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I really enjoyed the discussions in class on the conceptualization of the Chicana identity and the different types of art produced by Chicana artists. I consider myself a Chicana yet I admit that I was not aware of the variation and number of Chicana artists that are producing art today. It was interesting to explore the differences in their store, art and experiences throughout the readings and presentations. Sketching in the book helped me distress throughout this quarter and explore my creative side more. I had taken a few art classes in the past both appreciative and drawing and project based but unfortunately I never produced anything large outside of my time in these courses. I learned a lot about myself and about my peer's experiences and views. I previously knew nothing about Sor Juana, Tonantzin or La Malinche's full story. It raised my interests and look forward to doing my own research on them. I was very shocked by the research Professor Alma Lopez conducted on the validity of the Apparition story. Coming from a Catholic family upbringing I was raised believing in the religious story and praying to La Virgen, but I find it to be very interesting to seek evidence and truth in something that is so widely preached as a fact. I also enjoyed my peer's presentation of their journal sketches and stencils as they shared bits and pieces of their personalities. 

I really enjoyed reading Homegrown by bell hooks and Amelia Mesa-Bain. Their cultural discussions were very insightful and I found a lot of comfort and made many connections to their own stories. 

Being a Chicana myself I never put much thought into the differences that a Chicana can embody. Coming from a small town and moving to Los Angeles has really opened my eyes to the different and endless possibilities of what it makes up the various other facets of a Chicana's identity. 

Chicana Printmakers: Yolanda M. López & Favianna Rodriguez

I found this article to be very crucial to the analysis of the presence and artwork of Chicanas both during and after the Movimiento of the 1960s and 1970s. Crucial to their work is their identity construction while simultaneously confirming their territory, as well as their self-reflection in the contexts of invisibility, ethnocentrism and historical and patriarchal and sexual struggles. These subjectivities have been formulated throughout both the arts of literature and visual arts. Without precedents many artists paved the way yet this isn't to be taken lightly as though it wasn't challenging. Much earlier works focused on historical figures, archetypal women suffering at the hands of violent political and domestic patriarchy, coalition building with other Latin American countries, and religious symbols and iconography. Over time artists explored further, leaving behind archetypal renditions and depicting themselves. Chicana artists including Yreina Cervantez, Ester Hernández, and Yolanda M. López have actually created self-portraits by reappropriating iconographies.

Yolanda M. López' piece The Artist as the Virgin of Guadalupe depicts herself as la Virgen, yet liberated from the crescent moon pedestal and actively on a run. Here she is defiantly replacing the innocent, saintly Virgen with herself and making the statement that all women are worthy to be looked up to for their own beauty, talents and agency.

My artist this quarter was Favianna Rodriguez and she is a huge advocate from a feminist and leftist perspective. She employs printmaking as a tactic for social change. The issues she emphasizes in her work are those on immigration, women's sexual rights, racism, war, and labor practices. Although a Chicana artist whose messages have been straightforward, Chicana artists in the early seventies employed similar tactics with their calendar publications depicting the struggles of women with regards to physical and emotional abuse as well as political suffering in Central America. In this era Chicana artists had yet to depict themselves in their works and were exploring ways to represent women's struggles visually.

I find this article to be crucial to exposing and legitimizing the critical yet overlooked past of Chicana printmakers. I feel that this type of academic writing is paving the way for mujeres to be both recognized and admired.

My own nuclear family is shaped by gender roles and expectations. Growing up and learning about other cultures I've become more open to other ideologies and have explored my own freedom, often times at odds with my parents. I know right from wrong yet I also recognize that I have the right to make my own choices independent of what other's want of me. So with that being said, I can connect and I can imagine how challenging it must have been for Chicanas in the 1960s and 1970s who were constantly struggling for their own rights and voices in the Movimiento. I think this course is very important and I'm glad I was able to explore the artistic explorations, expressions, activism and liberations of Chicana artists.

W8: Carmen Lomas Garza

Carmen Lomas Garza is a well known Chicana artist and curator from Texas. She is highly skilled in her use of color, handling of gouache, and her immense pieces utilizing the paper cut-out method popular in Mexican culture-- papel-picado. Installations are just a small piece of her work. As a young woman she was in charge of a small exhibit of Chicana/o artwork for the organization MAYO. This marked her first experience as a curator. After relocating in San Francisco some time later she was further mentored in the art business. All these experiences extended the breadth of her relationship to art beyond its production and into its exhibition. 

 In her installation altar piece Día de los Muertos/Ofrenda para Antonio Lomas (1988-1990) Garza honors the life of her late grandfather Antonio Lomas. Garza utilizes papel picado to adorn a background faux window looking out into a backyard in view of her grandfather while the walls the floor and table are also papel pacado-adorned. The floor is laden with colorful papel flowers. The "walls" surrounding and making up the installation are curtains de papel-picado. In the scene the table has candles, skulls, a chair, and personal items from his life such as his garden tools, paño, and hat. Each item is significant and beautifully representative of him. This homage is personal and telling of her influential and defining culture, family and spirituality. 

