Signs From The Heart

SIGNS FROM

THE HEART: California Chicano Murals Edited with an introduction by Eva Sperling Cockcroft Holly Barnet-Sanchez Social and Public Art Resource Center Venice, Califomia

• PREFACE J ud ith F. Baca

1-3 • IN TRODUCTI ON

SOCI AL AND P UBLI C ART RESO U RCE CENTER

Eva Sperling Cockcrofr and Holly Barn et-Sanchez

5 - 21

Pu blished by Soc ia l and P ublic An Resource Ce nte r 685 Ven ice Boul evard Venice, Californ ia 90291

• HOW , W HY, \'(IHERE A N D WHEN IT ALL HAPPEN ED: Chicano Murals of California

(213) 822 -9560

Shifra M. G oldman

22 ·53

© Copyrighr Soc ial and P u bli c Art Resource Ce nter, 1990 All rights reserved . Printed in Singapo re

Cover: Las Lecosgneras, 198 3, Juana Alicia 27 94 24 th Sr.. M ission Dist rict , San Francisco to tal mural 30 x SO', phoro: T im Drescher

• ARTE CHICA NO: Images of a Com munity ~ .

T omas Ybarra-Frausto

54 - 67 • QUEST FOR IDEN TI T Y : Profile of Two Chicana Muralists based on Interviews wit h Judi th F. Baca and Patricia Rod rig uez Am alia Mesa-Bains

68 - 83 Book desig n by Cynthia Ander son and Chrisrienne de Tournay Funded in part by: Ahm anson Foundat ion ARCa Foundation Ca liforn ia Com muni ty Foundat ion California Counc il on t he H umanit ies McD onnell-Doug las Lear Siegler Fou ndation Pacific Bell Corporation National Endowm ent for th e Art s, Visual Arts University of California at Irvine, Fine Art s Department ISBN ' 0-96 264 19-0- 1

• MURALES D EL MOVIM IEN TO: Chican o Murals and t he D iscourses of Art and Americanization Marcos Sanc hez-T ranq uilino

84 - 101 • CON T RIBUTO RS 10 2 • LIST OF PLAT ES 103 - 104 • SUGGESTIONS FOR FU RTHER READING 105

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his book can be seen as the fulfillment of a d ream beg un in 1974 when the first slide was collected of the Archive of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPA Re). T his process, which began among muralists as one collects pictures fora family al bum co record memories, changed as we realized we were in the midst of something im po rtant . As the Chicano artist commun ity became increasingly committed to the goals of the Chicano Movement, the purpose of o ur com munal work became clearer . What had begun as a casual record ing of our murals to share and exchange would soon outg row irs picture taking phase and become the basis of nationwide photo documenta tion of a powerful com munity based art . W h ile the Chicano collection represents only one part of SPARes larger collection of international mural slides, it is an extremely significant one as Chicano murals have infl uenced international muralism g reatly and contri buted to the shift in emphasis from Mexico to the Un ited States as the center of mural production in the world. W e are now at a juncture where we can bring together this photographic documentation with essays by scholars on Chicano moralism in California , its art ists, its imagery, and its social and historical developm ent . As one of the "cultural workers" of the early Chicano Movement , I recall our de sire to develop a new visual language which spoke from our own cultural precedents in p re-Columbian art an d our experience of contemporary popular Ch icano culture. ~ha t was appropriate visual language was the subject of considerable intellectual (and not so intellectual) debate among us. T he hundreds of murals produced in Mexican-American neighborhoods across the counrry attest ro the realizat ion of a pe rsonal and collective voice, as 1

NO COMPRE V/NO GALW 1974 Carlos Almaraz with young people from the 3rd St. ga ng 2 L3 South Sow Sr. formerly All Nations Center, East Los Angeles

8' x 30'

truly "p ublic" art p rovides society wit h the symbolic rep resentation of collect ive beliefs as well as a cont inuing re-affirm ation of the collect ive sense of self. Paintings on walls, or "mu rals" as t hey are commonly called , are perhaps the quintessent ial pu bl ic art in this reg ard. Since before t he cave pai nt ings at Altam ira some 15,000 years before Ch rist, wall paintings have served as a way of communicat ing collect ive visions within a comm uni ty of people. During the Renaissance in Italy, considered by many to be the gol den age of W estern Art, murals were regarded as the hig hest form in rhe hierarchy of painting . They served ro illusrrare the relig ious lessons of the ch urch and to embody the new H umanism of t he period through artistic innovat ions like perspective and naturalistic anatomy. Mter the Mexican Revolution of 191 0-1 91 7, murals again served as the artis tic vehicle for educati ng a larg ely illiterate populace abour the ideals of the Dew society and the virtues and evils of the past. As parr of a re-evaluation of t heir cultural ident ity by MexicanAmericans du ring the Chicano moveme nt for civil rights and social jus tice that began in t he m id19 60s, murals again p rovided an important organ izing tool and a means for the reclamat ion of their specific cul tural heritag e. T he desire by people for beauty and mean ing in thei r lives is fundam ental co their identi ty as human beings . Some form of art , therefore, has existed in every society rhroug hour hiscory. Before the development of a significant private picture market in Seventeenth Cent ury Holland, most art was public, comm issioned by royalty, clergy, or powerful cit izens for the g reater g lory of their country, ch urch , or city and placed in public spaces. H owever, after the Industrial Revolut ion and the developme nt of mode rn capitalism with its stress on fi nancial rat her than social values, the art world system as we kn ow it today wit h galleries, crit ics, and

m useums grad ua lly developed . More and more, art became a lu xu ry object co be en joyed and traded like: any other co m mod ity. T he break-up of the stable structures of feuda l society and the fluidit y and dynamism of post- Industri al soc iety was reflected sym bo lically in art by the disruption of naturalistic space and the experimentation charact er istic of Mod ernism. Modernism has been a mixed blessing for art and art ists. Along with a new freedom for Innovation and the opportu ni ty ro express an ind ividual vision that resu lted from the loss of d irect control by patrons of artistic production, artists experienced a sense of alie nation from the materialistic values of capitalism , loss of a feeling of clearl y defined social ut ili ry, and the freedom to starve. T his unstable class situat ion and perception of isolation from society was exp ressed in rhe arrirude of the bohem ian avant garde art ist who scorns bot h the crass com mercialism of the bou rgeoisie and the unsophisrocared tastes of the wo rki ng class, creeri ng work exclusively for the appreciation of a new aristocracy of taste. Especiall y in the Uni ted States of the 196Os, for most people art had become an irrelevant and mysterious thing enjoyed o nly by a small educated el ite. When muralism emerged again as an importanrart movement in Mexico during the 1920 s, the murals served as a way of crea ti ng a new national consciousness - a role quite sim ilar to that of the reiig ious murals of the Renaissance although directed toward a different form of social cohes io n. Un like the murals of the Ital ian Renaissance wh ich exp ressed the com monly held beliefs of bach rulers and masses, the Mexican m u rals po rt rayed the ideology of a worker, peasant and middle class revolution ag ainst the former rul ing class: cap italists, clergy , and foreig n inte rests . Since rhac rime in the eyes of many, contemporary m ural ism has been identified with poor people, revol ution, and com m unism. T his association has been a major facto r in changi ng mu ralism's ran k wit hi n the hierarch y of the "fine arts" from che highest to the lowest. Once the favored art of popes and po ten tates, m urals, especially Mexican-style narrat ive murals, now considered a "poor people's art ", have fallen to a level ofo nly marginal acceptance within the art world. T he th ree g reat Mexic an art ists whose names have becom e al most syno nymous wi th that m ural renaissance, D ieg o Rivera, J ose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, were all influenced by stylistic cu rren ts in European moderni sm - Cu bism, Expressionism , and Futu rism _ but they used t hese stylistic in novations to create a new socially motivated real ism . Rather than co ntinuing to use the naturalistic pictorial space of Renaissance m u rals, the Mexican s explored new forms of compos ition. R ivera used a col lage- like d iscontin uous space which juxtaposed elements of d ifferent sizes; Orozco em ployed non -nat uralis t ic brushwork, d istorted for ms, and exag g erated light and dark, while Siqueircs adde d expressive uses of 6

perspective wi th extreme foresho rt eni ng t hat made fo rms burst rig ht our or the wall. T he sryl isric innovations of rhe Mexicans have p rovided che basis for a modern mural languag e and most contemporary mura lism is based to some excenr o r another on the Mexican model. The Mexi can precedent hac: been especially irnporran r in the U nited States for the social realist muralists of the Wotks Prog ress Adm inistration (W PA) and Treasury Section p rograms of the New Deal period and the contemporary mural moveme nt tha t beg an in the late 19 60s. Mote rhan 25 00 murals were pain ted with go vernment sponsorship d uring the New Deal period in the U nited St at es. By the beginning of W orld War II howeve r. support for social real ist painting and mu ralism in general, had ended. D uring the Cold War period that followed , rea.iscic pai nting became id enti fi ed with total itarian syste ms like that of the Soviet U nion , while abstract ion, especially New Yo rk-style Abscracc Expression ism, was seen as symbo lizi ng ind ividual freed om in avant gardearr circles. By the early 19605, on ly the various kinds of absrracr art from the geometric to te e bio-morphic were even considered to reall y be an . Endorsed by crit ics and the New York museums, abs traction was promulgated ab road as the Inremarion al Style and cons idered to be "universal" - in much the same way as stra ig h t-nosed , straight-hai red , blondes were conside red to be the "u niversal" ideal of bea uty. Those who d iffered o r com plained. were d ismi ssed as ig norant , un culrured , o r an t i-American . T he concept of a "universal" ideal of beau ty was closely related to the "rnelring poe" theory, then taught in schoo ls, wh ich held that all the different imm ig rants, races and nat ional groups which composed the pop ulation of the Uni ted States could be assim ilated inca a sing le homogeneous "American". Th is theory ignored cheexistance ofseparate cul tu ral enclaves w irhin t he Un ited Scares as wel l as blaranr d iscriminarion and racism. Ic also ig no red the com plex d ialectic between isolat ion and assim ila tion and the problem of identity fer people like the Mexican-Americans of California who were neither wholly "American" nor "Mexican"but a new , uniq ue, and constan tly changi ng com posite variously called "Am erican of Mexican des cent: ' "Mexican-American, " Lat ino or H ispanic. In the 19 60s the rerm "Chicano" wi t h its populist orig ins was adopted by socially-consciou s youth as a form of positi ve sel f-iden rificac ion fo r Mexican-Americans. Its use beca me a fo rm of po lit ical statement in and of icsel f. ' The d ialectic between assimilation and separatism can be seen in the history of l os A ng eles, fo r exam ple, first founded in 1781 as a part of New Spain. In spite of consta n t 1. 1·hroug hou l this boo k severa l terms will be used to ide ntify A meri can s of Mexican descent: ·· Mexi~'an. Americ ans;· ··U.S. Mexica ns; ' and "Ch icanos:· Each carries Sl>l."<: ific meaning s and are no r used in ren:hangeab ly. " Mexican-American" is primarily a post World War II de velopm ent in regu lar USI' unnl rhe poliricizaricn of tl mwimitnlo, rhe Chicano civil rights movem en t of th e 1%Osand 1970s.lts UI;C ack nowledges wit h p ride the Mexican heritage wh ich was hidden by an earlie r, ltss appropriare term,

