Post Week 10 Reflection

As the past 10 weeks have gone by very fast, there is a lot that I have obtained from this Chicanas Art class. I have come to know many female artist in the Chicano/a community. Some of the artist that have captured my interest are Laura Alvarez, Carmen Lomas Garza, Melanie Cervantes, Judy Baca, Carlee Fernandez, Isis Rodriguez, Juana Alicia and Barbara Carrasco. Many of these artists have identified as feminists and incorporate feminist ideals into their art. I like how many of these women are empowered by their community, family and ideas about being women. They use this within their work which I find inspiring. What I have learned the most is the struggles Chicanas have faced in the art world as well in their own community to express their empowerment over the traditional ideas they have always known. I found interesting how some symbols found within the Chicano/a community based on cultural and religious customs have oppressed or have given women a disadvantage within their own community. Learning about the La Virgin de Guadalupe, La llorana, and La Malinche were the most interesting because of how these figures are so prevalent within the Chicano/a community as to identifying Chicanas for their actions. One aspect of the class that I loved was the guest speakers and how they expressed how they felt and what their art was about or what they did with the community. It gave me a better understanding of how to analyze art more than what it is.

Thanksgiving Post

Unfortunately, this year I was unable to attend my family's thanksgiving due to having to work all day at my job. I work in an Italian restaurant and was scheduled all to work. So I decided to have a friendsgiving this year. My friend Zoe and I met up in my apartment and went grocery shopping for all the items we needed to prepare. This was Zoe's and mine first time cooking a turkey. I am a vegetarian and don't cook meat very often. Zoe and I had to look up recipes, call a few moms and figure out how to cook this turkey. We had to ask my boyfriend to take out the insides because we were too scared. We also prepared mashed potatoes, corn, broccoli, stuffing, gravy and crescent rolls. It took about four hours to cook everything including the turkey. After all the hard work, we had too much food so Zoe and myself, so we had to call all our friends and take pictures of our food and post it on our Snapchat to have people come over and enjoy our meal.  The image I drew was of Zoe and myself taking pictures on our phones when the food was done. I also included the only wall decor I have in the dining area of my apartment and I included my dog Ty and my cat Flynn. I currently still have lots of leftovers including the turkey.

Isis Rodriguez

This past week, we saw lots of different artists and Isis Rodriguez was the artist that captured my interest the most. I loved how she incorporated her life as a stripper into her art and found an awareness of how this profession can become dehumanizing. The name of this image is Evolution but its the opposite of Evolution. Within this image we see how a women is evolving into a monkey and is losing its humanity because of money. The artist states " Sometimes a dancer will become so competitive that all she cares about is the money, evolving into a money mangering monkey". I found this piece to be quite interesting and how it shows how humans can lose their humanity for such material things. Iris Rodriguez captures my interest as an artist because makes this profession visible as it has been marginalized. Although being a stripper is dehumanizing, it is a profession some women feel like they have no choice and must go into it.

Barbara Carrasco

The image I found most interesting from the artist presented this week was Milk the Pass by artist Barbara Carrasco. The image is of a milky white girl stuck from a bottle of milk. There is heat coming from her mouth and a jalapeno on the bottom of image. As our classmate stated during her presentation Carrasco was the black sheep of her family because she has green eyes and lighter skin compared to her family. Because of her physical appearance she wasn't considered a real Mexican, she didn't fit the stereotypical image of a "Mexican". Carrasco's grandfather told her that if she could eat a jalapeno she would be a true Mexican. The image shows Carrasco after eaten the jalapeno and how she would drink milk afterwards to help with the spiciness. I chose this image because I am able to relate to Carrasco and the way she doesn't relate to the stereotypical image of being a Mexican. I also am a black sheep of my family, by my physical appearance and by my ideals and beliefs. I was also not considered Latina because I'm not able to eat spicy foods like other Latinos/Latinas. This artist is similar to Yolanda Lopez because they are both feminists and have similar ideas about their inspirations for their art. She is also similar to Carmen Lomas Garza in which she incorporates experiences from her childhood and family aspects within their art.

