La Virgen De Guadalupe

 

    Growing up indigenous, my mom tried her best to make sure I saw past the hypocrisy of some religions. Despite having grown up going to tipi meetings and sweat lodges regularly, celebrating Thanksgiving by going to the sunrise ceremonies on Alcatraz, or even having paintings, statues, and shelves of story books depicting Indigenous deities and legends, catholic and christian influence is everywhere. The only time I remember genuinely inquiring about La Virgen de Guadalupe was at some point during elementary school, at our second favorite taqueria in the Mission. 

    She was painted in vibrant colors, surrounded by roses and cherubs, looking down with her serene sideway glance to what looked like one of the angel babies flying around her. I guess, in my head, I always assumed people only painted male religious figures. My mom always told me “they worship penis more than they ever worship any sort of deity”. I never fully understood that statement as a child but I knew that seeing this painting contradicted what my mom said. I asked her who was painted so beautifully on the far wall on the other side of the taqueria and she said,

“Mira mija, esa es la virgen que dicen que es la mama de jesus, verdad? Pero también dicen que se embarazó sin tener sexo y te voy a decir ahora, esa es la primera y más importante mentira.”

    After that, I never inquired about her again. I guess I was satisfied with knowing, or somewhere deep inside I had accepted, that La Virgen’s story was always stained with misogyny or some sort of toxic ideology that made her less human in the name of her purity. One day I hope to find out the complete honest and unfiltered truth about who the woman was in this beautiful depiction that we all are so familiar with. 

Week 3: René Yañez

 René Yañez was a San Francisco based artivist, muralist and founder of Galeria De La Raza in the Mission District. He was born in Tijuana, Mexico in 1942 but his family soon moved to San Diego in 1954 where he stayed until he was drafted into the Vietnam war. He was discharged in 1966 and moved to the Bay Area where he began to study art and art administration at Merritt College, California College of the Arts, and Golden Gate College. 

He was best known for introducing the concept of celebrating Dia De Los Muertos to the United States since the early 1970s. He celebrated his culture through exhibitions at the Yerba Buena Center of the Arts in San Francisco, such as Rooms for the Dead and Labyrinth of the Dead. He was instrumental in the spread of awareness, appreciation, and practice of Dia De Los Muertos throughout the Bay Area. The spaces he created, founded, curated, or simply supported nurtured the growth of Chicanx artists and allies. He is also known for his pop up altar installations, such as the infamous Taco Bell Chihuahua, in which he used traditional Mexican beads and candles to show the diversity, beauty, and history behind the smallest, most colorful pieces of his culture. He even received the “Special Trustees Award in Cultural Leadership” from the San Francisco Foundation for his influence over bay area culture in 1998. Unfortunately, he passed away in May of 2018, leaving behind a talented son, a loving community, and a legacy that continues to inspire young artists from all over the Bay Area. 

References:

https://missionlocal.org/2018/07/a-tribute-to-rene-yanez-an-artist-who-never-got-old/ 

http://www.galeriadelaraza.org/eng/exhibits2/archive/artists.php?op=view&id=11&media=info 

Week 2: Parra-McGlothin, Paloma

 In what ways does the incorporation of technology into Chicanx printmaking actually hinder the message against injustice and how is that either ceasing or advancing as technology advances? 

In many ways, we can no longer live without technology and as it becomes more ingrained in the actions of our everyday lives as it continues to become more advanced, complex, and pertinent. One of the main dangers of reliance on technology is the colonial patterns that limit certain forms of art and the messages the artists may be trying to convey and the ability of whoever controls it to determine what messages get distributed to the general public, in other words, the ones who could ultimately do something to stop the corruption within the technological institutions that run our media intake. Rupert Garcia viewed, with good reason, “digital strategies part of a commercial practice, [and] that it would corrupt the purity of fine art”. Which could be interpreted in so many ways from turning attention away from more traditional practices rooted in detail, to emphasizing the disparity in accessibility to digital media or technology in general, and creating an environment in which the artist is credited for their technological capabilities as opposed to their artistic abilities. Despite this thought, Garcia soon opened up to and embraced technology to the point where he abandoned handmade printing all together. This was instrumental in the history of digital media and was a wonderful way to include Garcia’s political messages in a newer form of representation, however, is the retelling of these messages in new forms of art really advancement? Despite new and refreshing forms of storytelling, such as Jesus Barraza’s work I am Alex Nieto and My Life Matters, the stories are the deep rooted damage that is difficult to express without somehow dehumanizing the victim by turning them into a temporary martyr or creating more trauma p*rn for people of color, technological advancements or not.