This piece really touched me because last year my family lost our grandfather. He too worked hard all his life, coming this country as a bracero in the 1950s. He passed at the age of 96 due to complications after emergency surgery after he fell. Despite this very sad event in our family we celebrate his long life with us and all his legacy that lies in all of us grandchildren and great grandchildren. 

Letter to Margaret Garcia

Hi Margaret!!

First off I'd like to express how much I enjoy  your artwork--your paintings are so rich in color, emotion and human presence.


 I notice that in a majority of your portraits and pieces you chosen portray women. Is there a particular reason why? I am aware that the piece with the girl in laying down wearing a dress  is actually created after someone you know. Do all your other paintings depict real individuals? What moves you to create paintings and how do you feel about them?

I love how the emotion and presence of the mujeres and niñas--the way you give them life I see their strength, independence, confidence and freedom as sexual beings.  When I look at your paintings they give me a sense of not just nostalgia but also that of familiarity with respect to the women and girls in my own life.

My parents divorced when I was very young but I remember everything. Soon after my sisters and I became closer and my older sister began watching my younger sister and I a lot more frequently once my mother began going out with her friends more since she was single. Then when I was in middle school my older sister enrolled in the military and has been out of state and overseas for the past 9 years. Since her life in the military began, important family reunions and various holidays over the years have been tough due to her absence and the distance overall. I love my sister very much and this was also really difficult period of time for me growing up. I looked up to one of friends from school, she was a few years older than me but she has been there for me through all the times my sister has been away. I refer to her as my sister as well. On the other had the relationship I have with my mom has been pretty rocky even to this day. Even though we don't get along very much or as much I wish we could, I still look up to her---she has a great sense of humor, she can get down in the kitchen with all kinds of Mexican food, she is frugal, and she is great and improvising and creating things out of junk instead of just doing what is convenient like buying something brand new. Your art is very important to me because when you depict these women I am reminded of the great women and role models in my own life and how much they mean to me and how important they are in shaping me.

I looked you up on Facebook and I saw some of your recent projects that include a few mosaic pieces. From the pictures it looks like you worked in a group perhaps? The skull happens to be a favorite of mine; not only is it grand in its size, but the details are phenomenal. I noticed you used various pieces of tiles and clear marble stones. How long did this take you/and your friends to complete? Was it challenging at any point? What is you favorite aspect of it? The heart detail on the back of the mosaic skull, are the two figures created from plaster by you and who do they represent? The last picture on this post is of your studio (also derived from you Facebook page). I can already see that your love for color is not limited to just your art :) A colleague of mine presented you and some of your work in class and I recall her saying that your art "depicts culture through individuality". Has this always been your vision? How has it changed?

Sincerely,

Ü Celsa Monique Zárate

https://www.facebook.com/Margaret.Garcia.artist?fref=ts

W6: Response to Laura Aguilar post by Hector Prado

My peer Hector Prado discussed the photographic artwork of Chicana artist Laura Aguilar. He pointed out the layers of her intersectionality; being a women, overweight, a Chicana (minority), and a lesbian. The fact that her art is "unorthodox" was an additional key element that he emphasized in his reflection.

Her images are statements that expose a different perspective on what is beautiful, while at the same time providing Laura with a thearaputic experience throughout the process. Her art and its influence has been a vehicle for awareness on the healing power of art; in her case it has functioned to soothe her depression and insecurities. Her art speaks to many marginalized women who share wholly or partially in her intersectionality. Images are powerful and art that is visual has long been utilized by marketing and advertising in order to convey certain images, commodities, and ideas of what is physically beautiful, tasteful, and "worthy of aspiring". She uses the same approach to do the same but in an unexpected way that is actually revealing of the truth; everyone has something beautiful about them without the need of material enhancements or strict definitions of beauty. With her choice of nude bodies laid out, comfortably in nature, she portrays just that. 

Reflection on Laura Aguilar W5

Laura Aguilar's story and art really moved me. Her struggles with her dyslexia, body, sexuality and depression marginalized her throughout the majority of her life. Photography became her source of therapy and time for self-reflection and growth--during both the creation process and after it as she took in the images in her creations. All art says something and Laura Aguilar has said something very special with her art. To me her art is extremely powerful. It not only saved her but it also provides everyone in society that is willing to explore her art  a chance to connect to it and see themselves within her and her images' symbolism. I loved watching the video of her as she described how wonderful it felt for her to be out in nature with the warm sun soaking her bare skin; she became comfortable with herself in both her sexuality and physicality, she found peace in these spaces and connected to the "vastness" of the desert landscapes. Her art is very important to me. It brings to the art world and the public a complex emotional experience of a lesbian Chicana mujer who has been depressed by the stigmatized intersections of her many identities; thousands of individuals face the same struggle in America and the globe. She is beautiful and it come through in her art as well. I'm glad to be a in this class and given the opportunity to learn about the nuances of the Chicana identity and the rich value within the art and life experiences of all Chicana-identifying and non-identifing mujeres.

