Introduction
Chicana
is a phrase that represents Mexican immigrants to the U.S.A. It represents
those women whom once cannot be classified as either Mexicans or Americans.
Around the year 1960s in California, Chicana community formed a movement to
fight for the women’s rights in the society where they live in as they had been
discriminated by their white counterparts as ‘people of color’. Therefore, the
critical point of forming this movement was to fight against racism and address
gender issues. It is noteworthy that, just like what other women face in life,
it is hard for them to fight against the more dominant men for their rights. The
reason this movement is formed is to fight for their rights in their own
community. Interestingly, they made artwork addressing some of the issues they
faced to voice their grievances. This paper focuses on the life and struggle of
Chicanas as they try to forge a way forward in a world full of discrimination.
Chicana Murals: A story so Struggle
and Nationalism
The
Chicana faced a lot of difficulties in their life ranging from social,
political and economical struggles as they strove to assert themselves. In the
United States, discrimination came from both the Americans and the fellow Mexicans,
that is, the Mexicans and the Americans did not view the Chicanos as either
Americans or Mexicans. The Chicana movement started as a result of efforts made
by people such as Roal Attorny who believed that it was imperative that the
Chicana assert themselves in the hostile world.
The
year 1960 saw the onset of various struggles such as the Vietnamese war and
fight for land, political, workers and education rights across the US (Julie
38). During this period, the Chicanas continued practicing their culture of
painting and sculpturing on their exodus to California. Therefore, painting and
imagery became one of the vital ways of communication. One should not observe
the images the Chicanas created in the ordinary form, but analyze and break
down the images into deeper meaning. This was a period of intense artistic
activity among the Chicanas and, indeed, sixty out of eighty murals, in Los-
Angeles, were made in the early 1960s (Guisela 47).
Secondly,
those advocating for the rights of immigrants of Mexican origin, in America,
used images in what was commonly known as Walls of Empowerment. The aim of
these images was to establish and solidify Mexican identity across the social,
economical and political lives of the Mexican people in America. Artists from
Chicana community used art to showcase the realism in the Chicana women rather
than how people view them. The artists gave up the earlier paintings where
Mexican women were presented as maids or as sex toys and began to paint
pictures of the real Mexican woman.
For
instance, they made artwork of a woman holding a child and a woman applying
makeup. It is noteworthy that these images represented the social lives of the
Chicanas. However, at this moment, most of the American media presented Chicana
woman as a submissive woman whom often struggling in low paying jobs or being
used as a sex object. Secondly, Chicana artists advocated for people’s rights
to land. It is worth noting that many Mexicans died as they tried to cross the
electric, barbed wires along the American border.
The
murals, therefore, also depicted images of Mexicans lying dead as a result of
electric shock from the electric, barbed wire. People dying while trying to
cross boarders was one form of injustice that the Americans subjected to the
Mexicans and this is one of the things the Chicanos were against (Julie 98).
There was also the case of violence from the police, which the Mexicans were
aggrieved about, and most of these problems passed unreported. Therefore,
murals were also a vital way of showcasing these undocumented issues as they
have no control over the media.
Additionally,
the Chicano moratorium was a vital element in the El Movimiento that Gronk
captured in his work called the ‘Black and White Murals’. This moratorium was a
way of protesting against the Vietnamese war, in the early 1970s. However, the
protesters faced a lot of torture in the hands of police. In addition, the
protests led to destruction of many homes and scores of people got arrested.
The protests also led to the death of three people. The result of these
protests was the birth of the La Raza Unida party, in the year 1974. This party
sought to have East Los-Angeles become a separate, semi-autonomous
municipality. This represented an opportunity for the La Raza party to create
Aztlan. In this context, the Chicanos represented their cultural nationalism
through the myths of the Aztlan. Archeologists and historians assert that
pre-Aztec is a community that lived at a place in the southwestern of America.
Great thinkers, artists and activists understood that the Aztlan were people
who lived somewhere along the Mexican-American boarder, and their main aim was to
fight for their political and geographical rights. Therefore, the Aztlan strove
to have a sense of belonging and identity amongst the people, in the U.S (Debra
195).
A major
stereotype that the Chicanas had to fight was that of the submissive Virgin of
Guadeloupe. In this regard, Yolanda created an image of a modern Chicano woman
and, instead of a standing woman, he painted an image of a woman wearing shoes
and on the run.
