Chicano art movement
Part of a series on |
Chicanos and Mexican Americans |
---|
The Chicano Art Movement represents groundbreaking movements by Mexican-American artists to establish a unique artistic identity in the United States. Much of the art and the artists creating Chicano Art were heavily influenced by Chicano Movement (El Movimiento) which began in the 1960s.
Chicano art was influenced by post-Mexican Revolution ideologies, pre-Columbian art, European painting techniques and Mexican-American social, political and cultural issues.[1] The movement worked to resist and challenge dominant social norms and stereotypes for cultural autonomy and self-determination. Some issues the movement focused on were awareness of collective history and culture, restoration of land grants, and equal opportunity for social mobility. Women used ideologies from the feminist movement to highlight the struggles of women within the Chicano art movement.
Throughout the movement and beyond, Chicanos have used art to express their cultural values, as protest or for aesthetic value. The art has evolved over time to not only illustrate current struggles and social issues, but also to continue to inform Chicano youth and unify around their culture and histories. Chicano art is not just Mexican-American artwork: it is a public forum that emphasizes otherwise "invisible" histories and people in a unique form of American art.
Chicano movement
"The lasting significance of the Chicano Movement on contemporary Chicano/a writers and artists cannot be overstated."—Sharla Hutchinson[2]
Beginning in the early 1960s, the Chicano Movement, was a sociopolitical movement by Mexican-Americans organizing into a unified voice to create change for their people. The Chicano Movement was focused on a fight for civil and political rights of its people, and sought to bring attention to their struggles for equality across southwest America and expand throughout the United States.[3] The Chicano movement was concerned with addressing police brutality, civil rights violations, lack of social services for Mexican-Americans, the Vietnam War, educational issues and other social issues.[3]
The Chicano Movement included all Mexican-Americans of every age, which provided for a minority civil rights movement that would not only represent generational concerns, but sought to use symbols that embodied their past and ongoing struggles. Young artists formed collectives, like Asco in Los Angeles during the 1970s, which was made up of students who were just out of high school.[4]
The Chicano movement was based around the community, an effort to unify the group and keep their community central to social progression, so they too could follow in the foot steps of others and achieve equality. From the beginning Chicanos have struggled to affirm their place in American society through their fight for communal
The formation of the
The union then brought in thousands more lettuce and vegetable pickers in the Salinas Chicano Movement art developed out of necessity for a visual representation of the self perceived sociopolitical injustice that the movement was seeking out to change. As in any movement there is a need for signage that brings awareness to the issues at hand, starting with murals. Murals represented the main form of activism in Mexico prior to the Chicano Movement taking place in the United States. The murals depicted the lives of native Mexicans and their struggles against the oppression of the United States, as well as, native problems to Mexico's poverty and farming industry. Many of the images and symbols embodied in these classic Mexican graffiti murals were later adopted by the Chicano Movement to reaffirm and unify their collective under a specific light of activism.
The Chicano art workers wanted people to see their work in Mexico. People were against Mexican artists. Mexican women were most hated in the movement. Some Mexicans can show culture with art. Mexicans were fighting for a difference. In conclusion, The chicano arts movement helped Mexicans.
Chicano art as activism
“El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán understood art as a vehicle of the movement and of revolutionary culture”.[5] Although the Chicano movement dissolved, Chicano art continued as an activist endeavor, challenging the social constructions of racial/ethnic discrimination, citizenship and nationality, labor exploitation, and traditional gender roles in effort to create social change. As Fields further explains, “Linked to its constitutive phased with the Chicano movement, or Movimiento, of the 1960s and 1970s, Chicano/a art articulated and mirrored a broad range of themes that had social and political significance, particularly with respect to cultural affirmation”.[6] Activism often took form in representing alternative narratives to the dominant through the development of historical consciousness, illustrations of injustices and indignities faced by Mexican-American communities, and development of a sense of belonging of Chicanos within the United States. Chicano art in its activist endeavors has become a form of popular education, of the people and by the people, in its ability to create a dialogue about these issues while empowering Chicanos to construct their own solutions.
Geography, immigration and displacement are a common themes in Chicano art.