7

pressure for assimilation incl ud ing job discrimination and compulsory use of English in the schools, the Mexican-American pop ulation was ab le to maintain a cu lture sufficiently dis ri ncr so rhat, as h istorian Jua n G omez-Quinones has freque ntly argued, a ci ry within a ciry can be defi ned. This separate culture cont inues {Q exist as a distinct enncy within rh e domi nan r cul ture, even though ir is now approximately 150 years since Los Angeles was acqui red by th e U nited States. Thi s situat ion, by itself, te nds {Q discred it the melting POt concept. T he Civil Ri g ht~ Movement, known among Mexican- Americans as the Ch icano Movem en t ore! moooniento, fo ught aga inst rhe idea ofa "unive rsal" culture, a single ideal of beauty and order. Ir re-examined the common assu mption that European or W estern ideas represented the p innacle of "civilization," while everything else, from the thought of Con fucius to Peruvian portrait vases, was second-rate , too exot ic, or "primitive. " T he emphasis placed by Civil R ig hts leaders on self-definition and cu ltural prid e sparked a revision of standard h istories to include the previously unrecognized accomplishments of women and mi norities as well as a re-exam ination of the standard school curriculum. Along with the demonst rations, st rikes, and marches of the political movement came an explosion of cu ltural express ion. As was the case after the Mexican Revolut ion, the Civil R ights Movem ent inspired a revival of muralism . H owever. this new mural movement differed in many important ways from the Mexi can one. It: was nor sponsored by a successful revolutionary government, but came out of the strugg le by the people themselves against the status quo. Instead of well-funded projects in government buildings, these new murals were located in the barrios and ghettos of the inner cities, where oppressed people lived . T hey served as an inspiration for struggle, a way of reclaim ing a cultural heritage , or even as a means of developing self-pride. Perhaps most significantly, these m urals were not the expression of an individual vision. A rtists encouraged local residents (Q join rhem in discussing the content , and often, in doing the actual painting . For the first time, techniques were developed that would allo w non-artists working with a profess ional to des ign and paint their own murals. T his element of community participat ion , the placem ent of murals on exrerior walls in rhe comm unity itself, and the philosphy of comm unity

"La Fam ili£' from CHiCA N O TiM E TRiP 1977 East Los Srreetscapers (Wayne Alan iz H ealy and David Rivas Botello) Lincoln Heig ht s, East Los Angeles, rotal mural 18 ' x 90" thi s panel 18' x 26' A Cit ywide mu ral proj ect.

"Spanish-American." However, it' s hyphena ted conuun ion implies a level of equaliry in status berween the Mexican and the Am erican which in actuali ty belies the unequ al treatment of Americans of Mexican descen t with in Un ited States society. )1. S. Mexican is a term developed by essayist Marcos Sanchez-Tranquilmo to replace the term Me"ican-Am erican with one that represents both mo re ge nerally and dearly all .fiofe:< icans wit hm the United States whether their fam ilies were here pr ior m annexation in 1848, have bee n here for generat ions, or fe r only tWO days. In other words, it represents all Mexicans living wit hin U. S. bord ers rega rd less of residen ce or citizenship status. The m osr basic defi nition of the term Chicano was made by jo urnali st Ruben Salazar in 1970: '"A Chicano is a Mexican American who does not have an Anglo image of himself. " It is a term of self-definition .rhar denotes poliricization

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input, that is, the right of a communi ty to decide on what kind of art it wanes, characreriacd the new muralism Nowhere did rhecommuniry-based mural rnovcmenr take firmer root chan In the Chi cane comrn uniries of Cal iforn ia. W ith the Mexican mural tradi tion as parr of their heritage, murals were a particula rly congenial form for Chica no artists to express chc collective vision of their cc mmuni ry. The m ild cl imate and low, stuccoed bui ldings provided favorable phys ical condi tio ns, and, within a few years, California had more murals than an}' other reg ion of the cou ntry. As ho me to the largest concentrat ion of Mexicans and people of Mexican ancestry anyw here o uts ide of Mexico City, Los Angeles became the site of t he largest concenrrarion of Chicano murals in the U nited States. Est imates range from one thousand to fifteen hundred separate works painted between 1969 and the present. T he Soc ial and Public A rt Resource Cen ter's "Californ ia Chicano Mural Archive" compiled in 1984 docu me nts close to 1000 mural projecrs throug hout the state in slide form . All arr has a relatio nship to the social struct ures and political events ofrhe sociery in which it is created that is found in both content and form . For mos t arc, thi s relationship is fa irly ind irect. H owever, public art (and in particular mural art) is more directly tied to poli tical and econom ic structures and social imperatives. Mu ralism , unlike- easel painting, requ ires substantial pa tronage in the form of funds and public support in order to fl ourish. T rad itionally , this support came from wealthy individuals and official insri rutions like the government a t the chu rch. In the con temporary mural movement, the situat ion has been more complex. Support can come enti rely from grass-roots sources, neigh borhood . labor, or issue-oriented groups . I t can also come d irect ly from gove rn ment sources - as in city-sponsored prog rams or State and Federal A rts Endowmenrgrancs or ind irectly through social service, job training , and employment prog ram s. Co rporate. foundation, and individual grams, al thoug h im porcanc.general ly playa more mi nor role. Almost alw ays, the amounc of funding is closely tied to levels of social unrest and/or polit ical pressu re. Thus, in Californ ia, the early level of support (or m urals was di rect ly related to the impact of the massive Ch icano mobilizat ion of el mooimimto while the current revival of support corresponds to concerns abo ut high levels of gang and drug violence coupled wi th the increased power of Lati nos, in gene.ral, as a consumer and voti ng bloc. Other. mo re ideolog ical factors include levels of pol itical consc iousness and com muni ty involvement on the part of art ists and intellectuals, art world trends, and t he gene ral social at mosphere as represented throug h rhe med ia. Changes in the themes, freq uency and type of murals painted are determined by specifi c combinations of social and economic fac tors. In the early pe riod of Ch icano mural ism, -c-c

to

CH ICAN O PARK J"1lEEWA Y PYLON

19n

JoR Mon rOYAand th.. Royal Ch icano A ir Fotee' Chica oo Park. San Dieg o

30' x

3~'

from 1969 -1 97 5, d un ng the heigh t of political acti"ism , most m urals had mainly g rass-roms sponsorship through polirica l and neighborhood group~, art isr-i niriarcd com muni ty arts centers, local merchants, and self-fund ing by the artists. T hemes ten ded to reflect the narionalisric concerns of the ti mes and dealt largely wirh questions of Chicano Identi ty. By the mid- to late 1970s , however, murals had been accepted by govcrurnenr as an inexpensive means of ur ban revitalization and consrrucrive youth act ivity . Art worl d authorities saw street mura ls as an interesti ng new form . As early as 1974, a g roup of Chicano artists, Los Four, were given an exhi biti on ar the LA . Cooney M useu m that incl uded examp les of their murals. Increasingly, fundin g for murals came from official rather than g rass-toOtS sources through federal. stare, and city programs as well as corporate and foundation grants . The formerly artist-run community arcs centers began to hire admin istrators as fund-raising and grant writing became more importa nt elemen ts with in rheorgan izations. Two national conferences ofcommuniry mural ists in 1976 aod 1978 increased com municatio n between artists from diffe rent areas of rhe counrry and d ifferent eth nic and racial groups . Several books abour murals, rwo of rhem written by parti cipants in the mural movement, Tmuard a Peoples A rt: The Contemporary Mural !I1ovemtnt and The Mural "'1anJial were published in the mid-1 970s. T o some exte nt, these served as extensive, documen ted manifestos which systematized the philosophy of communiry murals, desig nated ma jor artists, and helped spread the movement internatio nally. By the second nat io nal co nference, in 1978, there was a signifi cant participat ion by community muralists from England , France, Scotland and Mexico. As a resu lt of rhi s confe rence an inremerional newsletter (later the quarterly magazine, Community M" ralJ) began publ ication and continued to publish reg ularly until 1988. T he ideolog y and implementation of comm unity part icipat ion in public art de velo ped by the m ural movement also infl ue nced "official" public art in the U nited States. First , a debate within the art co mmunity on the leg itim acy of vprivare" images in "public" spaces was in itiated . Eventuall y, at least the lang uage of commun ity co nt rol and pa rti cipat io n becam e part of rhe accepted formula in co mm issioning publ ic art . Perhaps most im portant, interest generated by street murals created a new impetus toward governm ent responsibi lity for com missioning public art char has been influential in the fotm ation of the numerous Percent for Art prog ram s in cities around the natio n. Recog nit ion and instituti onalizati on had several effects on both the form and con tent of Chicano m urals. W hi le numerous arrisrs had participa ted bri efly in the spontaneous out pour ing of murals during eI mooimiento, by the m id- 1970s certain artist s began to be ident ified and ident ify themselves as mural artists. Concerns about permanence, com position, formal 12

SONG OF UN ITY

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1978 Com~narrs (Ray

Pat lan, Osh.a Neumann , Anna de Leon, O 'Brian Thiele) La Pena Cul rural Center, 3 10 5c Sharrock Ave., Berkeley app rox. 20' x 5c0'.

ex~ r. i menta t i o n . a~d ~ esth et i c

q uality became as importa nt to muralists as the immed iate ~ I l t l .c a l o ror~an lz lng Impact . In t hema t ic terms as wel l, serious muralists deve loped beyond the l den ~lty quesuon to grapple wi th more ge neral t hemes. T raditional ha nd ling of symbols that had do minated n:an~ of the early walls, such as the farm workers flag , the Vi rg in of G uadalupe, and ~re.Co l u m b l an Imagery, began to seem old -fashioned and cl iched as new social as well as artistic Issues and concerns co nfronted the artists. . . Ins: itutionally as well, the na tionalist phase of the mural movem ent had ended . Lo~ Angel es C.ltywlde Murals prog ram , for exam ple, which began in 1974 , al though headed by Chi cana ~ u ralt st J ud y Ba~a , sponsored 250 murals throug hout Los Angeles by A ng lo, Asian and Black amsrs as well as Chican os. Baca's next project carried th is multi-ethnic idea even furth er the Great Wall ofLox.A ngeles mural , a history of mi norities in California painted in a flood control cha nnel, was beg un 10 1976 by a racially and et hn ically m ixed group of 10 artists and some 80 13

reenagers under the direct ion of Baca. Even one of the most mil itanrl y g rass roots: and nationalist examples of the major mural projects . San Diego's Ch/(J}}f) Park (the painted pillars beneath the Coronado Bay Bridge char began with a land takeover III 1970}, integrated non-Chicanos into its 19-:- 7 "Muralrhon. -, In the Bay Area. Ray Patlan, a leading Chicano arri sr. JOIned with t hree ocher arrisrs to form rhe multi-ethnic collect ive Commonarrs which created rhe classic Song oj Unity mural in honor of the victi ms of the Pinocher dicrurorshi p in Chile and ind igenous cultural expression in North and Larin America. More and more the idenrificarion became "m inority" or "oppressed" rather than strictly "Ch icano". The largest expa nsion ofcontem porary muralism in the Un ited Scares came in the late 19705 when funds from the Carter Ad m inistrat ion job t raini ng program (CET A), became widely used to hire artists and create comm unity arts prog ram s. in cities around the Count ry. Described as a smaller version of the New Deal art ist employment prog ram s, CET A int roduced hundreds of young art ists to muralism bringi ng public art" to the "heartl and" for t he first time since the 1930s. T he prominence of local government in rhese programs, however, created an implicit (and someti mes rea l) threat ofcensorship that tended (Q d ilute the content of these walls. T he depoliricizarion of muralis m in the late 1970s also corresponded (Q decreased social activism after rhe end of rhe Vietnam crisis. Afrer CET A, many critics decl ared that t he mural revival was fi nished. lmnically, however, rhe Reagan years have witnessed renewed vital it y, not only in rnuralism an d Chicano art , but also in realism and social ly conscious art in ge neral. T he g rowth of the ultraconservati ve religious rig ht coup led with fears of U. S. military involvement in Central America created new activism at t he g rass rootSlevel du ring the 1980s. At the same time, there has been g reater recognit ion for Chicano art and murals within mainst ream inst it utio ns wh ich has created new opportunities fo r Chica no arti sts. Additionally, the buying and voting power of the rapid ly g rowing Lati no populat ion of the U ni ted Srares has provided new recog nition for Ch icano concerns and Lat ino cultures in general. The 1980s have witnessed an explosion of major narional exh ibitions of Lat in American and "H ispanic" art that have roured the nation including "D iego Ri vera," "Art of the Fantastic," "Hispanic Art in the United States," and "Lat in American Spirit .' "Ch icano Art: Resistance an d Affi rrnation , 1965-1985 ," an interp retive exhi b it io n exam i ning the relationship betwee n the Chi cano civil rights movement and the Chicano art movement , ope ned in 1990. Many of t he young rebels who ini ciared the Chicano mural movement have explored and co nt inued codevelop orher medi a in addition to mu ralism: easel paint ing , sculpture, assemblage, installat ion, performance, and video. Many have been g iven museum exhib it io ns and achieved 14

