express themselves artistically around the same matrix of social change and community service that brought the movement into existence” (436)? She makes the point, through the examination of two contemporary art exhibitions whose themes are on Chicano art, that Chicanx art does not and can not exist within the commercial/Western art world because its very nature, meaning, and purpose is in opposition to it. The showing of mural artwork in exhibitions and making them prints decontextualized the art work and ultimately strips the meaning and purpose away by its removal of its location and environment. The history of Chicanx art work in activism is also another factor that Goldman comments on. Should artwork done always have to have subject matter that pertains to activism, especially when the professional art scene expects only this from Chicanx artists. It can be exclusionary within the own culture and art movement as well as has become a stereotype of what is expected of certain artists. Ultimately, I don’t have an answer to the question. It is a hard question to grapple with and ultimately an unfair one because white artists do not have to do so much grappling about the purpose of their artwork and there are no pressures to fit in a certain mold, they are also not expected to always make political commentary. We also do not look a white artwork in such a way. I don’t agree with everything Goldman has argued but I believe it should be up to artists themselves what they want to create and that unfortunately communities still have and need to put the physical work in fighting against institutions that can be exclusionary, so that Chicanx artists have more room to create whatever they like within in the art scene. Instead of asking Chicanx artists where the art should go based on its past we should be asking major museums why there haven't been more Chicanx and Latinx artists being featured and why they look at them through such a narrow lens.

Mosaic mural by Mario Torero celebrating Chicano history and legacy. Located at UCSD.

Week 7- "Graffiti is Art"

 

Graffiti mural in Fresno, California 

“What is real graffiti? Is it tagging, bombing, piecing, productions, painting freights, black books, canvas, L.A. Cholo, or New York Wild style real graffiti? To me, it’s all graffiti. I believe that any drawn line that speaks about identity, dignity, and unity…that line is talking about graffiti and art. When you have graffiti in contact with art, it brings graffiti into the spiritual context of true creativity.” This is an excerpt from graffiti artist Charles “Chaz” Bojórquez, in his article “Graffiti is Art” (2000), which discusses graffiti, its history, and the importance of its presence in communities who engage in this form of artwork. Bojórquez discusses that graffiti is a form of language, not only because most graffiti features text, but because it is an identifier and a means in which people proclaim their voice and their presence in the world in which they live. In a world where most graffiti work is seen as vandalism and is punishable with jail time it is also a way for rebellious youth to announce their pride and their presence. In Los Angeles, Mexican Americans have used this form of artwork and their work is a testament to their presence in this location. I found it very interesting that Bojórquez described graffiti art as a form of narrative and that to create graffiti is akin to being a street writer. I found this to be very beautiful and a different perspective on what graffiti art is and what it does. To describe it as a visual narrative is to say that it is a form of conversation or a form of speaking, of making a point. With graffiti, usually being highly visible and in public spaces that usually prohibits this type of activity, it is to force your own presence in areas and public domains that have historically left certain groups from entering or having a voice. This essay has also led me to think about where graffiti is accepted and where it is not in my own hometown. There are areas around my hometown of Fresno, Ca, where graffiti is accepted and actually used as a style of decoration and areas where it not common is looked down on and is seen as vandalism. The areas that use it and accept it are usually more diverse and understand the cultural ties and significance it has. For example, a famous market on the west side of Fresno, Louie Kee, is decorated in graffiti. Specific elements that are important to the area of Fresno are present on the mural, like the high school logo, that is nearby, and a depiction of children with the phrase “Fresno is ours” on their shirts. The graffiti style mural is one that promotes unity and proclaims the identities and the presence of its residents in a public space that is familiar and a cornerstone of the community. Unfortunately, the market has closed but the mural still stands and the message remains. 

Louie Kee market             Fresno, Ca

Up close view of the mural on Louie Kee 

Week 6- Rasquachismo and Domesticana

Photo taken from my living room

The terms rasquachismo and domesticana are new to me. From what I can understand rasquachismo is a mentality, a way of being, or as Tomás Ybarra-Frausto describes, “an attitude or a taste.” Rasquachismo is often understood as a style because it is often shown through a way a person decorates and adorns themselves or the environment in which they find themselves. This attitude and taste is a manifestation of resourcefulness, adaptability, and creativity and is found within the Chicanx community, where in America, their lived reality is one that forces a person to have these qualities because they are not a part of the dominant culture and power dynamics. Ybarra-Frausto explains that this mentality is found within the working class and its presence is a display of resilience, resourcefulness, and making do with what one has. Examples of physical displays of this attitude is heavy ornamentation that is elaborate and the use of a multitude of materials, with different colors, textures and materials, that are often recycled. This leads to the understanding of domesticana which is as much defiant and resourceful as rasquachismo, but this entails women specifically claiming space within  environments they have been bounded to and rejecting constricting gender identities and roles within patriarchal Western and Chicano cultures. These environments mainly consist of domestic spheres and is where women revert these spaces into places where they can assert their own agency and create art that proclaims this. Examples of domesticana are domestic bedroom altars, vanity dressers, and reliquaries. Amalia Mesa-Bains describes these work acts as “ devices of intimate story-telling through an aesthetic of accumulations of experience, reference, memory, and transfiguration.” I find this to be very beautiful and this reminds me of one place in my house that is dedicated to memories revolving around maternal figures and that we, my mother, sister, and I, have decorated with plants and objects that we have found and collected. In the picture that accompanies this text, there is a picture of my mother as a child, her mother, and reflected in the mirror above is a portrait of my great grandmother, their mother and grandmother. These spaces, that almost seem to happen naturally and that some women find themselves doing, is something powerful that I have never thought of before in such a way. 

