Chicana Artist: Cecilia C. Alvarez - Yasmin Santis

Cecilia Concepción Alvarez (1950- )

Biography Cecilia Alvarez was born in 1950 to Cuban Jorge Guillermo Alvarez and Mexican Cecilia Alejandra Diego de Alvarez in National City, California. She grew up in both San Diego, California and Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico - this cultural and political ménage as well as her Cuban-Mexican heritage is what has been the main influence to most of her work (Alvarez, 2008). According to Alvarez, where she grew up “there was another aspect of ourselves that we cultivated, how we fit into the universe, telling jokes, music, laying tile, whatever it was that evolved that whole ability to think of our humanity” (Jenna, 2006) While attending San Diego State University in pursuit of a sociology degree, she had to drop out in order to support her family at the age of twenty-three. It was not until Alverez moved to Canada that she was able to think freely - this distance between her and the Chicano community provided her with the necessary space to organize and “see racism in a different light and to grow as an individual” (Ruiz and Korrol, 2006). Currently, Alvarez lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband and two children.

Alvarez’s Work  Alvarez’s focus is on the family and the “feminine” as a metaphor in general life and society - “the literal meaning of gender to portray the aspects of life that are considered inferior or less important in…society. Female perspectives on the symbolic things people give up to survive, such as culture and earth” (Ruiz and Korrol, 2006). Alvarez’s work is a dialogue on reality as well as human progression within specific communities. She redefines the “feminine,” beauty, power and prominence within societal schemas.

Main Idea  The majority of her work has an underlying theme of the commoditization of culture and family that occurs within the Chicano community, particularly within the border society she grew up with in San Diego. Alvarez found that recent immigrants sacrifice these two very important aspects of life in order to survive in a very turbulent political atmosphere and new culture. She takes this theme and focuses on sending the message of preserving culture and family - not sacrificing it as many do. Her artwork has “culture, often depicted as family figures or indigenous figures, and the Earth, represented by flowers or animals. The use of family figures and the Earth is an important aspect of her ideas on the preservations of culture and community” (Ruiz and Korrol, 2006).

In Focus  Many claim that her strength within this discourse is to “incorporate the observer into a dialogue of current social issues within the context of culture” (Ruiz and Korrol, 2006). The next few slides will be analyses of several pieces of her work that exemplifies this as well as forces the viewer to think inward about their place in society, how these certain social issues affect them, and how they react to these issues when presented to them in real life.

Si Te Puede Pasar a Ti, EL SIDA, 1992  Originally intended as an installation piece, El SIDA can also be viewed as a painting and is just as effective. As mentioned earlier, Alvarez uses the image of a woman to depict the idea of the feminine. This piece does contain the underlying theme of family, as it is a mother and child, but that is not the main point she is portraying. Both the woman and child are half fully fleshed and half skeletal - demonstrating the inescapability and inevitability of death. Simultaneous to this bold statement is the idea of control over death: the woman is holding out a condom. Which has many connotations of STI’s as well as abortion. The condom is a symbol of power, ability to prevent the spread of infections as well as preventing pregnancy - control over life, sickness, and death.

La Tierra Santa, 1986 In La Tierra Santa, there is the familiar figure of a woman in a defensive stance holding out her hand, palm-up, as if to say, “STOP!” The picture to the right shows the Earth teeming full of different beasts huddling underneath their protector. The Earth and the moon are known to be feminine objects in many cultures. The moon in this piece acts like a type of halo, sanctifying the feminine. This piece in particular is about the mother protecting her own. She is holding a child, showing that hurting the Earth is to hurt your children, the next generation. Finally, there are three indigenous figures peeking out from her sides as she protects them as well. The message of this piece says that the people of the Earth are just as sacred; to kill the animals and the people is to kill your children and the land itself.

Other Works

Above: Las Quatas Diego, 1979 Left: La Malinche Tiene sus Rasones

Links

 Artist’s Website: http://ceciliaalvarez.com/  Short Video Lecture Given by Alvarez http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl7mUJSGLOM&eurl=http

Bibliography Alvarez, Cecilia C. (2003-2008). Cecilia Alvarez. Retrieved November 26, 2008, from Chicana Artist: Cecilia Alvarez Web site: http://ceciliaalvarez.com/ Jenna (2006, Oct. 18). The Art of Cecilia Alvarez. Retrieved November 26, 2008, from Brown Bag Lecture Series Web site: http://www.edcc.edu/afterwords/?p=120 Ruiz, V, & Korrol, V (2006). Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia.Indiana University Press.