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utrrtnc THE WA LL 1984 J ud ith F. Baca Harbor Freeway, Los Angeles 18' x 90'

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narional reputation s. This success has nor necessarily meant a denial of their heritage or their acti vism as it might have before 1969. San Diego's Border Arr W orkshop, for exam ple, formed in part by veterans of rhe Cenrro Cultural de la Reza/Chicano Park murals. was invited to show installations and performance pieces dealing with rbe plight ofmigrant workers and other border issues at the prcsngious Arrisrs Space gallery in New Yo rk Ci ty in 1989. T beir arr is able to crossover inca the ma instream m spite of the strong political content beca use of rhc arr isricelly innovative format of their installa tions. While al mosr all Chica no artisrs roday participate in gallery exhibi tions, and for some this is their major em phasis, others have conti nued to co ncentrate on their work with the com mu nity and as muralists . Over the years, rhe city of Los Angeles has come to identi fy itself as the mural capital of the world. During the Los An ge les Ol ympics in 1984 , the city comm issioned a series ofren freeway murals from the leading local mural artists, th ree of whom are Chicanos:) udy Baca, Wi ll ie H er ron, and Frank Romero. T here were a number of unoffi cial pieces as well , includ ing a large downtown wal l by the East Los Srreerscapers. The city of San Francisco has also continued to provide significan t pa tronage for Ch icano muralists. Since 1988, there is also a active program in Los Angeles beg un by artists, for the restoration and preservation of land mark murals - some close to twenty years old. Between 1988 ·8 9, SPA Res mural restoration program, the Mural Emergency Relief Fund , has already made eig ht small gran ts to artists to restore their damaged murals. Beg inning in 1988 , the city of Los Angeles again became active as a patron of murals in the various co unc il districts of the city through rhe N eigbbodxod Pride: Great Wa/iI Unlimited program. Ad ministered by SPARC and modeled after rhe precedenr esrablisbed in the G reat Wall program for comm uni ty pa rt icipa tion murals, Ntighborhood Pride commissioned nine murals in 1988-1989 and bas fiftee n more scheduled for 1989-90 . The followi ng four essays are devoted to the discussion and anal ysis of the historical and social relat io nships through wh ich Chicanos have used culture, and in particular murals, to explore thei r individ ual and collective ide nti ty. T he first essay, by art historian and critic, Shifra Gold man , "How, Why , Where, and W hen it all H ap pened : Chicano Murals of Cal iforn ia," p rovid es a com prehensive history of Chicano murals and an informed d iscussion of the d iverse elements that co mp rise the Chicano mural movem ent . In it she proposes several categories which make the Californ ia material more accessible , examini ng rhe work in terms of period , reg ion, su bjec t, and organizational structures. Goldman develops a chronolog y of public mu ralism in the 19 70s and 1980s providing an importan r tool for locat ing this art movem ent wi thi n its historical and art his torical contexts. She also analyzes t he themes and speci fi cally Chicano iconog raph y developed by rhe muralisrs, ind icat ing the spec ial meaning these images 16

had for the arriscs curing rhe period when the work was painted . In addition, this essay examines: t he changi ng nature of polit ical acciviry and social consciousness as they affected mural content and patronage and looks toward the present status of the mural movement. The second essay by cultural historian Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, "A ru Chicano: Images ofaCcmm uni ry," ident ifies Chica no arras a hisroricallyevolving social process info rmed, sustained and d irected by the co mm unity-based consrrucrion of a Chicano cultural identity. According to Ybarra-Frausto, to be Chicano/a requi res: the assert ion of one's self as an integral com ponent of the Chica no com m unity. This affiliation is based on the recogniti on of a shared livi ng expe rience as Mexicans (and t he ir descendents). In t he U ni ted States, t his identity is rooted econo mically in the Mexican-A mer ican working class, su ppo rted generarionally and extended geog raphi cally by way of Chicano barrios. T hese ba rriQJ were and cont inue to be an im portant link in a network basic to the exchange of cultural influences borh wi th in and between reg ions . T hus, long-established communal rituals, such as those follow ed by the penitentes religious g roup, and trad itional arts , such as the wooden sculptures of Ja tJtOJ (saints) made regionally by the Ja n/eros, provided precedents for com munal and performarive aspects of Chicano art . In the 19 70s these resid ual forms and practices found an extension of thei r tradit ional audience as barrio network ing recon nected them to emergent national forms of Chi cano arr. Because Ch icano art ists were consciously searching to ident ify the images that represented rhei r shared expe rience they were continually led back to the barrio. Ir became the site for "finding" the symbols, forms, co lors, and narratives that would assist rhem in t he redefi ni tion of their com m unit ies. Nor interested in perpetuating the H ollywood notion that art was primarily an avenue of escape from reality, Chicano artists soug ht to use their arr to create a d ialogue of demys rificarion rhrough which the Chicano co mmunity could evolve toward cu lt ural liberation . To th is end , m urals and posters became an ubiq uitous elem ent of the barrioscape. Accord ing to Ybarra- Prausro,{hey pu blicly rep resented the reclamation of individ ual Chicano mi nds and hearts throug h rbe ack nowledgement and celebration of their com m unity's identity through the creat ion of an art of resistance. Amalia Mesa-Bai ns exam ines the issues of m uralism from a d ifferent perspective than the other authors in "Quest fo r Ident ity: Profi le of T wo Chicana Muralists.' She offers insig ht into (he inte rdependence between pe rsonal and co llective experience in the de velopment ofself-idenciry for both the ind ivid ual artist and the communi ty as a whole. For those art isrs who "came of age" within the Chicano Movement, the relat ionship each had w ith their comm unity was intensified. This was due to the fact that their home environment, specifi cally the shared day to day living expe rience in the barrio, had become a "cul rural sanctuary" from which they d rew

"

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not only material for rhcir an but also rhe pe rsona l stre ngt h neccessa ry for leadership. These artist, rrunstormed trems of personal and familial idenncy inrc a public image signifying resistance. Th is was especially importan t for women anises withi n the Ch icano movement , for whom the struggle for liberation as p::1r{ ofar. oppressed national cornrnu niry coalesced with that of personal liberation within tilt: f amily. In the two cases described b" Mesa-Bains of]udy Baca and Patricia Rodrfguea, beth a rtists typify a ll wo uld-be Ch icano art ists by thei r way of wo rki ng through t he new challenges brought by d ifferent sett ing s. Th roughout, personal enlis tment into th e Movem ent was tantamount [0 a commit ment to the developme nt of the self within a co m m u nity eng aged in the process ofincreas ing historical consciousness. As Mesa-Bains poi nts out, it is sc iII necessary to d evelop analyses t hat can explain t he Movement as it pertai ns to itsel f and the ind ividuals affected by it , as wel l as to other co mponents of American society . The fi nal essay "t\1liraiesdelMOllimim/o: Ch icano Murals and the D isco urses of Arc and Am ericanization" by Marcos San cbez-Tranq uil ino exami nes the role of conceprual st ructures in the creat ion of a cultural movement . H e em phasizes the political sign ificance of cuirural selfd efinition , exem plified in the use of the word "Chicano" itself, as a tool of libe ration in the struggle by the Chicano community to emerge from its cond it ion as an "i nternal" colony. In the same way that Chicano ident ity is form ed t hroug h a specifi c combination of Ind ian, Span ish , and Ang lo infl uences, the specific "Ch icano' mu ral style is a combinat ion ofcult ura l influences whi ch include American "pop" culture, art-wo rld , Mexican , and barrio influences. SanchezTranquilino highlights the specifi c role of you t h participation and g ang calligraphy (g raffi t i) in t he early murals. not only in terms of the specific style t hat d eveloped . but also in relation to structural factors like the use of collective painti ng groups and the barrio locat ions where the mura ls were placed. Prior to the Chicano movement, U. S. Mexicans were defined externally through a series of d erogatory stereotypes with roral assimilat ion as the only way to break out of the situat ion of social marg inalization. Art rbar integrated elements of U. S. Mexicaoor barrioculture was also den igrated as "folk" arc a nd not considered seriou sly. T he explosion of Chicano cult ure and m urals as a result of the polit ical movement , provided new recog nition and val ue fo r Chicano art which weak ened the o ld ba rriers. Accord ing ro Sanchez-Tranq uilino , t his experie nce allowed art ists to figuratively break th roug h the wall that confined art ists eithe r ro the barrio or to u nq ual ified assimila tion. It gave them the confidence ro explore new arrisric forms and a new relationship to the d om inant society. 18

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LA OFFR1J. NDA

1989 Yreina Cerv:intez Toluca. St . under Ihr 1st Strret Bridge, Los Angelrs

16' I 52' A NtiglMf b" I PritklGrut Wtt!/J U"lt,.ittd project .

.'

I

II

All of the essays bring out the importance of the early )'ears of the Chicano Movement when community activis m was at it heig ht in generating the search for iden riry and collecti ve self re-defi nit ion that resul ted in a flowering of Chicano cultu re and art. T his cultural renaissaoce including Ch icano mura lism contin ued CO develop and g row during the later 1970s as the parricipanrs grew in maturity and skill. T he authors look (Q the furure with both opt imis m and concern pointing OUt that as rbe century draws co a d ose, there is a need to reformulate Chicano idenriry in a way that corresponds to both positive and negati ve changes in srarus and to changed social cond itions. To remain valid , an art istic move ment needs roengage in con ti nual self-criticis m. It must change with t he times and the needs of th e comm uni ty while remaining true to its own vision , its own collective self. We call to the new generat ion of arcisrs, th e new act ivists for their com munity, to build on the lessons of the past , while creati ng a future of th eir own.