Carmen Lomas Garza

. The image I have selected is Hammerhead Shark on Padre Island, 1987. The medium of this painting is oil on canvas, it is 36x48 inches in size. Within this painting, the view is of a beach, where most of the community is enjoying a day at the beach but they have encountered a bleeding almost dead shark on the sands of the beach. They imagery shows how that the most familiar areas aren’t free of endangerment. As Constance Cortez states “Here as in many of Garza’s works, the lesson is embedded in the imagery: there are sharks everywhere, even in the places we play”. This contributes to life lessons children will one day come to understand and it gives a realistic view of reality. This image ties in with this chapter because although we dream of a future, we must face the difficulties or realities of our daily lives. As Garza states “To dream is risk” this means that there’s uncertainly to life we also see this in the image of Cama para Sueños, although the mother is making the beds for her children as a sign for nurturance and safety, her daughters are laying on the rooftop. The imagery is clear with the message that is being conveyed, the risk of dreaming is valuable once we have achieved it. 

Hamsa Hand

The image I have selected as my stencil is the Hamsa Hand. The Hamsa hand symbolizes the hand of God. The hand is represented as a sign of protection and brings the owner happiness, luck, health and good fortune. This hand is represented in many cultures and religions  such as Arabic, Hebrew and Islamic and Buddhism. They each have their own version of this hand. I found the image online, there were so many versions of the hand that I selected the one I found more interesting. When I began the process of cutting the stencil out, it was difficult to cut through the cardboard/folder and it took me a while to decide what I wanted to  keep in the stencil. The image had more images within the image so I selected what I wanted to use. Cutting out the stencil took patience and determination to get the areas I wanted just right.
The reason why I selected this image is because I am interested in Buddhism and have joined a club on campus which the symbol comes up often. The hand also is part of my ethnic/cultural background being part Arabic. I find hope and peace within this image. I thought it would be a great stencil to use on my art book. The image means more than the general meaning, for me this image means my past and my present. This image represents my past as my ethnic and cultural background of being Arabic and my present interest in Buddhism. This image is symbolic to my understandings of myself.

Laura Alvarez

After listening to Laura Alvarez, I found her inspiration for the idea of Double Agent Sirvienta fascinating and was able to relate to her family background. The image I have selected is Double Agent Jardinero, 2002. I liked the idea that she incorporated images of her parents and in this particular case her father because it gives us an understanding of herself and of her parents. As Laura Alvarez explained in the class, the Gardener (Jardinero) was her father. She explained how the idea of the secret agent idea came to be was through her father's work. Alvarez knew her father worked for the government after he came back from war but she didn't know exactly what he did for the government. Also she loved playing secret agent with her brother as a child. After Alvarez's father retired from the government job, he went into gardening as a form of means. This is where she incorporates both of her father's jobs. This image illustrates how Laura Alvarez was able to create her art with the inspiration of her family in this particular case her father.    
To consider Blake's Chicana Sexuality and Gender, she claims that one must consider one's own  intersectionality to understand their identity. Laura Alvarez used her experiences living in the border, and her parents to inspire her art. As she explained in class she found her art through understanding her own family and her own experience living in Orange county and visiting family in Mexico.

The Iconography of Chicano Self Determination Shifra Goldman

Shifra Goldman's essay The Iconography of Chicano Self Determination: Race, Ethnicity, and Class discusses how Chicano/a artists have explore the ideas of race, ethnicity, and class throughout their artist works which led to their self- identities. The essay eloquently defines the terms by using different types of art work during each section of the term being defined. She believes that racism was brought from Anglo-Saxon settlers from Europe and found it useful during the genocide of the Native Americans. With ethnicity she believes there are tied between social inequality and ethnicity. She states "both these factors exacerbate ethnic consciousness, since the experience of discrimination is related to one's identity and thus to one's ethnicity, which is an important aspect of that identity". In the class section she explores farmer workers and political action taken during the time with Cesar Chavez. She concludes by saying that Chicano/a in the U.S has been known to be three manifestations which are cultural resistance, cultural maintenance and cultural affirmation.
The piece I have selected that relates best to Yolanda Lopez is her self-portrait, Portrait of the Artist as the Virgin of Guadalupe, 1978. The image relates to Lopez's active particapantion within her community and within the Chicano movement. She created this image to represent women more than just passive, within the Chicano/a art of the late 70s and early 80s there was very little representation of active and energetic women. The image portraying more than Yolanda Lopez herself it portrays her strength as an individual and the power she has as an artist. It shows the strides Yolanda Lopez has faced as an artist, as a Chicana and as a Feminist.

