Week 10 Reflection - Chris Vazquez

      Wow, I can’t believe this quarter is over already. I think the most influential (to me) topic in Chicanx Art that we covered was that of the Virgen de Guadalupe. She is so engrained into Chicanx culture that I didn’t notice her or even question her. Now I notice her painted on the back of food trucks and store walls.

     Another paradigm shift that I had was when reading Chaz Borquez’s “Graffiti.” It never occurred to me to see graffiti as art. It never occurred to me that graffiti also had political connotations. Now I see graffiti on billboards and think to myself why the billboard acceptable, but the graffiti is not? They both take up public space. Billboards are an eyesore. They distract, they pollute public air space, and they cause accidents. But a political message that says, “I’m here, I exist” is the one that’s wrong? I will never see graffiti the same again.

     Carmen Lomas Garza was my favorite artist from this quarter. I think majoring in Chicanx studies has left me numb towards political messages. I really appreciate activist pieces such as Yolanda Lopez’s, Who’s the Immigrant, Pilgrim?, but felt that they would sow a divide between our communities instead of bringing us together. Lomas Garza’s art focuses on the beauty of everyday Chicanx culture. There’s something liberating in seeing myself and my family in her pieces. 

Chicana Futurismo - Week 9 Post

    This week’s theme is Chicanofuturismo as introduced in the excerpt “Deux ex Machina” by Marion C. Martinez. The concept was introduced to the public at the Museum of International Fold Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico at an exhibition titled Cyber Arte. The pieces introduced at this exhibit mix traditional Chicano art with discarded pieces of technology such as PCB, floppy disks, and other trash from Los Alamos National Laboratory. One of the pieces by Martinez, Oratorio a la Virgencita is shown below.

    I think that the art shown at the Cyber Arte exhibition are very interesting. Art has to evolve, and by changing mediums, I think that the artists are able to portray their message across multiple forums. I think Oratorio in particular is beautiful. I don’t think that the art stands the test of time. It reminds me of the retro future art in old magazines that portrayed how the future would incorporate flying cars and hoverboards into society. In other words, it’s very 2000’s-esque.

Week 8 - “Chicano Art (Looking Backward)” by Goldman and Critical Responses

     In Shifra Goldman’s critique, “Chicano Art,” of the Chicanx art exhibitions, Caifas and Murals of Aztlan, Goldman says, “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 their movement to existence” (p. 436)? In summary, Goldman basically argues that the artists that were presented at these exhibits sold out to mainstream Anglo-American culture at the expense of their communities. One example that Goldman provides to support her claim are the giant canvas “murals” which were to be sold at the event “violate the root meaning of the ‘mural,’ which is by definition an artwork intended for a wall” (p. 439). She contends that the traditional chicano mural was meant to be displayed in public in the barrios were Chicano artists live. 

    Judithe Hernandez takes offense to Goldman’s assessment of the Chicano art galleries mentioned in her critique in Hernandez’s letter, “Reader’s Forum Letter to the Editor in Response to Shifra Goldman’s Exhibition Review.” Hernandez says, “Why should changes in my work and social-political attitudes be construed as compromising my commitment to my Chicanismo, while in another artist the same would be perceived as personal and professional growth” (p. 440)? Hernandez claims that any other artists, presumably an Anglo-American artist, would never be questioned for their desire to expand and make more accessible their art. Goldman is in effect gatekeeping Chicano artists to what she perceives is the one true method for exhibition Chicano art. Hernandez ends her letter by saying, “as our Mexican predecessors before us, our work will mature and change. Chicano art and Chicano artists, I am sure, will always pay homage to the traditions of the Mexican/ Chicano culture” (p. 441). 

    Finally, Goldman responds to Hernandez in her letter, “Readers’ Forum Response to Judithe Hernandez’s Letter to the Editor” by continuing her appeal to what she considers Chicano traditional art. Goldman makes multiple appeals to authority citing concurring critiques from artist Malaquías Montoya and David Sisqueiros (pp. 442-443). Sisqueiros in particular created a protest piece, America Tropical, in Los Angeles’s Olvera Street (shown below). Goldman continues by arguing that the rich Europeans and Mexican visitors should simply visit the murals displayed in the gallery by “go[ing] to the Barrio” (p. 443). Goldman says “CAFAM brought the barrio to them, tamed, sanitized, and air-conditioned” because these affluent individuals were too scared to visit the barrios of Los Angeles (p. 443). 