Eva Sper ling Cockcrofr Holl y Barn et-Sanchez

•

INSPIRE 7U ASPIRE 198 7 Mike RfO$

Sourh Van Nl:$s Ave. and 22 nd S' Io.f" ' " l( 120' .. , 1 rS510n D IU f lcr , San /;ra nc;'!Co

apprmr. 40 '

21

THE DEL RE\' M URAL

1968

Muralism was the most important, widespread, cohes ive, and publicized aspect of the Chicano art movement during th e 1970s. As a major carrier ofpublic commu nication to Mexican com muni ties in th e United States, it has been a vehicle of p rotest and demands addressed to the power Structures for equi table solutions to problem s facing those com munities. It also sig naled the pride, cul tural values, hopes , and asp irations of Mexican community acriviriscs, especially among: the young people who formed th e "troops" of the Chicano movement in the 1960s. Mural ism fo rged an essential link between the newly emergi ng Chicano g roupings and th eir Mexican heritage, encouraging a study of themes and techniques developed by the Mexican School of publi c art (m uralism and pri nt making) in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as a study of p re-Col umbian pai ncing, sculpture, and architec ture which laid a basis for both the Mexican School and the Chicano arr movement. In its insistence on a public voice, Chicano muralism participated in rhe developmen t of a national mural movement which made its presence known, from 1967 on in the United Stares - and event ually in the rest of the world . Chicano muralisrn' began as a grassroots explosion that swept num bers of artists, , arr students, and self-taug ht artists into that artist icact ivity . California leads the country in sheer quanti ty . Tak ing into accou nt the murals that adorn build ings inside and OUt in dozens ofcities

Antonio Bernal EI 'rea rro Campesino CultuT1l1 Censer, Del Rey

6' ,, 15'

I . I t $hould be unders tood th at Ch ica no m urals may bf, painted by teams inc1ud ins non-Ch icano pnrricipants. or be headed by non -Ch icano a rc d irecwrs like Bill Bu tler in Li J" Valley. Los Angeles. Mexican Gilbeno R ~ m ire~ (San Dieg o and San Pralld .;co),

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- - _..._----- -

large and smal l. there muse have been mor e t han 1,')O{) mural s in the state during the fi rst decade. a nd mort' we re pai nted every year . However. 1:1 certain number of exisc in!:: mura ls are destroyed , covered, or ddiKCd each year and u number "vanish" due to fault y techn ique or because paint products have a finite life span when exposed to sun, rain, and pollution . Such mu rals sho uld be subrracred from the toral of exist ing murals, thou g h they are available to us in reproduction and thus remain parr of the his tory . Fo r Californi a, the most complete visu al information availab le is con tained within the California Chicano Mural Arch ive: the documented slide collect ion compiled by the Social and Pub lic An Reso urce Center where it is housed, with a duplicate set at the Los Angeles branch of the Smi thsonian's Arch ive of American Art located in the Scott G aller y of rhe Huntington Library in San Marino, California. T he archive lists 3,5 04 slides . Of these, 74 1 are ofseparate murals credited to 74 groups and 4 11 individual artists. As is indicated in the doc umentation, the Archive contai ns photograph ic records of murals no longer in existe nce. Al thoug h the Archive is comprehen sive, it is not (and cannot be expected to be) exhaust ive. Considering those murals not photog raphed over the years, those that d isappeared prior to the beginning of the documentat io n project, and those pai nted since the Archive was com piled , even 1,500 seems a conservative figure. When one considers this prodigious output of paintings that are monumental in scale, labor intensive, exhausting in terms of working cond it ions , and relatively costly ro produce , the f-act of their prod uct ion in such q uantiry casts a clear lig ht on the political, moral, and social imperatives that stimulated great numbers ofprofessional and potential acrisrs to work on walls with ded ication bur often wit h little or no remuneration . M urals are not fo r sale. Nor are public walls (as French-M exican m uralist Jean Charlot once pointed cue) a proper surface for the naked display ofselfwhi ch has been a ma jor focus in Buro-Am crican art from 1945 on. Rather they are the log ical genre fo r pictures envisioned as social levers. Muralists were not incercsred in formalist expe rimentation fo r irs own sake, but on ly as it contributed to the commun ity. Chica no muralists, wi th the high ideals and social (or revol utionary) concepts of rhe 1968 -1975 period , were the artistic counterparts of the student an d youth movem ents wh ich undertook the task of "changi ng the world ." Som e artists were more th an counterparts ; they were participants and leaders in the poli t ical and economic strugg le, considerin g rheir art (as did Mexican mural ist David Alfaro Siqueiros) an integral part of thei r ideolog y.

and Pue rto Ricar,-d"scent arti st Manu el "Spain'" Ro:lrfgun (San Franci$co). T he existing dct errninant$ seem to be.{ha~ a prepo nd" rance of the participants be Chicano, and/or the director be a Chicano. and the th eme be related to or syrnpat heuc w, tl! Chicano concerns

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:0aJditio.o

dedication , muralists req uired skills: legal knowledge to obtain w~lls and penmrs; chemical knowledge about the condition of arclu recrural walls, primers, pamrs. anti scalers; research methods fur historical murals; and sociological me thods fi . . . b I or orgall1zlll~ neigh o r. lOod tcam.s ~nd polling COm mun it ies for their interests and suppo rt. T hey also acquired ski lls .m fund -raising and grant writi ng . These were techniq ues nor taug ht in schools therefore artists had to improvise and teach themselves. Some sough t training in Mexico as they developed into professional muralists (such as Ray Patlan who worked wi rh Arnold Belkin in the San Carlos Academy , and J ud ith Bam who attended the T aller Siqueircs in Cuecnavaca). Most attacked the walls with the training they had received for easel painting and des ig n in art schools. S.ome served apprenticeships with more experienced m uralists unt il they could launch ou t on their-ow n. Many starred pa inting with no t raining at all but with an urgent need to express what .they percei~ed as "trut h." As a resul t the wo rks were ofte n ragged and needed better drawi ng , composmg and painting sk ills. H owever, t hey exhi bited what one writer on Chicano theatre has defi ned as rosquacbismo: the virtue of opposing rhe refined fi nis hed p rod uct of bourgeois art with "u npolished virsliry."? to

Chicano murals, born in the heyday of "modern ism " - wi th its emphasis on forma~ eleg~nce: abstraction ro the poi nt ofminimalism, and an elite appeal- insi sted on represenmrionalism If not actually social realism of the type. brought to its apotheosis in Mexican mu:als. T he mu~ls i nsi~ted on "messages," on narrative, on history paint ing , in a period which derided these attri butes 10 art . Chicano art students resisted their professors in art school and ignored their lessons.after ~hey gra~~ated, They drew together for mutual support, encou;agement , and strength JO cheir oppositional stance. From this comm unalism came chicanidad and hr:rJllanda~(Chicano consciousness and brother/sisterhood) and the organization ofmural g roups, art gal leries, centers, and alternative publications. Considering rhe above, it is pertinen t to the history of modern art ro develop the chronolog y of public muralism in the 19705 and 1980s; to set it with in its historical and art hi stOri~al contex t ; to indicate the them es and the sig nifi cance of the iconography that preoccupied the artists; to expl~re the artisti~ structures esrablished by Chicano artists to organize and provide supporr for mu ralIsm ; to examme the changing nature ofpol it ical activity and social consciousness .~ thes e changes affected m ural content and patronage; and, fi nally, to indicate the p resent status of rhe mural movement in Californ ia.

2. Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano, "Thc Female Subject in Chicano T heatre: Sexuality , 'Race' and Class," TiHarrejo"""41, 38.4 (1986).

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• BIRTH O F THE CHICANO ML"RAL MOVEMENT, 1968 - 1970 . Themes and Their T imes In rcprcsenrational an th e theme (or subiecr), as well as the iconography, are the means by which co mm unication is established. As we have seen. comm unicat ion - not just aest hetic pleasure, though thi s was certainly not ruled out - was primary for Chicano muralists. In order co create visual forms that could convey meanings nor previously exrsrenr, images and iconograp hy were both borrowed and invent ed. Content is also conveyed th roug h forms themselves: the ways in wh ich color, line, shape, space, value, scale, placement, and framing are used ; or the degree to wh ich objects are naturally rendered or expressively disconed. [ 0 rhe con rinua l strugg le between idea and renderi ng , between erudition and experiment, between sk ill and apprenciceship, the themes, m eanings and formal language of Chi cano muralism were developed . A constant dialogue took place between the po wer st ruggle of the movement against the d omi nant socie ty to ach ieve its needs and aspirations, and the u nfold ing of t he artists' abilit ies to translate, com m enr on and co ntrib ute to that strugg le. In the course ofthat dialog ue, motifs were developed from the concepts of the movemen t itsel f to wh ich the artists gave visual form . W e can d o no more in the confi nes of th is chap ter than to g ive some exam ples of th is d ialog ue, and indi cate the kind s of them es that were p revalent in various time periods. As far as can be d eterm ined , the earliest Ch icano murals in Cal ifornia are the rwo 19 6 8 pane ls painted in Del Rey by Anton io Bernal on the United Farm W orkers' Teacro Campesino Cen te r. They m erit special attentio n not only fo r their earl y date, bu t for the example they present of iconography larer prevalent in the pol it icized m urals of the 19 70s. In o ne, preColu mbian! rulers line u p Bonam pak-l ike horizontally, head ed by a woman; in the other, a sequence of admi red leaders fro m the Mex ican Revolu tion to the 1960s are led by " La Ad eli ra", a revol ut ionary woman sold ier. She is followed by Francisco "Pancho" Villa, Emiliano Zapata , J oaq uin Murieta (3 Mexican o r Ch ilean outlaw-hero o n th is side of the border), Cesar Chavez of the United Farm W orkers, Reies L6pez T ijerina of the N ew Mexico land g rant movement ,a Black Pan ther, and Marti n l u ther K ing . Jr. 4 The m u ral thus encom passes rhe past events and pe rsonali t ies that most influenced the Chicano movement: the ind ig enous cul tures of pre-

3, Ilonam pak is chI' sic" nf an ancient Maya city now locared b Chia pas, Mexico. It was aba ndoned prior to 900 A.D. and cont ains a series of murals. 4 . T he Black Pant her f igure has been ident ified by Luis Valdez of the TeaHo Cam pni no :u Malcol.m.X (te!<.>phone COn\'~rsat!o n wit h author, N",·ember 10 , 1986). Ho wever, despiee cheeyeg lnses, the figu l'(; w<.> arn sm ~ d ashikI, has a panthe r on h' s shlt-t , and carries a machi ne g l:n - symbols and instruments not ~ociat.-d wit h Malcolm X o r the Black Muslims. The BI:ICk Panthe rs wen- organized in Califc m ia in 1966 aod made t heir base in Oakland . It is possible that the artist. II Chicano welfare worker from

