La Llorona by Carmen Lomas Garza

This image resonated with my memories of my abuelit@s telling me stories in their patio. Those stories and myths were more than just what I heard. It was sacred space in which we exchanged generational gaps and communicated through silence and teachings only WE knew were happening. Those are moments in which I could never replicate with any other parental figure in my family because in Latin@ families the dynamics and psychology of the way we interact with our grandparents is special. I also observed the way they all formed some sort of geometrical figure by using their bodies in the way they listened to the womyn telling the story. To my analysis of this as a piece of art I was able to relate it to the way in which Renaissance art used the triangle as one of their key characteristics seen in art from this era. This is significant because it tells the audience how important family values within domesticated spaces are to Latin@s.

Furthermore, as I closely saw the figure of "La Llorona" on the far upper right corner I realized how intimate these cuentos are when being shared with us. Lomas-Garza is definitely alluding to the way in which our elders use detailed and exquisite  language when speaking to us. I know this is something prominent in the way my abuelit@s told me stories because I was always able to imagine them in the back of my head. This was a way for me to build an alternate world within their tongues as they spoke to me and build something beyond the physical. 

Letter to Martha Ramirez, by Pablo Simental

Querida Temachtiani,

I am currently taking a 'Chicana Arts and Artists' class with Profesora Alma Lopez in which we are exploring themes, content, aesthetics, and narratives of Chicana arts and artists. We had to create a presentation on a Chicana artist of our choosing, one in which I chose you as my artist present on. I found a profound infatuation with your work from the moment at I met you at SPARC my Sophomore year in a class with Profesora Judy Baca. It comes from a warm spirit I find in you, which makes me feel connected to your works as a longing to return back to the motherland.

When I first had the pleasure of meeting you and listening to you speak about your works I knew that your connection to Mexico was one which paralleled to mine. I listened to you speak about your work with muralismo, with indigenous culture, and theatre-- which struck me as really similar to the future careers and involvements I want to dive in within the visual and performing arts. I thought it was interesting that your practice and mastering of these various forms of art overlapped somehow-- I mean, obviously they are all part of the arts but that you found unity within the themes of indigeneity in all three of them. This brings me to the topic of you experiencing both Mexican identity and Chicana identity, and to further that I would love to hear what you identity as? You see, for someone like me who came to the USA as a Mexican raised, American born immigrant when I was 8 years old, I don't think Chicano fits me well. Not that Mexican does either, but it definitely fits me better in terms of how I see myself. Thus, when I heard you speak on your experience living and working in Mexico, I connected it  to my own experience.

For a while now I've been coming into terms with what my role as Mexican raised, American born immigrant is here in the USA. Is it to pursue the "American Dream", to pursue the "Chican@ Dream", because at the end of the day they all do fall within my experiences in terms of identity, gender, sexuality, and social class. Yet, I find myself longing for a motherland that I know I won't be able to find, because the motherland I left was one which I left when I was 8, and has changed a lot! And here in the USA, I don't feel full of life, and that's something that I've accepted. So Temachtiani, what do you think I should do? How should I go about this?
I don't think or expect myself to come to an answer soon, but I do know that I must use the arts in the same way that you did to find my answer, because maybe I won't be able to fit in this reality but in another alternate space that I can only find within my art.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts, I appreciate you and how much you've inspired my holistic approach to my identity and my art.

With amor and solidarity,
Pablo Fernando Simental

Laura Aguilar (WHOA!)

Learning about Chicana artist Laura Aguilar was revolutionary to my own Chicano artvisist identity. As a fat and queer Chicano the image that I have of myself has been consrtructed through dialogue in the domestic spaces in my family, queer spaces, academic spaces, in grade school, in my abuelita's kitchen, by the boy I hooked up with once, and the list goes on. Thus, listening to Laura speak on her body as vast unexplored land, as she massaged her big beautiful body-- I FELT SO EMPOWERED AND HUMBLED in ways I didn't know were possible for my own body. The way she touched herself made me realize how beautifully imperfect my own body is. I often go around the whole day pinching my fat, playing with my skin, and squeezing it as if it was something that was bothering my own existence. Seeing her to otherwise was recolutionary in that I knew I had to touch myself by caressing everything that I am because that is everything I will ever be.

Patssi Valdez

The artist that mos intrigued me was Patssi Valdez. This was because she takes Chicana art a whole new revolutionary meaning. I fell in love with her audacity to be different even within her Chicana identity which reflected onto her art. For example as my classmate was explaining to us the image above in which she is performing a piece in which she is being taped to the wall, I found myself baffled by the "action" of her being in that position. This is because this gives me an incite into the realities of the Chican@ movement. For most of my knowledge of the Chican@ movement, I often hear about male artists within the movement. To see Patssi and her art work demystified the notions that the Chican@ "artivist" movement was male dominated. With her co-founding of ASCO and the various series of works it spoke to my own artistic identity since I see myself in a lot of her work. She seems to portray something out of the norm which is a greater form of revolution as I see it, something I aspire to do in any way everyday. She gave me a sense of "comfort" in knowing that someone out of the norm was praised.

Stencil Art

The pieces I chose to use for my stencil art for my cover is a merging of two different visuals. One is a simple stencil of the moon, this is because I plan to implement indigenous latin american patterns inside the stencil. 

The moon stencil is to represent the duality that lives within me. The moon has always been an energy of clarity for me since I was a child. I always subconsciously noticed it and would look up at the night skies to admire its glow. Additionally because of the mythology i've learned through various Chican@ Studies classes I've learned that the narrative of the moon goddess, "Coyolxauhqui"is that which calls for those of us who try to revolutionize ourselves and those around us. The Mexica moon goddess is also female, and according to the Aztec birth years and four-directions my birth year falls under "calli", that of the east and "the feminine." To say that the moon has a gender is something arguable through different mythologies in history. Because of this I also find the moon astonishing in that we have personified it into a gender spectrum, something in the middle but also outside of that, without borders. The celestial figure has for years also given me hope throughout nights in which I had no one else but to look up at the sky and pray to the heavens. She has been the eternal light that hasn't abandoned me in my 20 years of life.

ARTivista for presentation:

The Chicana ARTivista of my choice is Martha Ramirez.