    I appreciate Goldman’s critique of the art exhibitions mentioned in her article because it is true, Chicano art is traditionally meant to  serve the barrio. I contend however that art should be as accessible as possible for everyone. The children in our communities rarely see themselves represented in the mainstream media that is presented to them. My generation had El Chavo del Ocho and Plaza Sesamo, but we never had a Chicano television show to see ourselves in. In fact, in many cases we had to endure the constant barrage of racist stereotypes portrayed by Latino characters on TV. Therefore it is important for our communities to appropriate art and media through mainstream forums. Additionally, I agree with Hernandez’s take on Goldman’s gatekeeping of Chicano art. A white artist would never be questioned for selling their art. I find Goldman’s take ironic because Mexican artists like Diego Rivera were often commissioned to create murals for both the Mexican government and wealthy American tycoons. While I appreciate Sisqueiros protest art piece, America Tropical, the white store owners were quickly able to whitewash his art from the mainstream. Sisqueiros’s art is for the Chicanx community. Rivera’s art is for everyone. There’s no reason why we can’t have both. 

Week 7 Post - Graffiti is Art

 This week’s reading, “Graffiti is Art” by Chaz Borquez gives a history of graffiti art in the United States with a focus on his experience painting in East Los Angeles. Borquez posits that graffiti started at the turn of the 20th century when shoeshine boys drew their names on walls to reserve their spots (p. 118). Borquez goes on to give a history of gang tagging and how their “placas” set neighborhood boundaries (p. 118). Finally, Borquez talks about how the traditionally counterculture of graffiti art is evolving with new artists that are receiving formal educations, getting their works published in galleries, videos, and other mainstream formats (p. 121).

I enjoyed this reading because although I don’t always find graffiti art visually appealing, it occurs to me that I don’t find all “mainstream art” visually appealing either, I always saw it’s purpose was to say, “look at me, I’m here, I’m not going anywhere.” Borquez says of graffiti art, “Los Angeles graffiti is a graffiti seeking respect, even some form of validation” (p. 120). Graffiti is an art form that tells society that the most vulnerable among us cannot just be segregated away in a vicious cycle of poverty. 

This reading made me think about which forms of art we find acceptable, and which we find unacceptable. On the side of the 10 freeway we see huge advertisements ranging from hamburgers to clothes, and we find this acceptable. Why is it acceptable to have a huge burger hanging a hundred feet off the ground littering the backdrop of our beautiful city? Is it because society has deemed copywriting an acceptable art form? But we don’t jail the CEO’s of those huge advertising companies. No, we jail and fine the child who is beginning his career as an artist. We jail the guy who climbs up that billboard to tag it up, even when his only message is, “why is this art form acceptable, but not mine?”

This picture is one of my late cousin, Ricardo (Glimps) Salazar’s, pieces in LA.

Week 6 Blog - Rasquachismo

    Rasquachismo is an art form in minimalism. It is the act of using and reusing everyday items to create something new common in Chicanx households. My experiences with “rasquachismo” come from my parents. 

My mom would always avoid throwing away things that could have utility at a later date. That plastic container from Olive Garden that’s microwaveable? I knew I would see my my school lunch packed in that container sometime later that week. Those saltine crackers that went stale because someone didn’t close the bag? My mom would incorporate them into her food. My mom’s chicken tenders made with crushed saltines crackers can out-crunch and out-perform anything a famous could could do. If my primas outgrew a doll, I knew that they would make an appearance that Christmas season in either my mom’s or my tia’s nativity. 