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Col um bian Mexico and the Revol u t ion ; and (from the 1960s) the Blac k civil righ ts movement and leaders of the Mexican/C hicano Movement in the persons of Chavez and LOpez Tijerina. The yea-s from 1968 to 1970. when the mural movement began to pick up momentum, were filled wirhsignificanr evenrs. 1968 proved to be a year of international student protest ; from Tokyo to Paris, from Mexico City to ma ny cities in the United States. In Easr los Ang eles, the famous hi gh school "b lowou ts" had repercussions among Chicano srudencs across the cou ntry. By May 19 69, 10,000 people attendee the "Fiesta de los Barrios" org ani zed by the "blowou t" com mi ttee at linco ln H igh School. Th is was the first g igan tic Chicano cult ural eve nt of Cali forn ia and it inspired Francisco X . Ca mplis of San Francisco's Casa Hispana de Bellas Ar ces to assem ble "Arre de los Barrios," a traveling exhibition of lati n Ame rican and Chicano en.' Eventually th e cooperative g rou p Acre 6 was fo rmed, and it became, in its turn , the (largely Chi cano) Galerfa de la R aze of San Francisco . At the same rim e that the Piesra was being plan ned in Los Angeles, a seminal g roup of San Francisco artists organ ized the Mexican American Liberation Art Front (MALA F) wh ich, in March 19 6 9 , sponso red the "N ew Sym bols for la N ueva Raza" art exh ibit. MAlA F was a m ilitant grou p for med "for the purpose of organ izing Chicano arrisrs who are in terested in integrating art into the Chicano social revolution sweeping the cou mry.:" T he four arcisrs who formed MAlAF we re Manuel H ernand ez-T ru jillo , Mal equ fas Montoya, Esteban Villa, and Rene Yanez - all key figures in the prod uct ion and prom otion of m u ral painting. D u ring 197 1 Yanez, as co-d irector of the Galerfa de la Raza, was insrrumenral in promoting a m ural program in the Missio n dist rict of San Francisco. Villa. and Jose Montoya (who also participated in MAIAF>, es tablished the Rebel Chicano Art Front (later k nown as the Royal Ch icano A ir Force, based on the ini tials R eAF) along wi th their students from Sacram en to Srare Colleg e. T his occurred after teach ing positions had opened up for the rwo arrisrs in 196 9and 1970 respect ively. Betw ee n 1969 and 1970, V illa and h is students painted the mural Emergmce of tbe ChicanoSocial Straggle in a Bim /Illra/ Sociery on the walls of the Wash ington Neig hborhood Center." Employing five gigant ic expressive fig ures, the m ural d elivers a m essag e about liberation through mil itant self-defense and self-e nl ig hten me nt. At the sam e ti m e, Malaq ufas MOntoya and H ernand ezT ru jillo began worki ng on mural s in the East Oakland Develop ment Ce nter. T he form er Fresno Wh o used the professional name Forese H opping , intended tht" fig u re to be a compos ite of Malcolm X (who was assassi nated before th~ formati on of.th~ Black Pan~hers) and the Panthe rs. Both gTOUpS offered id eolog ical a ltt"rnat; ves to those of King . 5. FranclSCQ X . Camplls, intervIew w,th author. 29 Sepc"mb\"r 1978. 6. "N ueva Rau Art Show in Oakland ,- San Pr,m ri¥o Ch"'nidr. 2 1 March 19<>9. 7. Alan \'(/. Barnet! erroneously da les rhis m ural to 1968. See Com1HIIIl;ly Mllrals (C ranbu ry. NJ : a ssccuced U niversity Presses, lnc., 1984 ), p- 67 and paui• .

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concerned armed srrugg!e, education, and self-knowledge; the latter sy mbol ically p rojected the idea, through pre-Columbia n images of the jag uar (nigh t) and sU l1 light, rnar maize plants (i.e. hu man beings) can g row in spite of vultures and oppression. In 19 69 -70 , the G onzalez b rothers of Ease Los Angeles , working with a ream, painted the mural, The Birth o!O/tr AI'! . j r was to be affi xed to the facade of the new Goez Imports and Fine Arts Gallery when it opened . T he mural rep resen ted the IllHtiznje(m ixing)of the Spanish and Ind ian peoples, rhc Mex ican ancestors ofrhose who were to p roduce Chicano art . G oez Ga llery was a for-profi t space from the time ofit s ince ption. The gallery offered serv ices such as "a rt sales of rradi rional , m odern and pre-Colu mbian painti ngs and sculp tures, restoration of th e fine arts, imports from Mexico and Spa in, custo m des igned furnit ure, frames, advert ising des ign, [and the] d esigning and ccnsrruc rion of m urals, m onum ents, sh rines, and fou ntain s." ~ Su bseq uently, G oez became part of the comm uni ty mu ral p rogram and obtained fund ing to make wall painting s. Artists from its ran ks were to play an im portant role in the East Los Ang eles mural com m u ni ty . Such was rhe case fo r David Borello, who (w it h Wayne Alan iz H ealy) became onehalfofLos D os Srreets cepers; and Charles "Garo'' Felix, who , by ini tiati ng and headi ng the mural prog ram at Estrada Courts, m ade h is commi tme nt ro enhancing the living spece ofa worki ng class com m u nit y.

In 1970, j udith Baca expanded the d efini tion of her teac h ing job wirh the Deparrm enr of Recreation and Parks in ord er to orga nize g ang members of East Los Angeles in to mural teams. Starting w ith twenty people from four different neighborhoods , Baca painted murals during rhe summer, including Mi abuelita (My Litt le Grandmother), in a th ree-sid ed bandshell of H ol lenbeck Park. After th is experience, she began to u nderstand that murals and the visual symbols they em ployed could "b reak down the d ivisions among .. .people, g ive them informa tion and change rheir en vironment ." 9 W it h t hese several examples, we can see that [he mural m ovement resulted from an al most "spon taneous com bustion," influenced d irectly or in d irectly by the strikes and . boycotts of the U nited Farm Workers Union , the mili tant Chicano Movem ent , and the sp iri tual and cultural concerns of writers and artists who were acrive in the m ovement . T earro Campesi no was one of rhe earliest cultural m anifestat ions of the new Ch icano Movement . Ou tward rippli ng effects from the Union and the T heatre spread to other exp ressive forms in cludi ng literature,

8. GoezGallery brochure, c. 197 1. , . . . 9. J ud ith Baca, "O ur People are the Internal Exiles," an interview by Diane N eumaier 111 C"IturllJ In ContmllO'I, cd. Dou glas Kah n and D iane N eumaier (Seattle: The Real Comet Press. 198;'). p. 6 7.

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v isual arts, m us ic, and d ance to produce what can righ tly be called a "cu ltural exp losio n." Between 1971 and 1975, early experime nts led to a virtual flood of murals, part icu larly in l os Angeles wh ich could be called [h e m u ral cap ital of rhe Southwest, if nor the nat ion . Parallel movements blossom ed in the San Francisco Bay citi es and in San Diego. From these areas it spread , by rhe end of the decade , to many orher ciries in the state . We can record (in arb irtaryorder) Santa Ana, O range, Tustin, Anaheim , Riverside, Santa Barbara, San ta Cru z, San Jose, R edwood City, Gilroy, W atsonville, Palo Alto, Sebastopol, Santa Rosa, Windsor, Bakersfi eld , D elano, Visalia, H anfo rd , Sanger, Fr esno , Malag a, Hig hway Ciry, Madera, Merced , D av is, and Vacaville. The San Francisco Bay area includes Daly City, Berkeley, Oak land , Emeryville, H ayward , and U nion Ci ty. Smaller cities surround ing Los Ang eles and San D ieg o were also invaded by mu rals.

• MURAL SU BJ ECTS Ear ly T hem es Themes for m ural s were sug g ested to artists by contemporary events and th e new ph ilosop hy of the Chicano movement. T he fo llow ing categories g ive some idea of thei r rang e:

Religion: Pre-Columbian (especially Olrnec, T oltec, Aztec, and Mayaj dei ries such as Querzalcoarl (the fe athered serpent), the ra in g od Tlaloc; the Aztec "Calendar Stone;" the Chac Mool and other p re-Co lu m bian sig ns and sym bols; W est Mexican funerary dog s; pre-Columbian rituals; pyram ids and te m ples; Christian chu rches; Christian sig ns and sym bols ; altars; t he Virgin of G uadalu pe and/or he r roses; the crucified Christ and/or crosses, bleeding or flam ing hearts , thorns; bishops and parish p riests (someti mes sati rically).

I ndigenoltsmotifs:The reipartite head (Ind ian Spania rd/Mexica n or Ch ica no), contemporary N ati ve Americans, P re-Col um bian warriors and families.

Historical events: P re-Columbian rulers (like the chronicle of Mixrec ruler 8-Deer); the Spanish conq uistadores; colonial Mexican culture; the Mexican Revolu tion ; N ative American and Ch ican o history.

lHodem portraits: Cesar Chavez, Reies Lopez Tij erina, Bmiliano Zapata, "Pancho" V illa, "La Adeli ta ," Benito J uarez, Father Miguel Hidalgo. j ose M aria Morelos,John 'F. K en ned y, Emesco "Che'' Guevara, Ruben Salazar, Luis Valdez, Mart in Luthe r K ing ,Jr. , Pablo Picasso, and David A lfarc; Siq ueiros.

Political and social: On local issues: educat ion, pol ice b rutali ty, d rug abuse, prison cond itions; gang warfare and gang prid e reflected in memorials ro deceased m embers; im ages of "hom e boys" and "home gi rls;" health care , and po rtraits ofcom mu n.i ty people. On national issues: the strikes, 29

marches, and boycotts of rhe l' rured Farm "(lurker; of Americu (liF\'V'): c-orking conditions of tarm workers tstoop Iabor , mi.l.~nnr '",rorkers): grapes and wine themes reflecting che boycotts; caricatures of ~ L'lIdc Sam:' and rbc paramilirary self-defense Chicano group called rhc Brown Berets. On inremanonal issues: Images of the U,S. mi litary; guerrillas in the Th ird World ; the war In Southeast Asia; and celebranons of Lati n American and Caribbean culture. NOll~rcligl()1IJ spnboiJ: COli Solo;

or "OS" (roug hly translated as "the same to you") graffi t i, scales of justice, tomb sto nes, hearts, feathers, chai ns and broken chains, mirrors, the Mexican eagle, the U F\'(f black eagle, and the U,S. eegfe Iall w ith different meanings), T he UFW flag; the U.S. flag; the Pan-African , Puerto Rican and Cuban flags;calm lerl/J (an ima ted skeletons ala Posad a); atomic symbols; suns and sun symbols; fi re; exte nded hands, clasped hands and clenched fists; moons; bags of g old ; and dollars.

Landscapes, flora and/ auna: Volcanos, snow-capped mounrains, deserts; cact us p lanes (nopal or prickly pear, and maguey), palm rrees, corn planes and ears; horses and other animals.

Decorative motift: Superg raphics and other g eome tric abstractions; p re-Colum bian geometric forms used decoratively; organic abstractions, mo tifs from Mexican folk art,

Family: Mo rber and child, mother and child ren. whole families, grandmothers . Families in ma ny soc ial situations.

Urban culture: PlUh"co;la;, cholo;ltlJ. lowrider cars, graffiti , ciryscapes, sk yscrapers, barrio homes, freewa ys, trains, etc.

Legendary or Illytbiral figllm: La

U Qrona (the Weeping W oman), Superman , Popocarepd and

Ixteccih uad (vo lcanos in Mexico: Indian warrior and the sleeping woman , or rhe wam or carrying the woman).