The Chicano People's Park (
Chicano art as community-based
"From the words of poets, to the streets of Skid Row...murals are still storytellers with some bite."—Ed Fuentes, 2014[14]
As expressed through the Chicano Peoples’ Park, community-orientation and foundation is another essential element to Chicano art. Murals created by Chicano artists reclaim public spaces, encourage community participation, and aid in neighborhood development and beautification. “In communities of Mexican descent within the United States, the shared social space has often been a public space. Many families have been forced to live their private lives in public because of the lack of adequate housing and recreational areas”.[15] Community-based art has developed into two major mediums – muralism and cultural art centers.
Chicano art has drawn much influence from prominent muralists from the Mexican Renaissance, such as
Cultural art centers are another example of community-based Chicano art, developed during the Chicano Movement out of need for alternative structures that support artistic creation, bring the community together, and disseminate information and education about Chicano art. These centers are a valuable tool that encourages community gatherings as a way to share culture, but also to meet, organize and dialogue about happenings in the local Chicano community and society as a whole. “In order to combat this lack of voice, activists decided it was essential to establish cultural, political, and economic control of their communities”.[19] To again ensure accessibility and relevance, cultural art centers were located in their immediate community. These spaces provided Chicanos with an opportunity to reclaim control over how their culture and history is portrayed and interpreted by society as a whole. As Jackson explains, these centers “did not take the public museum as their guide; not only did they lack the money and trained staff, they focused on those subjects denied by the public museum’s homogenized narrative and history of the United States”.[20]
An example of a prominent cultural art center is
Other community-based efforts include projects for youth, such as the Diamond Neighborhood murals where Victor Ochoa and Roque Barros helped teach youth to paint in an area that had once been overwhelmed with graffiti. About 150 teenagers attended daily art classes taught by Ochoa and graffiti declined significantly.[23]
Chicano art as identity and cultural affirmation
Chicano art affirms their cultural identity through religious iconography and key elements of their Mexican, U.S., and indigenous cultures. For example, la Virgen de Guadalupe, of whom is an important figure in Mexican culture, is used in a socio-political context by Chicano artists as a symbol of both hope in times of suffering, and empowerment, particularly when embodying an average woman or portrayed in an act of resistance. Mexican and indigenous culture is celebrated through the practices of their ancestors (shrines, dance, murals, etc.). As new generations come to pass, art plays a role in educating Chicano youth about essential histories, traditions and values of their identity. One of the most celebrated holidays in Mexican culture is the Day of the Dead. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember family and friends who have died. The national holiday is celebrated in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day on November 1 and All Souls’ Day on November 2.[24] Since it is so central to Mexican religious and cultural traditions, Day of the Dead has become a major component of Chicano art.
Traditions connected with the holiday include the building of private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls or marigolds and visiting the deceased with gifts of their favorite foods or beverages.[25] Chicanos are able to affirm their cultural, ethnic and religious identities through daily life in the barrio, and artists draw upon these traditions, experiences and images, such as sugar skulls and La Virgen de Guadalupe, in their artwork to reflect the importance of self-determination and cultural difference to Chicanos.
Mesoamerica, a region extending south and east from central Mexico to include parts of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua, is a common theme in Chicano art, expressing their shared, yet diverse culture and identity. Going back to pre-Columbian times, Mesoamericans were inhabited by highly advanced civilizations, with their own political organization, agriculture system, mythology, writing systems, and calendars. From these roots, the emergence of radiant Chicano art were traced. Indigenous heritage of Chicanos helps suffice why some activists during the Chicano Movement and beyond portrayed Mesoamerican and Aztlan imagery in their art.[26] “The adoption of indigenous Mesoamerican imagery allowed Chicanas/os to assert an indigenous identity and, more importantly, helped to build a communal sensibility based on spiritual and cultural concepts”.[27] Aztlan, a mythic region expanding from the U.S. Southwest to Mexico, is common theme in Chicano art as an expression of cultural nationalism. “The powerful symbolism of Aztlan as an ancestral homeland emanated from the deep Chicana/o sense of dislocation and deterritorialization experience in the aftermath of the Mexican–American War, which resulted in the annexation by the United States of the northern territories of Mexico, as well as the earlier Spanish colonial invasion”. Demands from Chicanos for equality and social justice have roots in this long history of loss and displacement. Furthermore, Aztlan and the reclamation of their indigenous roots has become a symbol for belonging for many Chicanos, in a nation that often discriminates, demonizes and criminalizes Mexican-Americans and Latinos as a whole. “Artists, activists, and cultural workers focused on the integration of indigenous thought through the selection, reclamation, and preservation of the cultural practices considered essential to combating oppressive stance of larger society”.[28] Many Chicanos preserve their connection to their Aztec heritage by incorporating Aztec imagery (Quetzalcoatl, goddesses and gods, livelihood, temples, etc.) into their art, from murals to prints to performance dance to music, as a way for historical and cultural affirmation.