W4 Peer Presentation: Margarita Cabrera "Uplift" planned sculpture in Texas

I was very moved by my peer's (Kaelyn Rodriguez) Chicana artist Margarita Cabrera and her work. Her repurposing of materials is wonderful but even more so is the particular sources of these materials that in itself hold a deep, philosophical message. The piece that moved me the most was her public art sculpture 

Uplift. This sculpture will be set up in the roundabout in Texas near the US/Mexico border and the Mexican city Juarez. This public art project invites all members of both communities,  in Texas and from Juarez, to participate and design their own birds. The fact that she reaches out to all and doesn't require experience is amazing to me. The various bird images will be cut out by hand form long sheets of metal and eventually will be joined together creating a swarm of birds taking flight-- symbolic of freedom. Cabrera's consciousness of materials is powerful, in this project the metal was derived from melted down confiscated firearms. This is meaningful in that it brings the two communities together to be hopeful despite the much violence that is characteristic of the city of Juarez. The project is cultural as well as she plays with the traditional Mexican art technique "papel picado."

I admire artists like Cabrera and others who create art with greater meaning that speaks to the community and engages thinking, reflection and inspiration on the grounds of current social issues. Her relevant use of materials and the process of giving others the gift and opportunity to make significant art for their own community. The process of those in the community making this art I feel is the most important piece of this public art project. Their engagement has been an experience for them and that is priceless.                                                                                           

Rose

For my image I chose a rose. Aside from peonies this is my other favorite flower. I grew up immersed in the Catholic faith and the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe in our church landscaping, floral arrangements and the imagery of her which all included roses. My mom took a floral arrangement class back in the 1980s and I have many memories of joining her on trips to nurseries gathering different flowers and roses and later using the garage or backyard as space to create her pieces with water-soaked floral foam. I would help her by cutting the stems and excess leaves and passing her the foams. I watched how she concentrated and placed the roses in certain areas, inserting them at different depths giving the arrangement shape. Later she would garnish it with greenery to create a fullness concealing the presence of the foam holding her creation intact. She'd step back ever so often and observe her work, making little changes here and there. My favorite pieces of hers were those that included roses.

My mom also planted some in our front yard lining the side of the house under the windows to mine and my brother's room. She would joke and say she did it purposely so I wouldn't sneak out since the thorns would serve to dissuade me. All romanticism aside, the rose itself I've always observed to be beautiful in all its form. The way the menacing thorns line the stem trailing up to the delicate bud. I have always seen the rose as a symbol of beauty amidst chaos and pain depicted in its thorns. I've always related to this concept due to the early childhood loss I felt when my parents split up. The rose represents for me the peace, and happiness I strive for whenever I face an obstacle in life. 

W2 Professor Alicia Gaspar de Alba's Presentation & La Virgen De Guadalupe discussion

I really enjoyed Professor De Alba's presentation on her research experience of the CARA exhibit. What stood out to me was when she clarified the difference between art for art's sake and art with strong social relevance. She found the latter distinction in the Chicana/o art she was exposed to for the first time then. I hope to take a course with Professor De Alba at one point in my academic trek here. The artist I chose for my presentation and whose I'll be sharing to the class this quarter is definitely outspoken and an advocate for social change through her artwork. I look forward to informing the class about her work and intentions.

I grew up with La Virgin de Guadalupe being central in our home and faith. Many years through elementary and in conjunction with catechism I recall learning her importance as the holy Mother and celebrating her through theatrical reenactments, the pilgrimages from house to house-- las posadas-- commemorating Maria and José's travels from Nazareth to Bethlehem, and being woken up in the early morning hours by my parents on December 12 to go to special mass in her honor. We have a large cuadro, a framed image of her in our living room. My first communion my godmother gave me a gold necklace with a gold pendant of the Virgin encompassed by an oval of gold radiating rays. Watching my cousin's on their wedding days I observed their floral and prayer offerings to the Virgin statue on the altar. Praying the rosary on special occasions my mom would also put together an altar and pick roses and flowers from our front and back yards. Although I grew up as a devout Catholic my dedication to it hasn't been the same in the past few years. Despite this I have faith, pray and even have a little statue of la Virgen that I brought from home and placed on my desk. My sister's boyfriend is an artist who has always sketched la Virgen and recently even got a large tattoo of her spanning the entirety of his back.