This is
an indication of a woman in charge of her life and ready to control her
direction. The serpent on the new painting of the Chicano woman is an
indication of a woman in control of serpents. The serpent, on the other hand,
is an indication of the bond that exists between the Mexicans and Americans.
Further, the Angel in the artwork represents the American flag’s colors as they
empower the Chicana women to fight for their rights. Lopez also painted a
picture of his mother and sister. This shows that even though the Chicana women
were becoming modernized, they remained glued to their family values. Lopez got bored of the old image of the
Virgin of Guadeloupe and wanted to change her image so that other women would
appreciate the new painting of their Saint.
Thirdly,
at a time when Los- Angeles was becoming one of the leading cities, in the
country, there was a lot of change in historical art and its criticism.
Artwork, at this time, represented figures in their everyday life. It depicted
images in a straightforward manner, which made it easy for people to read and
understand. The focus of this modern art work was to use Pop art to reach out
to a large audience (Debra 67). The murals, also, were in a form that ordinary
people could access and understand them. It is worth noting that the ancient
Chicano murals were hard to understand despite the fact that they were present
since the 1960s (Guisela 21). This made California an epicenter of artwork with
its mix of historical and modern art. Images in most of the modern art focused
mostly on the number of high-rise building, in the state of California, or what
artists referred to as ‘super graphics’. Of interest is that there are still
some murals in Estrada courts depicting ‘super graphics’. However, the patterns
on the walls of Estrada Courts were never a point of discussion, or a reference
to the super graphics style. These images represented a new dimension, in the
art world.
These
images provide the reader with a history of muralist culture of the Mexicans
and encourage people to respect the behavior of others. Further, they provide
the reader with new materials and resources they have never encountered through
print work. The Walls of empowerment are an endeavor that does not privilege
the non- Latin public artwork. Latorre, one of the key proponents of Walls of
Empowerment, introduces the reader to new aspects of muralist such as new
media, technology and sculpture (Guisela 95). In addition, this is an endeavor
that has borrowed from ancient art, and Mexican- American communities have used
it to make people aware of indigenous cultures. Further, the Chicana movement
focuses on alleviating poverty, racism and discrimination across the lines of
color, sex and education, not only in interactions with Americans, but also
within the Chicano community. The movement also wishes to educate the Chicana
women through seminars. For instance, the Chicana women gathered, in Colorado,
for a seminar dubbed the Chicana Youth Conference on Empowerment, in the year
1969. Further, this is the seminar where the Chicano community came up with
Chicano and Chicana as two separate movements, but with a common goal. In
addition, it was during this time that people from different grassroots
organizations came together to have a common goal. In the year 1971, the
movement met for the first time as the Chicana movement, in Houston, Texas.
This was the time that the movement first got an opportunity to air its
grievances in public. To date, the movement continues to advocate for the
rights of the Chicano women.
Lastly,
Judith Baca argues that there were many cases of injustice facing the youths,
in Los- Angeles, during this period (Alejandra, 265). She argues that there is
a 2700 foot wall of a mural made to represent the history of the state of
California. She also says that the murals have managed to send a message of
indigenous peoples who made California and the country. As a result, youths
have engaged with this culture and learned to appreciate it, as well as
beautify it. Further, the murals have other significant meanings to the people
of Los-Angeles and American citizens at large. There is also the history of the
Second World War between especially the confrontation America and Japan. Though
one may argue that the images used by the Chicanas may be vague, Judith argues
that it is worth that the youths learn about these things so that they can
appreciate the cultures of others and stop discrimination.
Conclusion
Artwork
is a significant way for people to represent their grievances. The Chicanos had
from time memorial used art to teach and pass their traditions from one
generation to the other. In America, the Chicano community faced a lot of
problems ranging from racism and other civil rights abuses. As a result,
Mexican women wanted to protect their rights and fight demeaning stereotypes.
Therefore, they used artwork to represent women in their natural form such as a
woman carrying a child and a woman applying makeup. It is noteworthy that art
work has changed a lot since the Chicana community started its work, in the
year 1960. Nowadays, most people are interested in Pop art unlike the earlier
works of the Chicanas that are hard to understand.
Discussion Questions
1. What do
you think the biggest obstacles the Chicana movement faced as it made progress
when it was first started in 1960 and what could be achieved if no such
obstacles exist?
2. Give
two examples of Chicana murals stated in the above article and how are these
murals considered significant to the Chicana movement?
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