Women in the Chicano art movement
Women artists in the Chicano movement highlighted not only the struggles that Chicanos faced, but struggles that were specific to Chicanas. The Chicano art movement was a platform for Chicanas to speak about their struggles even when it was difficult, with boundaries within the Chicano movement itself and being excluded from the feminist movement.
Scholars have emphasized that the sexist and patriarchal views of the 1970s had an effect on the Chicano movement. Chicanas had to face sexist ideas from men in the Chicano movement, labeling the role of women as "sub-ordinate".[29] The struggles of women were different than men, having to choose between family or career, and for activists, having to choose between the feminist movement and the Chicano movement.[30]
While the
Artists like Judithe Hernandez and Judy Baca made strides to break gender stereotypes and include themselves in the Chicano art movement. Both of these artists have spoken about the challenge of choosing to be a part of the feminist movement or the Chicano art movement. Judy Baca recalls, "I began a very long period of time straddling two lives - the feminist information and life that supported my growth as a woman, and my community life which was in the Latino community as I worked intently in the neighborhoods. And they never really met. They were constantly separated."[29]
Judy Baca along with the Social and Public Art Resource center (SPARC), created a mural called The Great Wall of Los Angeles, a mural that depicted the history of California from the perspective of women and minorities. Judy Baca has brought in many women artists to contribute to this mural over the years.[30]
Judithe Hernandez was one of the artists that created art centering Chicana women, and was a part of an art collective, consisting of 4 other male artists, called Los Four.[31]
La Virgen De Guadalupe in Chicana art
Many Chicana artists looked to La Virgen de Guadalupe as a dominant icon and sought to redefine her meaning. Scholars point to how ubiquitous the Virgin Mary is in Mexican households as a cultural icon and symbol of femininity. Redefining her image was controversial because some in the religious and art world took offense to the revisions Chicana artist took on La Virgen de Guadalupe.
For example, Chicana artist Yolanda Lopez remodels the portrait of the Virgin of Guadalupe into images of working women. Yolanda transforms the Virgen Mary from a deity into a laborious-driven immigrant mother that provides for their family. Specifically in Yolanda Lopez’s artwork: “Mother: Our Lady of Guadalupe,” she portrays a wage-earning woman sewing the holy veil. Yolanda Lopez embodied La Virgen de Guadalupe as a brown working woman that brought controversy to her paintings.[32]
In another example, Alma Lopez’s paintings generated controversy due to the representation of queer sexuality contesting La Virgen de Guadalupe religious meaning. Alma Lopez, a queer Chicana artist, uses La Virgen de Guadalupe to create a series of depictions of La Virgen de Guadalupe as a sexual image in contrast to virginal purity. In Alma Lopez’s artwork “Encuentro” queerness is depicted by showing La Virgen and La Sirena in love, evoking acceptance of non-heterosexual orientation, contrary to her heterosexual symbol of innocence.[33]
Additionally, Chicana Artist Ester Hernandez utilizes the image of La Virgen as a political symbol fighting for the rights of Chicano/as. Hernández in “La Virgen de Guadalupe Defendiendo Los Derechos de los Xicanos” dresses La Virgen de Guadalupe in a karate Gi and poses her in an impassioned kicking stance. Ester Hernandez juxtaposes the meaning of La Virgen as a calm nonviolent peace symbol into an image that evokes force and strength.[34]
Chicano art as life in the barrio
Another expression of Chicano identity through their art is their depictions of life in the barrio - Spanish-speaking, Latino neighborhoods in a city or town. Often the barrios, as ethnic enclaves, have long histories of dislocation, marginalization, poverty, and inequity in access social services. In the United States, barrios can also refer to the geographical “turf” claimed by Latino gangs, most commonly limited to Chicano gangs in California. However, it was in these barrios that the most interesting forms of art were made by the Chicano community, particularly lowrider cars and bicycles, and graffiti.[26] A very popular style of car, even to this day, emerged from Chicano barrios, known as a “.” A lowrider is a style of car that sits lower to the ground than most other cars. Many lowriders have their suspension systems modified with hydraulic suspension so that the car can change height at the flip of a switch.