    I know my dad’s rasquachismo through the term, “to Mickey Mouse” something. I worked with my dad the day I turned 8 years old, and I know that he had a similar experience growing up in a poor household. He would avoid throwing away things too. He kept a coffee can filled out the brim with loose screws, broken tools, and other miscellaneous things he knew would be useful later. I saw my dad do somethings with everyday objects that I thought were his superpower. I remember there was one time that my dad’s 1980’s Volkswagen Golf overheated on our way to a job site. Turns out that the drive belt snapped. We were in the middle of the desert on US 395 and there were no auto parts stores nearby. My dad had planned for something like this. He had a pair of women’s pantyhose that he strapped to the engine that got us to the next city. If we needed to screw something into brick or cement, he would drill into it, hammer a scrap piece of wood into it, and screw into the wood. I understand that Rasquachismo implies a more artistic than utility, but I always found my dad’s ability to Mickey Mouse something as his contribution to art. 

Week 5 - La Virgen

    My dad is from Mexico City. When I was very young, I was taken to DF to receive my traditional catholic baptism. My maternal grandmother has a shrine to La Virgen with a picture of Pope Francis below it. Before we married, my wife was a catechist who always carried a chain with La Virgen on it. Working in hundreds of people's houses installing DirecTV with my dad growing up, every single Latinx house we worked on had a portrait or candle of the Virgen.  I think growing up in a Mexican culture, she is inescapable. 

    When my parents divorced, my mom looked to multiple sects of Christianity in an effort to both assimilate into the new culture, and distance herself from my father. We dabbled in the Latter Day Saints church down the street. We tried the evangelical church, Calvary Chapel, in Pomona and Chino Hills. Their go-to stance on catholicism is that "we don't worship idols." That is to say, I've had a lot of contact with the Virgen's image, and very little contact with her religious meaning. We were driving through Mexico City last year and saw signs for the Basilica of Our Lady. My wife, nearly screaming in her excitement, said she wanted to take holy water to her grandma. I just scratched my head in confusion.

     After joining the Chicanx studies program at UCLA, I've learned that natives used various forms of opposition to their colonization. In Mexico Profundo by Bonfil-Batalla, he argues that native used methods of resistance, innovation, and appropriation. Professor Gaspar's theory is that the Catholic Church appropriated the Mexica Goddess, Tonantzin to help assimilate the Mexican natives. Bonfil would say that the natives appropriated the Virgin Mary as a form of opposition. I believe it's a little of both. 

 

Week 3 Post - Artist Indie184 (Soraya Marquez)

 I chose muralist Indie184 for my Wikipedia project. I chose Indie because I want to make sure that the graffiti visual art medium is also represented in academia. Her art has been commissioned by large companies like MAC cosmetics, Activision for the video game Grand Theft Auto IV, Apple for Beats 1 radio, Lionsgate film, among others. She is the Chief Artistic Officer for cosmetics company Rimmel London. Her art has been exhibited at El Museo del Barrio in NYC, Völklingen Ironworks Museum in Saarbrücken Germany, and Museo de Bellas Artes De Murcia in Spain.

Indie is of Dominican descent born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico in 1980. Indie was raised in New York City. Her father died when she was five years old causing her family to move around the various NYC Burroughs. She was raised by a single mother with four siblings. She went to college to study marketing, but dropped out because she felt that she didn’t fit in. Indie has three children and credits her mother and partner with supporting her to peruse her passion.

Indie’s current art is mixed medium meaning blending aspects of canvas art, graphic design, and spray can graffiti art. Indie hopes to portray feelings of flamboyance, feminism, and happiness by incorporating chicana actresses, big bold letters, rainbow colors, and uses traditionally feminine icons like hearts and unicorns. These are exemplified in her two pieces above, “Don’t Get it Twisted,” and “Own Your Power.”

Indie began “graf” in Washington Heights, an NYC Burrough. She draws inspiration from other graffiti artists like SEEN, LEE, WEST, SERVE and COPE2. She states that it was often difficult to get taken seriously by her peers because she is a woman and had to push harder to stand out. She recalls surprised looks from passerby’s and other artists alike while she was out creating murals. Her graffiti murals can be found in multiple cities ranging from South Bronx to Paris.

