CH ST 1C L10 5:14 - Lecture notes 10 PDF

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CH ST 1C: INDIGENEITY W CHIC MURALS & CALENDARS

Framing Questions: Relationship between Azlan and nation (sense of lost land and reclamation) Indignity and Chicana: Why did Chic Artists rely on Indigents icons and stories Dominant motifs seen in murals: What are five recurring images circulated within murals How are both murals and poster art (we will discuss poster art on Thursday naturally Chicano indicative of a Chicano experience? Terms: Genre: set up to condition the viewer to know what to expect, pushes the boundaries but rarely defies them. Boundaries around a concept or idea; categorical; set of expectations to condition viewer/listener/consumer; note: genres are valued when pushed but rarely defied Motifs: a distinctive feature or dominant idea; used a lot when discussing narratives; indignity is a motif in murals Chicano Movement: social and political movement of the 1960s and 19702 that brought visibility to Mexican Americans Nation: “evokes a certain political power that the words minority and group simply did not have. Bonds that bring a nation together are more psychological and emotional. Insistence during the Chicano Movement that Azlan was a nation Chic nation was built through legalistic or geographic means but through the celebration and protection of culture which in many cases was defined as indigenous to the Americas Chicanos did not want to rejoin Mexico, nor cut themselves from the Us, they wanted a sense of recognition: farm worker rights, within the legal system of the US. 5 Motifs in murals: - Spanish - Indignity - Political message - Timeline/Calendar - Representing the future - Children/Technology: Pyramids - Awe of the presence of pyramids In order to have a movement it did have a tinge of militaristic feelings or antagonism, indigenous images that are passive Indigenous and Indigeneity: Indigenous: a term applied to people and by the people to themselves who are engaged in an often desperate struggle for political rights, for land, for a place and space within a modern nation’s economy and society. Identity and self-representation are vital elements of the political platform of such peoples Indigeneity: organic expressions that emerge from indigenous ideas/peoples/communities themselves…serves spiritual and pragmatic need

Murals Chicano format, genesis of murals came from Mexican art forms: Diego Rivera Some sense of understanding culturally Adopted from Mexican muralists such as Diego Rivera Chic excluded from museum and galleries; needed to find alternative space Canvas is public Collective and democratic means of expression; shared labor and authorship Urban areas: outside or inside Actual genre to have a Mexican wall: interviews owners, childhood memories, depict differently in a mural form Accused Rivera being a communist: for workers rights Chicano Park in San Diego mainstreaming of mural art: we see them in public places, become very multicultural and communicating mainstreaming of mural art Staring on the left: historical origins, acknowledge Chumash lands and goes right Xochitl=Flower Ozomahtli=God of Dance C/S corner of the mural, Con Samos, Stake or a plant Idea or sense of motifs for Chic nation, coloring is bronze or brown and not white, reclaiming historical recognition of whose lands that is We are a bronze people with bronze culture. Before the world, before all of NA, before all our brothers i the bronze continent, we are a nation, we are a union of free pueblos, we are Aztlan

5 Motifs about Murals: - Together, visual representations of Chicano culture, Chicano nation - Aztec Sun God: touching back to this idea of the Aztec sun, to be given information when you’re looking for your roots is liberating; it empowers you, cosmic and historical time - Mestizo Face: Placing white, not recognized as white, acknowledging that we’re not white, assimilation to middle class whiteness, Cesar Chavez as a Mestizo face, Virgin de Guadalupe, Brown fists - Pyramids: How long did it take, These are areas that they are still uncovering everyday, momentous to see it, Even though Chic and Mexicans have been conditioned to live in places like low income housing projects and government subsidized buildings they once built and inhabited grander Mesoamerican structures, discovered in 1985, open in 2012 - Aztec Warriors: Embodiment of ingeneity, produced 70s, 80s, bread and butter of murals. Conditioned differently, murals in LA have more latino iconography, houses are supposed to look like pyramids, UFW motif is a pyramid upside down - Mexican Revolution: Emiliano Zapata (Tierra y Libertad), The land belongs to those who tend/ work/care for it - Francisco Villa: Robin Hood reputation - Soldaderas (Adelitas), Soldadera on mural - Large panels - Beautify East LA, San Francisco: grand, sense of power, ginormous sense of influence These motifs work together

What Makes Murals a Chicano practice? - Link from past to present, visual storytelling - Telling histories often left out of official satires of both the US and Mexico - Public art; beautification of public spaces unattended to by city councils - Sense of self; empowerment for youth to take part (collective process) - Hybrid = Chicano

- Tere Romo context to calendars: why did they become so popular, produced in Mexico, 1920-50s during the Post Revolutionary period Large indigenous population Post WWII pressure to reinvent Mexico as modern In search of a Mexican, national identity Have to come up with their own images and narratives Presenting yourself as a modern nation: being strong and capable, no one wants to refuse modernity commission artists to promote Mexicanness, look at indigenous past selves, imagined type of past Reminder or advertise all the functions, selling cigarettes: calendar functioned as art, promoted a sense of Mexicanness Calendars became affordable art while serving a commercial gain, cigarette liquor tire companies panderias advertised which made them free Spurred Mexico’s most powerful forms of cultural production and graphic arts traditions Promoted a sense of Mexicanness The migration of indigeneity Mexican calendars arrived to states with relatives during holiday seasons before being sold in the US by local Mexican businesses Jesus de la Helguera One of the most recognized artists from this era, stopped painting in 1971 Spanish father, Mexican mother Born in Mexico in 1910, raised and trained in Spain Returned to Mexico 1938 Pencil sketch then paint on canvas or photographs to paint canvas Amor Indio: Ixtaccihuatl and Popocapetl myth in Mexican and Chicano Art: young, in love, Popo with Ixta because he doesn't have enough experience proving his strength in battle, Ixta goes to battle to prove that he can survive battle: prove his to Ixta - leaves, returns, and Ixta waited so long that she died/not awake (devastated), takes her up to the highest point in order to wake her with snow. They both freeze. they become snow capped volcanoes: memorialized their love Whitening during transfer; subtle racism that promoted a romanticized European aesthetic at the expensive of an indigenous reality, light skin, attention to muscles that has to remind you of Greek art and statues

But whereas these calendars images had been used in Mexico to europeanize the national identity Chicanos used the very same images to indigenize a Mexican American self image The privileging of the European aesthetic within Mexican modern calendars continue to be seen within telenovelas she assimilates Grandezca azteca Legend of the Volcanoes

Alma Lopez Honor the story and place that migrated here we can tell this story differently Girl on girl love This is Ixta and Popo: losed loved ones in gang violence Hector Silva Man with a man, inserts himself as Ixta I did not fall asleep on my part: creates a different sentiment, plays with idea of gender differently in the effort to create different ideas of a nation “Oh you forgot that I am the queen” Ixta is carrying Popo

Name at least two of the three Helguera’s most famous paintings Describe the oral tradition that inspires this trio of paintings Why was it important to have these images convey strength and modernity during PRM Why was it important to have these images convey strength and indigeneity during the Chic Movement WHy do artists today continue to still use Helgueras images as a template How did Pahse I of art validate the cultural practices and barrio environments of Chicanos How did this differ from Phase II of art where the labor and cultural experiences of Chicanos were validated? How are Chicanos inherently rasquache...