Week 5- La Virgen de Guadalupe

    

Art piece of Le Virgen de Guadalupe with the flag of Mexico hanging underneath at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, located in Mexico City

     On first seeing La Virgen de Guadalupe I thought it was the depiction of the Virgin Mary. I was only familiar with the Virgin Mary and this was my first time learning of the Virgin Guadalupe. During lecture, we discussed the two religious characters are often conflated and so I’m assuming that I have, many times in the past, thought I was looking at the Virgin Mary when in reality she was the Virgin Guadalupe. The difference between the two is that the Virgin Guadalupe has special and direct relations to Mexico. To my understanding, the Virgin Guadalupe and the Virgin Mary are the same, yet different beings. The Virgin Guadalupe is the Virgin Mary who came to an indigenous Mexican man in Mexico city and spoke to him in his native language of Nahuatl. Because of this history, the Virgin is very prevalent in Mexican and Latin cultures and therefore Chicanx and Latinx art. I was first introduced to the Virgen de Guadalupe through the discussion of Yolanda M. Lopez’s art. Lopez has featured The Virgin Guadalupe multiple times in multiple art works, such as the Virgen de Guadalupe Series, Walking Guadalupe, and Nuestra Madre for example. 

    Because I am semi-aware of religion, I am aware of the differences in religious interpretations and characters when the religion becomes practiced by new peoples in new regions. In North America, the Virgin Mary has transformed into the Virgin Guadalupe and they represent the same ideas of motherhood but with Guadalupe she is also a symbol highly related to Mexico. Because she is important religiously and even nationally, she carries a lot of importance to people in different ways. Chicana artist, Ester Hernandez, has stated that she does not relate to it religiously but culturally because of the Virgins presence in Mexican culture. Due to the outrage and the push back from some of Yolanda Lopez’s work, which can sexualize the image and free the Virgin from her constrained female gender roles, it can be seen as being very important to many people in a religious matter as well. I am glad that I am now aware of the Virgin Guadalupe and her importance within the Chicanx and Latinx communities. Whether you are religious or not, I believe it’s important to be able to recognize important religious figures of others so as to be culturally aware. I feel sad at the thought that I have gone so long in my life mistaking these figures because I was missing crucial information when looking at artwork or any other instances where the virgin Guadalupe was shown instead of the Virgin Mary. 

Week 4- ¡Printing the Revolution! Exhibition Preview

                                          
                                           ¡Printing the Revolution! Exhibition Preview

    Printing the Revolution Exhibition preview, which was held on January 21, was an introduction of the Smithsonian Art Museum’s new exhibition, Printing the Revolution. This exhibit showcases art produced within the Chicanx art movement and through this exhibit the Smithsonian wishes to showcase the different viewpoints in American art and provides a different look about what American art is believed to be. This exhibit is a hope to include more diversity to the museum and to spread awareness of Chicanx and Latinx artists. 

    During the presentation, the rise and the impact of the Chicano graphic movement was described and the history of activism that is embedded within its history. The show is segmented into different themes that is organized by different generations of the art movement and multiple artists are included within the show. They explained how art was used within El Movimiento and explained common themes and stories that are told through the artwork.  Ultimately, their goal for this exhibit was to track and showcase the impact of Mexican graphics, who have been historically left out of the history of US printmaking, on the world.

   Juan Fuentes, Ester Hernandez, and Zeke Peña are three Chicanx and Latinx artists whose works are featured in the exhibition, who were present at the exhibit preview and were asked questions and gave background histories on their lives and how and why they came to be involved within the Chicanx art movement. All three had very different experiences but the one thing they all shared was the goal of activism and the goal of making the world a better place for their communities. They chose to take part within the upliftment of their communities and the minorities of the world through their art. Fuentes and Hernandez were a part of the traditional school, who use primarily traditional hands-on mediums like painting and screen printing, while Peña is a part of the new school, who utilizes new digital technologies and online platforms for the creation and dissemination of their work.  Despite their being generational differences between artists within the movement they all agreed that change was good and expressed joy at the fact that the movement is still going on and that the younger generations are taking up the mantle, having conversations, pushing their communities and the world to do better, while still honoring the history and the work that came before. 