[35] Lowriding originated in the 1930s and blossomed in Southwestern Chicano communities during the post-war prosperity of the ‘50s. Initially, youth who were dressed in the “pachuco” style would place sandbags in the trunk of their customized cars in order to create a lowered effect. However, this method was quickly replaced by lowering blocks, cut spring coils, z’ed frames and drop spindles. The goal was to cruise as slowly as possible so that people could see what types of customizations were done to your car.[35] Lowrider customizations consist of sun visors, fender skirts, bug deflectors, and swamp coolers. Expensive custom paint jobs are also common such as metal oxide flake or pearl flake, clear coat, metal leaf, airbrushed murals or script, pinstripes, and flames. Gold or chrome spoke wheels or rims such as Astro Supremes, Cragers, Tru spokes, Crowns, Daytons and Zeniths are also common.[35] Many cars have the modification of having suicide doors, or doors which open in the opposite direction to a standard car door, scissor doors that open vertically, or gull-wing doors that open towards the roof, swinging up. Since the early 1990s, lowriders have become common in urban youth culture in general, primarily in West Coast hip hop.[35] The lowriding scene is diverse including many different cultures, vehicle makes and visual styles; however, it remains an important part of the Chicano community and identity.
Chicano art even embraced the vandalistic expressions of graffiti. Art in the barrio also incorporates graffiti as a form of artistic expression, often associated with subcultures that rebel against authority. Graffiti has origins in the beginnings of hip hop culture in the 1970s in New York City, alongside rhyming, b-boying, and beats. It was used to publicly display their artistic expressions with their social and political opinions in response to their lack of access to museums and art institutions, and the continuous strife, discrimination, and struggle of living in the city. Because graffiti is illegal in most cases, this form of art has flourished in the underground, requiring little money and providing an opportunity to voice what is often excluded from dominant histories and media. From here, although graffiti remains the major form of street art, other mediums have evolved - including stenciling, stickers, and wheatpasting. Graffiti often has negative associations with serving territorial purposes for gangs, displaying tags and logos that differentiate certain groups from others, therefore marking their “turf”. Within Chicano barrios, gangs use their own form of graffiti or tagging to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities.[36] Gang members also often use graffiti to designate membership, differentiate rivals and alliances, and mark ideological borders. Imagery of gang-related graffiti often consists of cryptic symbols and initials with unique calligraphy styles. Graffiti is arguably perceived as unacceptable, claimed to degrade the “look” or value of properties’ walls or buildings in a way that is not presentable.
On the other hand, Chicano artists also use graffiti as a tool, to express their political opinions, indigenous heritage, cultural and religious imagery, and counter-narratives to dominant portrayals of Chicano life in the barrios. Similar to other forms of art within the Chicano Movement (silk-screen printing, murals, etc.), graffiti has become another tool of resistance, reclamation, and empowerment as Chicanos make their own space for expression and popular education. Graffiti is now commonly recognized as a form of public art, embraced by museums, art critics, and art institutions. But its significance for many Chicanos remains in the barrios, reiterating the importance of accessibility and inclusion in relation to their identity and community in their artwork. In times of conflict, such murals have offered public modes communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically and racially marginalized communities, and have become effective tools in facilitating dialogue, challenging injustices and stereotypes that impact their neighborhoods and peoples, and in the end, elevating their community.
Important exhibitions and collections
- Cheech Marin Collection: one of the largest private collections of Chicano art, collected by The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture & Industry in Riverside, California.
- Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation (CARA): a touring exhibition that visited ten United States cities from 1990 to 1993.
- Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge, curated by René Yañez: a touring exhibition which visited twelve cities in the United States from 2001 to 2007.
Chicano cultural centers
- Acción Latina in San Francisco, California.