Texts: Words and ph rases used in the body of (or

o ne side of) a m ural: man ifestos, titles, explanations, names of pe rsonal ities, docume nts (his torical and contemporary), memorials, poetry , and slog ans like "V iva la Raza," or "End Barrio W arfare." to

Late r T hem e s Looking ahead to the post - 1. 97 5 period , we find that many of the above cherries con tinue to appear. New subjects eme rg(:, Most notable is the tendency to incl ud e and co m ment on inte rnational themes - parti cularly , in recen t years, on u nity between peoples of color. Increasingly , solidarity w ith the op pressed peoples of Ce ntral America (with an em phasis on N icarag ua, EI Salvad or, and Guatemala) are expressed in murals. T he most extensive projeer of this nature was San Francisco's PLACA Project. The "Balm y AlleyMural Environment' incl ud ed 30

UNTITLED (HO AIEBOY). derail

1974 Manuel Cruz Ramona Ga rdens H ousing Project, EUI Los Angeles, total mU I"J J approx. 16 1 x 20'

m y-fi ve murals on Central America, which were painted by a mulri-erhnic group more t han ,_,e w 10 In I 984. Mu ral s wt:rt: also com m issioned d uring national and local celebrations such " or arnsrs g j c en rennial in 1976, the Los Angeles Bicentennial in 1981, and the 1984 Olympic JS t be U .S Go es held i n Los Angeles. On the occasion of the Los Angeles Bicentennial, moscof che murals .....: la~dato(Y· O ne that was critical and undertook rodocum enr the history o( L.A. m inorities. was Barbara C arrasco's portable paint ing The HiJ101) cf Los A nge/eJ: A Mexican Perspeane. As a result, it was ( ejected , and bas nor been installed as of th is writing. " The Olympic murals, painted by a mul rieth n ic g roup inclu di ngJ ud itb Baea, Wi llie Herro n, and Frank Romero, were eclectic in style and tJ1em e. Baca, for example. undertook to celebrate (as a con tinuation of her historic

VIVA LI\ RAZ A 1977 Dan iel Galvcz; with O sha N cuman , Brian Thiele and S. Barre t t

1112 Adeline gc., San Francisco

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11:

70'

T HE HlS'rORY OF LA., 1\ A1EX1C:::A,!'-J PERSPECTIVE

I

1981 -8} Barba ra Carrasco

.

portable , unmounted 16' x 80'

10. ~ C01/ItJ:JW JI1 J\lIlrals Alaga zi nt (Fall 1984): 1O- 1}. I I . See ChlJ~Arlt, no. 9 (September 1983): 20- 21 .

33

Gr"" Wlatl mural prcjccc) rhe spo rts successes of women of colo r. Un forrunarcly, the locat ions chosen for rhc rcn orrises were rhc wails of downtown freeways. a haza rd boch til the: painters and the mororisrs who wished to see the work .. Porrrairs included an expanded cast in thc:posr·19?j period: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahle, and Jose Clemence Orozco were added to the rosrcr ofMexican artists; Los Angeles leader Bert Corona, movie sta r Anthony Q uinn (among po rtraits of ma ny acto rs and actresses), U F\'" leade r Dolores Huerta, L950s labor orga nizer Luisa Moreno, m urdered Chilean folk sing er Victor j ara, and Northern Californ ia song write rs Daniel Valdez and Malv ina Reynold s now appeared . Ronald Reagan also showed up, as di d portraits of Northern Some unflarrering portrayals California art s people, incl ud ing muralist Ray Padan. Themes from urban culture began to include street and community people ofall types ~ particula rly in the phororealisr m urals of Los Ange les' John Valadez, and Oakland's Daniel Galvez. Slu m lords and arson, food contam ination, and ju nk food have been added to the roster of social evils. Fina lly, a g roup of te n mul tierhnic m uralists in San Francisco, undertook a mural sculpture, A ll 11lj IJry 10 One is an btj llry 10 All . Sponsored by the Internat ional Longshoremen's and Wareh ousemen's Union (ILWU)and the Mayor ofSan Francisco, the m ural com memorated the 50th anniversary of the 19 34 G eneral Strike. Ray Patlan took a leading role in the prod uction of this mural, as he did in the PLACA endeavor.

or

• WHO DID WHAT WHERE, A rt and Mural Groups AluralgrouPJ ha t'tb«11 rhnractn-iud by 1lx "teant"approarh, i.e. all art dirtdor working wilh a grollp of artiJIJ analOf' romml/nilY raidous. Mitral amsn ba~ aho loliriud romRllln;ly i/lPllt as a gltidt 10 rdeeance ofa gillt1J tbene and in articulation. The notion of an artistic reatu collaborrltin8 011 (I public mural (a ll be fOll1ld in the early writillgI of Siqlle;roJ, however the inausio» of (of ten untrained] COl/lIIl/O/ity partir;pnnl1as painters appears 10 be unique 10 the U.S. slrm fIlllralmo£'tflltnt of 1M 1970s. Subscribing to a colleel;f/;II philolOphy at the point of prodll(/iOl1 com//trjhzrtJ 0 similar philosophy in regard 10 diJltf1J11la lion. Britfly summarized [most] puhlicartiitl UJ()rk aJa :eam andaddrtJl lhnr work loacommllnity which, hoptfitlly, w;lI ullderJIatld andllibseribe 10i ts mmagt. Tbis Jlona l1tgOIt! lilt il1dividlJalism and elilhpl common 10 mainstream {tnt arts. I}

12. Suza nne Mu chnic,. ' An Fro m Ihe' Fast Lan.:," LM ' ''''ylt:l Ti llltS, 15 April 1984 , Fu m .,,1A[I/Kazi /U', pp. 76-7 9 ; and "Los Angeles FI"C'C'WllY Mu...ls Honor tho: 23 rd O lymp iad ,~ 1_ &t:I Itml l JJ;IC'/. 5, no. 1 Qu Ir tAug ust 1984): 14~ 19 ... 13 . Shirra M. Goldman and Tomis Ybarnl-Fl'llUSI O, t\neC;'wZI'4: t\ CIM/»'thnui~ A" fIOI4UJ Bi!»iotr"phr ¥"Chir"". An. 196.5 1981 (& rkd C')': ChinDo S<:udiC'S Lib rtry Pub!i(lllior!s Uni l, Un ivC'rsicy of California, BC'rkl.'lC'y, 1985), p . 53.

The notion of a "team " or co llective, which characterized m u.ral production of [he early 1970s. docs nor preclud e ind ividual murali sts making works of grear power and relevancy. H owever, Chicano artists in all disciplines tended to ,group toget he r for m urua l support and , in the face of insri curional neg lect or hostili ty, for com m issions and fund ing. We will briefly trace the interaction be rween g roups and indiv idual artists and highlight some examples. N orthern Cali fo rnia Sacramento. Like many Chi cano arts organizat ions in Cal ifo rnia, the R oyal Chicano Air Force ( 969 ) and the umbrella g rou p known as t he Cenrro d e Arrisras Chicanos ( 1970), which form the st ructu ral base for m urali sts in Sacramento (ap plications for fund ing, locating wall s, signi ng contracts , and other log isti cal , not to mention spiritual support), maintain profiles o n a number offron rs. Wi th roors in the farm workers organ izing drives and boycotts, as well as MALA F (the Mexican America n Liberat io n Art Fro nt of 19 69 ), the th rus t of t he Ce ntro and the RCAF has been econom ic, po lit ical, cult ura l, and social . In add ition to murals and sil kscreen p rog rams, the Sacramento grou p has run classes for chi ldren, tee nagers, and seniors; reg ularl y celebrates Mexican national and folk ho lidays; participates in Nat ive Amer ican rituals; has ru n a free breakfast prog ram for children ; and maintains a boo ksrore and a gal lery. Poerry (Jose Montoya is as well kn own for his poetry as his art), t heatre, d ance , m usic , and spores round our the community cu rriculum . V illa's 1969 mural (men tioned earlier) provided the inspiration for a contin uing m ural program , some of it - su ppo rted until the program was cancelled - by federal fu nd ing from CETA, the Comprehensive Employm ent an d Training Act . According to a Los A ngetes Times article of Jul y 22, 1979 , R CAF artists pai nted fifteen m urals in Sacramento, incl uding a major work depicting various aspects of Chicano cu lture at rhe city 's Southside Park. The Southside Park m ura ls of 19 77 are by J uanishi O rosco, Esteban Vil la, J ose Mo nroya, J uan Ce rvantes, Lorraine Garda, Sam R fos and Stan Pad illa. Centro artists also painted murals in Seattle (Washington), Bu rley (Idaho), Tempe (Arizona), Chicano Park in San D ieg o, and Los Angeles. Armando Cid decorated La Raza Bookstore with a mural in 1973, and wh en Sacramento Park changed its name to Zapata Park in 1975 due [0 the efforts of com m u nity activists and Centro art ists, Cid d id a mosaic m ural there. In 1979, Louis "T he Foo t" Gonzalez and J uan Ce rvantes painred a larg e mural, AtrollmleJ de A ztldn, on a wall of their cooperat ive garage. It de picted a

I"

14 . Cha rles Hilling er, "'The Ro ya] Ch icano lIi r Foln': AcrivislS in Sacramen to USC' H u mor (0 Instill PricC'," lM A,,~It1 Thms, 22 July 1979, SC'C lion I, p . 3 • .

3'

proud Chicano mechanic hold ing a wrench a nd surrounded by billowing douds. a blazing sun, and an eagle. In 1980. Centro arrisrs Esteban Villa, Stan Padilla and j uani shi O rosco designed do four-story. 6') foot symbolic muml lo r the downtown city parking lor facing t he Srreer MaU. T he exuberance and colleen vise pn nciples of the RCA r as wellas rheir dedicancn ro chc ed ucative a nd commurury u plift nspecrs ofp ubli c urr were not limircd to the Sacmme nro area . Like MALAF. the RCAP was an important influence on Chicano nrtis rs throughout t he scare, many of whom did snrus with rhe Sacramento g roup or visited them to learn about t heir method s and philosop hy. Ln fact , networking was established early , not only withi n California b ut throughout rhe Southwest. Artists travelled ro the vario us "Canro al Pueblo" national events which, from 1977 o n, broughr together Chicano artists of all disciplines, and at whi ch visual artists pa inted murals. The group whi ch unified Cal ifornia was the Sta te Coal ition of Arrisras, founded in 197 3 and known from 19 75 o n as C AP, the Conci lio de Arre Popular. Among its activities. CA P p ublished t he mag azine ChismeAru.