Dalila Paola Mendez- Week 3

Dalila Paola Mendez

Dalila Paola Mendez is an Indigenous, Guatemalan/Salvadorian, and Queer artist born in Los Angeles. She works in printmaking, photography, and film. She  grew up in a multi-ethnic household and a multi-racial community in Echo park. Her ethnic background and her community in which she grew up in, inspires her artwork and provides a source for her to celebrate her Indigenous and African ancestry. Her artwork often features and tells stories of women, Queer identities, resilience, the environment, and the importance of elders and their knowledge. Her artwork also is known for its vibrancy as well as its depictions and references of ancient sacred indigenous knowledge and combining the contemporary with the ancient to explore the past as a way to navigate the issues we face in the contemporary world. Her knowledge and a lot of her inspiration for her work comes from her grandmother, who instilled in her, the ways of the past. Her identity as a darker skinned woman also is the reason that she often celebrates the dark Goddess woman and also often depicts contemporary women of darker skin complexions.

Corazon del Agua        22” x 30”, Serigraph 2018

            Mendez received her Bachelor’s of Arts in International Relations from the University of Southern California. She became a teacher and taught at LAUSD for three years, until in 2001, she became a substitute teacher and started to spend her time working in film, as a production designer. Mendez declares that it was the year 2015, in which she officially made art her full time job.  In 2015, she was also 1 of 5 artists selected to create a print in Havana, Cuba as part of a Printmaker’s Exchange between American and Cuban artists. While in Cuba, Mendez was inspired by the artists there, who often lacked supplies and relied on their innovation to create art, to push her artwork forward and to make a living off of it. In 2018, Mendez was awarded an Artist in Residence Grant through the City of LA, Dept. of Cultural Affairs.

"Queerios"     22" x 30", Serigraph, 2015

Plantain Leaves      35mm film, Antigua, Guatemala 

References:

-https://www.lacommons.org/post/artist-spotlight-dalila-paola-mendez
-https://esmoa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/DALILA-PAOLA-MENDEZ-biography-MATRIARCHS-1.pdf

-https://www.selfhelpgraphics.com/2018-prints/2018/6/14/dalila-paola-mendez-corazon-del-agua

Week 2- Question and Answer

 Question: Do Chicanx artists face more boundaries with digital platforms or in traditional physical printmaking conditions ?

Screenshot of Jacalyn Lopez Garcia's project Glass Houses

    Based on the article written by Claudia Zapata, online resources provide Chicanx artists with the ability to produce artwork quicker, disseminate their art and messages faster and to perhaps reach a broader audience easier. The digital revolution also offers multiple other branches and extensions of art that allows for audience interactivity. For example, Jacalyn Lopez Garcia created an interactive multi-media website that gave her a space to create a piece that involved audience participation and room for greater personal self-reflection. Zapata discusses that online resources can also be problematic as well. Algorithmic bias can make sure that Chicanx art and messages are not getting shared or found, dis-enabling the dissemination of Chicanx artwork, political stances, and community outreach. Zapata did not discuss what usual hardships Chicanx artists might face with using traditional graphic production and showings, other than it not being as fast to produce and disseminate, than graphics created with digital technology. Boundaries that I can think of are that physical artists have to work with the outside world and must combat with the physical elements or other people vandalizing or taking down the work. Other problems that might arise might deal with institutions like the ability for your artwork to be shown or to receive patronage. You could say, in the physical world art work will not last, unless actively preserved, but online they can last forever. Ultimately, based on what Zapata described in her article, I would say there are equal hardships and barriers that come with either creating and spreading your artwork in the online format or physical context. Perhaps even the internet boundaries could become even harsher because artists would be fighting against systems which they are not a part of. It would be difficult to fight and work against large corporations and businesses like Instagram, Twitter, and even Google.

McDonald, Janelle

Hello class, my name is Janelle McDonald and everyone can refer to me as my first name. My pronouns are she/her/hers. This is my senior year at UCLA and I came in as a transfer from Fresno city college . I am a little bummed about how we can’t be in class in person but still glad that we are trying to keep everyone safe. I am an Anthropology major, specifically a cultural anthropologist, and I am taking this class as an elective. I chose to take this class as an elective because I love art, I have taken multiple art history courses but I have never taken one that focused on Chicanx artists and have never taken an art class that didn’t refer to Mexican art work as folk art. To be honest, I am tired of learning about art through a European and ethnocentric frame and want to learn more about Mexican art and the history behind the artists, their art work, and the times in which they created them. I am also an artist myself, who doesn’t get to paint as much as I would like to. I love Frida Kahlo, and I’m sad that unfortunately she is the only female Mexican artist that I am familiar with. I look forward to learning more about Chicanx art and artists. 

 

The reading for this week was very eye opening. It was great to learn about the importance and the multiple functions Chicano prints and posters served, as well as the multiple messages these works voiced. They were statements about politics and cultural events. They raised awareness about plights and injustices of the whole world, and they also stood as a rejection of the western/Eurocentric/American  cultural and societal norms and became symbols of personal affirmations and pride in one’s heritage. What I also found very interesting is that these art works rejected what art is and what art is supposed to look like by Eurocentric/western standards. They combined striking images with phrases, words, and poetry, and were posted everywhere, making visible and accessible to all. They created community and documented and shared the Chicanx history and identity.