References:

https://www.indie184.com/about

https://remezcla.com/culture/indie-184-graffiti-artist-nyc-profile/

https://www.widewalls.ch/artists/indie184

https://www.artsy.net/artist/indie184/works-for-sale

https://www.fatcap.com/article/indie-184-prints.html

https://duggal.com/an-introduction-to-indie-184/

Vazquez Martinez, Christopher - Week 2 Claudia Zapata Reading

 I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination. My passion has always been music. I loved everything from Chopin, System of a Down, Tupac, and The Eagles. I am not joking when say that my artistic ability stops at tracing. As I have taken more classes on the ChicanX experience however, I have begun to appreciate art more and more. There’s a Chicano candy store in my city called Lotería. It’s owned by a millennial just like me. In the store the owner includes a number of art pieces, and he sells stickers made by a Chicano artist named Jose Pulido. These stickers are a union between mainstream American cultural icons like Iron Man, the Dodgers, or Ariel from the Little Mermaid and traditional Mexican sugar skulls. There is a coffee shop down the street that sells coffee blended Mexican flavors such as the mazapán, horchata, etc. The Zapata reading really made me think about why I never felt art the way that others do. I think it’s the fact that I never truly felt represented in the art pieces that we study. I’m meant to appreciate a Bernini sculpture, but never shown a Diego Rivera piece. I’m meant to appreciate French, and Italian, and Japanese food, but I grew up eating molé. If I were to create an art piece, how would I engage that child that will likely never leave their hometown? As Zapata said, can technology change the way that we see art? Can virtual reality really be the next big medium for ChicanX art?

It is not a secret that many in the tech field feel that virtual reality is the next big technological step. Apple has added depth sensors to their phones. My son asked my mother-in-law for a $400 Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headset this Christmas. Virtual reality is talked about briefly in the Zapata reading, but I really feel that there is untapped potential. I remember the field trips we had when I was a child to nature preserves and museums. I recently found out that my grandfathers and paternal great grandfather were braceros. I also discovered how badly this country treated the people that harvest their food. I would love to create a virtual reality experience where visitors are brought to a field that was cultivated by farm workers and create a virtual reality experience centered around the field. I picture a bus full of laborers picking up dust coming to work with the sun still down. I picture them hunched over for hours picking tomatoes with no where to relieve themselves when the time comes. Finally, I picture visitors removing their virtual reality headsets, getting into their cars, and realizing that their present reality is based on the back of my ancestors. 

https://www.misnopales.com/

https://www.instagram.com/misnopales/?hl=en

https://www.micafecitocoffee.com/about

Vázquez Martínez, Christopher (Chris Vazquez)

Hi everyone!, 

    My name is Christopher Vázquez Martínez. Please call me Chris. My preferred pronouns are he, him, his. I am a PoliSci major with a concentration in American politics double majoring in Chicane Studies with a concentration in labor, law, and policy. My dad is from CDMX and my mom is from Monterrey. I was born in SoCal and am a first-generation American. I transferred to UCLA in 2018 from Mount San Antonio College. I will be the first of my family in the US to get a bachelor's degree. My hobby is to pick up new hobbies.

   My academic goal is to finish my BA this Spring, study for/kill the LSAT, and start law school in Fall of 2022. I absolutely love politics and law. Growing up, my tia always called me the family's "abogado" because I always liked to argue when I felt strongly about something. I decided to add Chicane studies (and this course by extension) to my program after taking a sociology class on immigration. My dad was deported when I was very young. My brother, my cousin, both brought to the US when they were children, were also deported. Digging into my dad's paperwork we found that the reason why he was deported and lost his residency is because his lawyer did not file a motion in time. He did not have the legal representation that he deserved.Realizing that my immigration story isn't so unique, I want help those that come after me. 

   The reading for this week focuses on the history of Chicane art, and art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. I have little experience with Chicane art except for graffiti. From what I have learned at UCLA, Chicane art tends to be very political. I like that graffiti art tries to say to the establishment, “yeah, you control these streets, but my family and I are still here. We’re here to stay.” The reading reminded me of a mural outside of the Tijuana airport. It was a series of crosses placed to commemorate those that died trying to cross the border. I was a child at the time, but even now that the mural has disappeared, it’s message still sticks with me. While I’m not a huge fan of graphic art, preferring music, I see everyday the potential that it has to draft a cultural narrative. The reading has left me excited to discover more art.

Here’s a picture that looks nothing like me:

I look forward to getting to know you all this Winter quarter! Chris V.