Questions for Professor Gaspar de Alba

Essay #1 "There's No Place Like Aztlán: Embodied Aesthetics in Chicana Art"


Question 1: In Daniel's Galvez's painting Homegirl #1, it states that this painting is a representation/ optical illusion of the macho image of a homeboy looking at himself. What was Galvez's idea about the homeboy viewing himself in the female's body? And how does this influence or explain Chicano Culture? 
From Reading this essay, I came to an understanding that women were being misrepresented in the CARA exhibition, they were either underrepresented and in the "Feminist Visions" were the only ones to participant. Although this exhibit was held in the 90's it is still disappointing to see that they're wasn't an awareness in Chicano men to understand a Feminist perceptive within their own community. With Daniel Galvez's painting as Chicano is one is suppose to have a sort of awareness to be a Chicano/a? It is sad to see how Women have identified as a Chicana and if they are also to identify as a Feminist they are not considered a Chicana rather a "white wannabe". I was interested in this particular painting Homegirl #1 because of the way Professor Gaspar de Alba spoke about it in the context of this painting being "the homeboy's sexual desire for her". I felt this painting was an example of the male gaze. As a gender studies major we focus on topics similar to these ideas.


Essay 2:  “Out of the House, the Halo, and the Whore’s Mask: The Mirror of Malinchismo”


Question 2: Would you compare the creation of Aztlán to the Virgin of Guadalupe since they were both created about 100 years after a major event/ invasion of territories? 
Within this reading, I found it interesting that the creation of Aztlán was created about 100 years after the invasion of the U.S as the virgin of Guadalupe was created about 100 years after an invasion. Would you compare the importance of these two beliefs to the Chicano/a Culture? I am unfamiliar with the importance of the Virgin de Guadalupe until this class and I had never heard of Aztlán. I was interested in understanding more about their significance for the Chicano/a culture.  

Melanie Cervantes

I have selected Melanie Cervantes as the artist for my presentation paper because I found her screen prints and political posters moving. Cervantes's inspiration for her art has made me interested her style and medium as well as for her desire for social justice.

Galvez, Alicia

My name is Alicia Galvez. I am a third year transfer student. I studied at Pierce College and transfered into UCLA this quarter. My major is gender studies and I am double majoring with sociology as well. I am a american born Hispanic women. My interests include understanding society, intersectionality and feminism.

My goals for after graduation are to go to graduate school and obtain a masters in sexuality. I would like to become a College Professor and teach sociology. My interest in feminism and gender studies grew out of analyzing my own culture. My family is culturally catholic and it was always difficult for me to understand my family's beliefs. Most Hispanic cultures are patriarchal and being a women in a male dominated world is burdensome. I didn't understand the machismo within my culture and how women are defined by their husband. This led me to sociology and gender studies to understand more about my own culture as well as the american culture.
I became interested in this course because I took a women in politics class and learned about Chicana feminism. This course offers something different and special in which I would be able to learn about the Chicana culture through the eyes of artists. I am a lover of the arts. I was not fortunate to have an artist talent but I do appreciate all forms of art.  
An important icon I grew up with around my house was of the last supper. My family has never forced religious catholic down my throat but they have culturally. I know the last supper to be a very known piece of art but it doesn't have much meaning in my current life. As a cultural catholic I was forced to have a baptism, first communion and a confirmation and during all those years in Sunday school I still do not understand the significance of having the last supper in one's kitchen.  The virgin of Guadalupe was never around my household, I had learn about the virgin by friends and the art work I had seen of her.