- Avenue 50 Gallery, Highland Park, California
- Centro Cultural de la Raza, in San Diego's Balboa Park in California
- Centro de Arte Público in Los Angeles, California
- Chicano Park in San Diego, California
- Galería de la Raza, in San Francisco, California
- Mexican Heritage Plaza, in San Jose, California
- Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, in San Francisco, California
- Plaza de la Raza Gallery, Los Angeles, California
- San Anto Cultural Arts in San Antonio, Texas
- Self-Help Graphics and ArtInc, in Los Angeles, California
- Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), in Venice, California
Chicano Art Collectives
- Mexican American Liberation Art Front (MALAF) (1968-1970) [38]
- ASCO (1971-1987)
- Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) (1972)
- Mujeres Muralistas (1973-1977)
- Con Safos and Los Quemados [24]
- Los Four (1973-1983)
- Co-Madres Artistas (1992) [24]
Museums and galleries focusing on Chicano art
- Galería de la Raza in San Francisco, California
- Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas
- Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA) in San Jose, California
- Museo Eduardo Carrillo an online museum
- Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Arts and Culture in Riverside, California
Quotes
"Chicano art is the modern, ongoing expression of the long-term cultural, economic, and political struggle of the Mexicano people within the United States. It is an affirmation of the complex identity and vitality of the Chicano People. Chicano art arises from and is shaped by our experiences in the Americas."—Founding Statement of the CARA National Advisory Committee, July 1987[39]
"Arte Chicano has frequently been stereotyped as being extremely political. True enough, some of it does reflect the socio-political struggle of Chicanos, but that is not exclusively what it deals with or is about. It is not the artistic arm of any particular political ideology. It is the art of a people, of Chicanos as a cultural entity."—Los Quemados, 1975[40]
See also
References
- ^ Quirarte, Jacinto (1973). Mexican American Artists. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
- ^ ISSN 0022-3840.
- ^ ISBN 0943739152.
- ^ Rangel, Jeffrey (1997). "Oral history interview with Gronk, 1997 Jan. 20-23". Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-8263-2427-6.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ISBN 978-0-8263-2427-6.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ ISBN 1880508028.
- ISBN 978-0-8165-2647-5.
- ISBN 978-0-8165-2647-5.
- ^ ISBN 0938461001.
- ISBN 978-0-415-94420-5.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-415-94420-5.
- ISBN 978-0-415-94420-5.
- ^ Fuentes, Ed (5 March 2015). "Monthly Mural Wrap: A Dozen Tags for March, 2014". KCET. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-8263-2427-6.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ a b Acosta, Teresa Palomo (12 June 2010). "Chicano Mural Movement". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-8165-2647-5.
- ISBN 978-0-8165-2647-5.
- ISBN 978-0-8165-2647-5.
- ISBN 978-0-8165-2647-5.
- ISBN 978-0-8165-2647-5.
- ISBN 978-0-8165-2647-5.
- ISBN 9780470522110. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8165-2647-5.
- ^ “The Day of the Dead”. Día de los Muertos Index. Access Mexico Connect.
- ^ a b Galindo, Steve. "Life in the Barrio". Retrieved 15 December 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-8263-2427-6.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ISBN 978-0-8263-2427-6.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ ISBN 978-0-8165-4297-0.
- ^ a b Culture Fix: Judithe Hernandez on the Role of Women in the Chicano Art Movement, retrieved 2022-10-12
- ^ ISSN 1562-384X.
- doi:10.2307/3178436.
- ^ Calvo, Luz. “Art Comes for the Archbishop: The Semiotics of Contemporary Chicana Feminism and the Work of Alma Lopez.” Meridians, vol. 5, no. 1, 2004, pp. 201–24.
- .
- ^ a b c d Arredondo, David. "Lowrider History (The Good Old Lowrider Controversy)". Retrieved 15 December 2011.
- ^ Stowers, George. "Graffiti Art". Archived from the original on 11 January 2010. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
- ^ Marin, Cheech. "Chicano Art". Cheech. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
- JSTOR j.ctv1qwwk05.
- ISBN 0943739152.
- ^ Artistas Chicanos Los Quemados. San Antonio, Texas: Instituto Cultural Mexicano. 1975. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
Further reading
- Goldman, Shifra M.; Ybarra-Frausto, Tomás (1985). Introduction. Berkeley: UC Berkeley, Chicano Studies Library Publication Unit. pp. 3–59. )
External links
- Rappaport, Emily (2015-09-30). "This L.A. Delivery Man Amassed One of the World's Largest Collections of Chicano Art". Artsy.