When I first saw the various renditions of the Virgin by Chicana artists I was shocked but also become very curious as to why they depicted her in unexpected scenarios and attire. I of course at first experience them as sacrilegious but a larger part of me was intrigued by them. Having an open mind is definitely a prerequisite and I'm glad I was able to learn about the reasonings behind these images. I know many people who would become angry at these images which ultimately serve to demonstrate the hegemonic effects of religion and patriarchal values. I think its great that artists have thought outside these parameters and have envisioned her as a woman with choices, strength and power so that women can identify with her as well.

Professor Alma Lopez's research on the validity of the apparition story is another fascinating exploration of Mexican, Mexican-American, and Chicana/o culture. I'll learned to always question and think critically about normative notions and beliefs. I don't think that questioning the event is necessarily bad, I believe that it is actually part of one's journey of identity to seek out the real history of one's roots and culture. Seeking the truth and discrediting norms is empowering in and of itself and then sharing that knowledge with others is important as well. Whether the story is true or not, I feel it is powerful already that a woman is being idolized and highly revered in our culture and the extension of this by these Chicana/o artists in their renditions actually enhances her overall position as a central woman that can be relatable in other ways aside from the traditional one.

Zárate, Celsa

Hello everyone, I am Celsa Monique Zárate and I'm a first year transfer student from the on the Central Coast's San Luis Obispo area. Both my parents are from Jalisco, México. My maternal grandfather came from Jalisco, México to work in various areas of California as a bracero in the 1950s (Bracero Program 1942-1964). He later immigrated my grandmother, my mother and her six siblings to settle in Oceano, California  in the late 1960s. My mother grew up being one of a few Mexican families living in the area at the time and she recalls experiencing racial micro-aggressions in elementary and high school. Of all my aunts and uncles from my mother's side of the family only one uncle was allowed to finish high school and go on to college while the rest, including my mother were obligated to leave school in order to work to sustain the family (only after my grandfather was convinced by a high school counselor's visit stressing my uncle's potential). With that being said, I am the first in my immediate, nuclear family to go to college.

I was born in San Luis Obispo in 1991 and I just transferred to UCLA majoring in Sociology and double minoring in Chican@ Studies and Labor and Workplace studies. When it comes to art I really enjoy all forms but some of my favorite genres are music, poetry, film, murals, sculptures and installations. It wasn't until high school that I began to be exposed to the history of the Mexican American experience and Chican@ struggle in the U.S. After this exposure and some self-reflecting I began identifying myself as a Chicana. Once I entered community college I started feeling proud to be addressed by my first name-- Celsa, the C  is pronounced like an S--instead of my mainstream middle name, Monique.

"There's No Place like Aztlán: Embodied Aesthetics in Chicana Art"

In her essay, Alicia Gaspar de Alba includes a discussion about the mythological place of Aztlán and its symbolism as a destination of political empowerment and consciousness for Chicana/os. She makes a connection to the tale The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy's journey back to Kansas, although a physical trek, ultimately turned out to be a self-discovery of the power she had all along in realizing Kansas was in her heart the whole time and that Emerald City with all its grandour could not match up to her homeland. De Alba seeks to make the point that Aztlán is really a journey of consciousness that the Chicana/o must make. My question for De Alba is about this precise awareness that for me took being exposed to by my Spanish professor in high school. If it had not been for these experiences I wonder how I would identify myself. During her discussion about Aztlán aesthetics she uses the term historical amnesia. I don't know whether all Mexican American families experience this, but my family didn't really discuss with us much about our Mexican history growing up, much less the Chicana/o struggle since my siblings and I were the first generation born here, yet I know that the public education system has historically failed at such counter-storytelling that would foster the reversal of such amnesia. So for De Alba, what does she think are some ways that Aztlán aesthetics and awareness can continue to empower and actually reach more and more Chicana/os living in the US today?

"Out of the House, the Halo, and the Whore's Mask: The Mirror of Malinchismo"

In chapter three of her book titled Chicano Art Inside/Outside the Master's House: Cultural Politics and The CARA Exhibit, Alicia Gaspar de Alba offers a complex, multi-angled analysis of the CARA: Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985 Exhibit of the 1990s. She is concerned with the little emphasis and prouncement of Chicana art and artists whose work tells of Third World feminism and Chicana lesbian Malinchismo. The Selection Committee aimed to portray works that represented the era of El Movimiento and De Alba exposes the missing gaps that leave out the voices of Chicana feministas and lesbianas who are subject to hegemonic intersectionality. My question for De Alba with respect to this essay is if she believes the failure to represent these artists and their art was willful since El Movimiento was indeed a sexist, Chicano male-centered movement or if she feel as though they were overlooked due to patriarchal hegemony in the 1990s? At this point have there been improvements and increased legitimization of Chicana art and artists? Are there current issues today that are of her concern?

Artist for Presentation: Favianna Rodriguez