San Francisco Bay Area. When the Gale rfa d e la Raza of San Francisco printed its fi rsr mural map - rhe "Missio n Community Mural T our G uide" - ir listed ten mural sites: the 24 th Street Mi ni-Park (1 9 7 4 ~S) ; the Mission Coalit ion Organization (N eig hborhood Legal A id, 1972); H orizons Unlimited ( 19 7 1); t he Mi ssion Rebels mural ( 19 72 ); Jamestown Community Center ( 1972); the Bank of America (1974); the Mission Model cities N eig hborhood Center (974); Paco's T acos (974); and the Balmy Alley murals (197 3). In the overwhelmingly Latino and Asian Mission Dis rr icr are early works by some of the key Raza (Chicano and Lati no) muralisrs of the city: Michael Rfos , Antho ny Machado, R ichard Mon tez, D oming o R ivera, J erry Concha, the Mujeres Muralisras, Luis Corrazar, Jesus "Chuy'' Campusano, Manuel "Spain" Rodrfguez, Ruben G uzman and others, d irected or assisted by non-Raza artists. In 1971, the Galena de la Raza was a germinal force for Bay area mural ism . Itself an expression of increasing consolidat ion wi thi n the ChicanofRazaartcommuni ty (MALM, rhe Casa Hi spana de Bellas Artes, Artes6, and the Artiscas latina Am eri canos), the Galerfa was established in 1970 u nde r the d irecrorsh ip of Nicarag ua n Rolando Castell6n . It was homeless in mid · 19 7 1, at wh ich t ime Rene Yanez applied fo r mural fundin g which permi tted the production of some of the wall paintings listed above. T he Galerfa fi nally settled ar irs present 24 th St. & Bryant location where it fun cti ons act ively to this d ay. In 1975 , rhe Galerfa added an innovation to commun ity murals when it "appropriated " a Foster and Kleiser billboard on the side of its bu ildi ng to serve as an "annou nceme nt m ural." Removed by the co m mercial com pany in December 1976 , the billboard was replaced d ue to public pressure, and it changes reg ularly as artists paint new images and messages. A5

36

FRIDA . BIU...80 ARD 1978 Mike Rios Galerfa de la Rn a. Missio;l Dis rricr, San Franc isco 8' x 20'

Yanez poiured our, "Times. [weds, issues shift" and n frequen t changing of images and ideas makes the billboard into a living and constant part of the community. The Galerfa withdrew from mural prograrnnung 10 1976 when funding issues and the changing character of public murals (for Yanez. their increasing vagueness and loss ofconcern with contemporary issues) made such a move desirable.' San Francisco was no t the only City that saw a dec rease in m ura l relevancy and an increase in decorative m u rals by the end of 1975. Such a phenomeno n has been observed nat ionally. It was accompanied by g rowing d ifficul ties with national am fun d in g that had su ppo rt ed com muni ty mu ral ism and char had been part of g overnment pol icy in the early 19 70 's to "cool our" m ilitancy and protests in inner cities across the narion . Desp ite the G alena's withd rawal . many signifi cant murals co nt in ued co be pain ted in San Francisco and other Bay area cities d uring the next ten years . Portable murals were int roduced . Most notable were the e ig h t " People's Murals" co m m issioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Pai n ted by fo urteen m ul rie rhn ic art is ts, including G raciela Carrillo, Anrhon y Machado, Robert Mendoza, Irene Perez, and Michael R fos, man y of the works were powerful and m ilitant state ments . They con rrasred with many of the Bicen rennial arr product ion s found elsewhere char were bland , "trend y" or d ecorati ve. Six years later, in May 1982, the Galerfa com m issioned nineteen m ulri-erhnic artists to create po rtable murals in its g allery spa ce as part a month- lon g event called "In Prog ress", wh ich encouraged the public ro watch the artists ar work. Included were Raza art ists Tony Chavez, J uan Fuentes, Daniel Galvez, Rayvan G on zales, Yo land a L6pez , Raul Martinez, Emmanuel Montoya, Ray Patlan, M ichael R fos, Patricia Rod riguez, "Spai n" Rod riguez, H erbert Siguenza, X avier Viramontes, and Rene Yanez. Galvez, Montoya, and Patl an are rhree artists who starred to be kn own in rhe Bay area after 19 75 . Patlan came to the Bay area from Ch icag o where he had produced a nota ble body of murals during the earl y 19 70s. By 19 77 , Patlan and Patricia Rod riguez, work ing with U niversity of Califo rnia Chicano Srudies st ud ents, had pa inted rwo m urals in Berkeley. Between 19 77 and 197 9, Patlan and Galvez were active with Com monarrs. Galvez, a younger arri sr work ing in a photorealis r style, co llabo rated with O sha Neumann, O 'Br ian Th iele and Stephanie Barrerr on his desig n for Viva La Raw (1977 ) in Berkeley: it featured the imag e of a huge truck dedicated to the fa rm workers and rhe Mexican muralis ts. Patlan, Neuma nn, T hiele , and ceramisr Anna de Leon achieved a major artisti c and social breakt hrough wi rh t he ir threed imen sional m u ral on rhe facade ofBerkeley's L1. Pefi a Cultural Center. Song o/Unity ( 1978 ) was dedicated to the popu lar m usic of North and South America and to slain Chi lean songw riter

Victor j ara. In 1979 , the tea m of Pa tlan, Neumann, and Thiele was commiss ioned by r1~e Eas~ Bay Skills Center in Berkeley to paine a work skills-relared ":,llral. ~ot h ~at ~an and Galvez work conr inuously in thei r very different realist styles. regrouping their arnsuc scrucrures as new possibi lities and oppo rtun ities arise. W omen Muralists Three Chicanas _ Parricia Rodrfguea, Irene Perez , and Graciela Ca rrillo - and a Venez~e l an ar tist , Consuela Mend ez, were the orig inal Bay Area ream compr is i ~g the Mujere~ M~ rabs r~. AU bur Mendel. had d one rbei r fi rst murals in Balmy All ey the prevIOus year. Thei r friendship

or

15. Barnerr, p . 243 _

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PARA EL M ERCA DO. deta il 1974 , I~ Mujeres Murahsras (Patricia Rod rfguoa, Graciela Caril.l o, ~nsuelo Mf ndcz, Irene Perez) South Van N ess Ave. and 24 th Sr., Mission Dist rict, San franCI sco toea! mural approx. 10' x 50'

39

40

was cemented when they rccci vcd their first comm ission for the Mission Model Cines Neighborhood Cente r office parki ng lot In 1974 . Pa i ntjn~ LII' f}/()(lIlu!"itd , (orig inally titled PtOZPlile,.;C(1) whi ch was intended J.S ;\ celebru rio n of the Larin cultu res in rbe Mission disrricr, each arcisr rook responvibiliej- for her own subjecr ma tter. Ven ezuela. Bolivia, Mexico, and Pew were featured wirh Images of the planes, animals, trad irional dances. costumes to be fo und in each stressing rhc ma jor role of rhe family in each country . As rhe four arti sts developed and painted rhe mural , each modified her sections as she worked to crcare a unifi ed whole. No color ske tc h ever existed; balancing was done in ad vance wirh line draw ings and at the mura l site itself as rhe painting progressed. Each arrisr worked individually , secure in her confi dence rhar rogerher rhey could achieve a good resul t. The second mu ral Para el Mercado (For rhe Market) was painted in two halves by Carri llo and Mendez for Paco's Tacos stand and dealt wirb foods for the Latin American marketplace. Brilliant color and fl at drawi ng were characte ristics that the four shared (all had previou sly done silkscreen poste rs as we ll as paint ings). T he Mujeres' murals were challenged in the com munity for being apolit ical; however they had decided that the men 's murals of the t ime had tOO m uch "blood and g urs" and that they wanted a more positive image of thei r culture." Wi th rhe help ofa num ber oforher women - Ester H ernandez, Miriam O livo, Ru th Rodriguez, and non-Latina Susan Cervantes, the Mujcres pai nted m urals for tWOyears and then disbanded and worked on as individuals. W omen have been very active in Bay area m uralism . As with J ud irh Baca, who played a pioneering role in Southern California in an artistic genre where women's part icipation was d iscou raged by conventi on and their menfolk, the Mujeres were bo th ge rminal and inspi rational for women art ists of Norchern California. Many like Las Mu jeres Muralisras del Valle of Fresno took courage from the ir exam ple. Fifteen Fresno women incl ud ing H elen G onzalez, Cecelia Risco, Sylvia Fig ueroa, Theresa Vasq uez, and Lupe Gonzalez , started work in 1977 on an outdoor 60 x 80 foor m ural fo r Parlier labor camp which was funded by La Broche del Valle. Vandalized a year later with the word s "The white race is the rig ht race," it was rescored and housed indoors. W omen sr udenrs from San Diego calling themselves the Mu jeres Muralisras were organized by Yolanda LOpez in 1977 to contribute a pillar mural on Indi an wom en duri ng the M ural tbon wh ich revived painting at San D iego's Chicano Park . (The same park has an early (c. 1973) women 's mural by t he Grupo de Santa Ana, also from Southern Californ ia, on the growth of corn , the human fetus, and la Raza). A 1975 m ural picturing women of Latin America and rwo joyous nudes with flutes was painted at Chicano Park by RCAF women Rosalinda Palacios,

Mid Californ ia Fresno. By no means was all mura l prod uct ion spontaneously begun , as seems the case in rhe 1968~ 1970 period. Further research may reveal connect ive links even in this early period, not excluding the infl uence of reachers with rem nants of New Deal ideas . In the decade of the seventies, however, news t ravelled ourward from mural centers like San Francisco end Los Angeles through personal and organ izational conraccs. Emesco Palom ino, "elder statesman" of La Brocha del Val le of Fresno, received his art ed ucation in San Francisco from 1956-1 965 and began teachi ng at Cali fornia State University , Fresno, in 19 70 . Poli ticized in the intervening years by h is search for cultural ide ncicy and his contact w it h the Chicano movemen t in Colorado where he went to live, he was active w ith the Colo rado M igrant Council and was a frien d of poe t Abelardo Delgado. He k new of the Los Ange les H igh Schoo l walkouts and the strike at San Prancisco Srare University when he painted his first mural in Fresno in 1971 : a flatbed truck seat ing fa rmworkers on thei r way to the fields, surmounted by a nude Ch ican a "V irgi n" and an eagle w ith rad iating sun rays taken from rhe Sunkisc Raisin logo. Both wefe flanked by a pre-Col um bian wa rrior, a skeletal farm worker holding g rapes, and a great serpem . Palom ino was fami lia r with An tonio Bern al's D el Rey m ural , and with Esteba n Villa's calaveras which the R e A P adapted from 19th century Mexican engraver J ose G uadalupe Posada. La Broch adel Valle was beg un by Palomino and other Fresno ires about 1974 and officially incorporated as a non-profit g roup in April 1976 by Palomino, Fernando H ernandez, Salvador Garcia, and Francisco Barrio. It then launched a program of exhibi ts and m ural production . La Broch e was also affiliared with the Conci lio de Arre Popular. From 1978 on, murals were painted in summer prog rams w ith you ng people under the di rect ion of the founders of Brocha, as well as by Cecelia Aranaydo and J uan T urner. From 1976 to 198 1, Los Angeles murali~t and organ izer G ilbert "Meg u" Sanchez Lujan raug hr at Fresno Ciry Co llege and became active in Brocha. Between 19 79- L982,John Sierra co m pleted a 6600 square foot mural, Planting of Cultures, on the Californ ia State Build ing in Fresno."

16 . Irene Prrel, interview with authoe, 29 Ma)' 1982.

17 . IJoyd C. Caner, · Valley Life Mural in Fresno FiN lly Complete," lAS

Antonia Mendoza, and Celia Rodrig uez who had returned inspired from the firs t International W om en's Conferen ce of 1975 in Mexico City. They also painted a tribute to southern Black prisoner, Joan Lircle, who had killed a sexually abusive guard . In the 1980s, Juana Alicia has eme rged as a strong mura l ist with several works in the Mission D istrict including Leu Ltchligtras (The Lettuce P ickers, 1983), and a 1985 mural on the San Francisco Mime Trou p's headq uarters.

""gJn TilWS. I Aug ust 198 2, Mecro secti on. p. I.

4'

S,W.!OJt/SIJJJ!iI C rez. Santa C ruz, San J ose, Watson villc, and Gi lroy are so close to each ocher that in rerchange occurred between them. and with Fresno. In the early 1970s, painterJ aime Valadez \.. as associated with the Cent ro Cultural de la Genre de San J ose, and in 1978 he conducted the Tierra Nues/ra and the Plor de la Comunidad mural projects. Accord ing to Alan Bamerc who teaches in San Jose, the first mural was probab ly a frieze upon a legal-aid office painted in 1972 by Malaqulas Montoya. In 1974 , Rogelio Duarte of Los Angeles, apparendy working alone, painted three murals at San J ose State and on a local market. II In 1972, painter Eduardo Carri llo came to teach at the U niversity of California, Santa Cruz. H is first mural had been a collective one in 1970 at me Chicano Studi es Research Center of the U nive rsity of California, Los Angeles, painted with Ramses Noriega, Sergio H ernandez an d Saul Solache. A respec ted easel painter since the early 1960s, Carrillo had been arrested in Los Angeles duri ng t he 1970 Anri-Viecnam War Moratorium , and had taught at Sacramen to State College from 1970-72, d ur ing the early years of the RCAF. In 1976 , he donated a 2500 square foot mural to the Palomar Arcade in Santa Cruz called Birth. Death and Resurrection wh ich was destroyed in 1978; Carri llo was never successful in having it restored . In 1979, he engaged a Mexican independence theme in a com missioned tile mural located at the Placita del Dolores of Los Ange les' O lvera St reet. \Vatsonville/Gilroy. In its Sum me r 1978 issue, Chij1JleArtt magazine illustrated a new mural by the T ortuga Pat rol from W atson ville which was painted by students in the Gilroy recreation Center, and d irected by Ray Romo and Ralph D'Oliveira. H umor, and a major input from )osC Guadalu pe Posada, ate evident in this work . The same year, the Tecolore Corps pai nted a large outdoor mu ral for the Gi lroy U nifi ed School Disrri cr.'?

8i\LLPI..A YERS (T LACH fT) 1978 Tcrruga Pat rol (R a~ O lmo and Ralph de Oliveira) Chicano Park , Gi lroy

8'

x

50'

Southern Californi a Sa11!a Barbara. Mo re than any other individual, Manuel Unaue ra has provided the inspiration and leadership for muralism in Santa Barbara. His activities have bee n centered at La Case de la Raza, with the enthusiasti c suppo rt of its di rector of cult ural arts, Armando Vallejo. For a number ofyears U nzueta also taught mu ral classes at the University of Californi a, Santa Barbara. "When I first accepted the challenge to paine mu rals at La Casade la Raza in 197 1," says U nzuc ra, "I engulfed myselfin one of rhe g reaces r expe riences of my life." Comment ing on his murals inside

re.

Barnett, pp. J57·D8. 19. Reproduced in rhe 1985 Social and Public An Resou rce Center calendar.

43

Casa, he con nnues: 'T he m ural To tb« t\fa i cfl u Son}.:. (19-3) shows :l1}' concern and pride rewards my Mexican past. A ByoJ/ s ."elIJOI) _ (972) is a very perso nal exp ression on my own views about education and knowledge. Tbe NtlI., Spirit. (19' 3) is an intention ro portray the real ity of the Ch icano movement. (A llegul)' to] Brosberbood, (1 97 3) shows my sincere atti tudes to re late ro all people reg ard less of color of skin or cul tu ral background. ":" In 1979, Case approached the city "for moral and finan cial support to paint murals over the g raffi ried walls of Onega Park" (u nofficially known as Ruben Salazar Par k in place of the "old California Spanish family" after which it is named ). Under the d irect ion of Val le]o, ni neteen mu rals were p rod uced by six local artists guiding co m m u nity volunteers. The themes ranged from the Aztec era co cosm ic u n.iry. 21

Los AngtltS COlinl) and City. In 1969, about 2000 people orga ni zed by the Brown Berets d emonstrated in East Los Ang eles to p rotest the Vietnam W ar and the high percentage of Chicano military being ki lled in Southeast Asia. Anothe r march of 6,000 people took place in February 19 70 . In August 19 70, the National Moratorium Comm ittee swelled the Los Angeles demonstration to between 20,0 00 and 30,000 peop le. Attacked by sheriff's deputies, the march was d ispersed wi th tear gas and , in a rela ted in cident, Los Angeles Times reporrer Ruben Salazar was k illed . Vict ims from rhe arrack were car ried to the East Los Angeles D octor's H ospital where, a year later, Frank Marrfnez of Mechicano Art Ce nter painted an unfin ished fresco picturing Ruben Salazar surro u nd ed by ch ild ren, pre-Columbian art, and folk motifs. R econstructed in m osaic, the mural was mo u nted on an outside wall of the hospital wi thin t wo yeats. The same theme was repeated in 197 3 by W illie H erron and Gronk in their Estrada COutts black-and-white m ural w ith a photo-derived image of the sheriffs ou tside the Silver Dollar Cafe where Salazar was ki lled. In 19 74, Sergio O'Cadiz of O range Counry, working with fi fty San ta An a College students and three p rofessionals, pain ted a memoria l to m bstone to Ruben Salazar in a section of the Neally Library mural H istory and Evolu t ion of the Ch ican o in the U ni ted Stares. Salazar's comb appears und er a cruc ified Indi an which was "q uo red" from Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros' 19 32 whitewashed mu ral in Olvera St reet , Tropical A merica , to sugg est rbe parallel ma rtyrdom of Salazar. 22 As the city (and coun ty) wi th the largest Mexican po p ula tion in the United St ates, Los Angeles also counrs w ith the larg est nu m ber of Chicano m urals in th e cou ntry . In the

20. Manuel Unzuera, Itl lffa/s Art MI",~/s Art (Sama Barbill-;l . CA: Casa de la Raaa, n.d .) 2 1. Armilfldo Vallejo. ~Mu raJ es en prog reso," XJllllan, 3. no. 1 «(980): 24-37. 22 _ Sec chI' brochure TiN MEChA Mlmlt: r,,1I1h AllnilUUlry, / 974-1984. lnl:l by Shifn ~L Goldman (Santa Ana, CA: Rancho Santiago Comm unity College Diserice, 1984).

.4

• BLACK AND WHITE MORATORIUM MURA L

1973 Wi llie H erre n and Gronk Esrrad u Cour ts Ho using Proj..cr, Easr Los Angeles approx. 20' x 30'

197 0 to 1975 period, m ost were pai nted under the spo nsorsh ip of several imporranr organizations and agenc ies: Mech icano Art Center, the Goez Gallery, the Cultural Arts Section of the Department of Recreation and Parks ( 197 1) - which in 197 3 established the Inner City Murals P roject (bot h mulrierhnic) - the City Council-funded Cityw ide Mural Pro ject esrablished by J udith Baca in 1974, and , finally , Baca's non-profit Social and Pu bl ic Art Resource Cenrer (SP ARC) set up in 197 6. In addi tion, there were individual mu ralists and small g roups who wo rked with in and without these structures, raising money (or work ing w ithout pay), in various ways. The mo st no table individual is Charles "Gar o" Felix who, though associated w ith Goez Gallery, single-handedly org anized painters (includ ing hi mself) to create mura ls wit h the com m u ni ty throughout the 1970s (beg inni ng in 19 7 3) at the City H ousing Authority'Sprojec t, Estrada COUtts . Felix had as an exam p le the mu rals pai nted earlier at rhe Costello Recreation Center by Las Vistas Nuevas, d irected by judi th Baca. H is fi nanc ing was of the most meagre (or non -exis te nt) variety . Mu rals at Estrada were done with Ot w ithout teams, by professionals, and

4,

by self-raug hc pa inters. In addition to Felix, there were G il Llcrminclez, Alex Maya. Roberto Chavez. David Borello, Sonny Marrinea, The Murali srics, Richard H ero, Manuel G on zalez, Norma Monroya. Pran k Lo pez, W illie Herron . and G ronk. The Congrcso de Arri scas Ch icanos en Azd an from San D iego, led by San Dieg uen Mario Torero, pai nted a mural of Che Guevara with the slogan "\'
46

included Roberto de la Rocha and Fran k Romero. They were joined by ] ud irb He rnandez, and sti ll later byJ ohn Valadez - both of whom were muralisrs and produced murals as ind ividuals and as a g roup. Other mural painting teams included rhe vanguard g roup ASCO, rwo ofwbose members , \'(Iillie H err6n and G ronk, starred pa inti ng mura ls in 1972, individually and collect ively. Abe tted by Parssi Valde z and H arry Gamboa, Jr. , ASCD iconoclastically lam pooned all murals by prod ucing "instant murals" (such as tap ing Vald ez to a wall) and "walking murals" (wi th cost umes and masks) as a form of performance art. T he two-man team , Los Dos Srreerscape rs fl-iealy and David Botello), enlarged their group with George Yepes and became the Easr Los Streerscepers, producing fixed and portable murals in Los Angeles and other ci ties. In 19 76 , Baca - under the auspi ces of the Social and Public A rt Resource Center began what was to be the longest m ural in Los Angeles - possibly anywhere: The History of California, also know n interchangeablyas the G reat WallofLosAnge/esor the Tujunga WaJh Mu ral . Carefull y researched , and drawing on the skills of many people over the years , the Great Wall has been done in segmen rs starring with 1000 feet and continuing w ith 350 feet every summer for 19 78,1 980, 198 1, and 1983. It follows California history from the prehistoric dinosaurs, the Ind ian serrlemems, the Spanish conquest, and the mig rat ion of Blacks, Mexicans, Chi nese, Japanese, and whi tes to Californ ia, bu t at the same time rewrites that history. Sections of t he m ural deal with the U .S. conques t of tile Sou thwest, wom en's suffrage, World W ar I , the g rowth of H ollywoocl , the G reat Dep ression, W orld W ar II , the figh t against fascism abroad and racism at hom e, the Zoot Suit R iots,) apanese internmen t camps,) ewish refugees.Iabor organ izers and the social reverses for women, progressives, and people of color in the 1950s. It continues with the ethnic o rig ins of rock and roll, the history of gay and lesbian rights, the Black civil rig hts movem ent , rhe em ergence of the Beat movement , the forced assim ilation of Nat ive Americans, and , finally , the images of O lympic cham pions from 1948 to 1964 - especially champion s of color, and women . Baca is considering add ing to the mural , which now measures over 2400 feet long by thirreen feet hig h, and updating its historical com po nent. (Among the Chicana artists who have worked with Baca on the m ural are J ud ith H ernandez, O lga M uni z, Isabel Casrro, Yreina Cervantez, and Parss i Va ldez. Space does not permi t a list ing of all the artists, to say nQthjng of all the mu rals, in L~s Angeles. It is esti mated that t here were 1000 th roug hout the ci ty in 19 78 ,24 of which, c--

24. Barnett, p. 166, citi ng a Cirywide Murals press t'C' 1~, J uly 1978.

47

•

T HE BROADWA Y MURAt . deDi! 1981 John V aladn

. Victor Clothing Company. Inu:tLor

\

742 South Broad way. Los Angeles,

8' x GO'

wirbour question, rhe greatest numbe r were Chicano-painted or d irected. As of nus writing, over ten years later. the quant ity has risen. T here has, however, been a drastic curtailing of mural productio n in Los Angeles since the 1971 to 1975 g rounds well. Most self-taug ht artists have retired from muralism (or art) altogether. Am ong the professionals, art ists have turned (0 other artistic modes. Of th ose still doing murals , especially worthy of ment ion (in addition to J ud ith Baca with SPARC) is rbe Victor Clothing Company complex of murals in downtown Los Angeles. The bui lding at 240 S. Broadway (now an arrisrs' haven) had long been adorned with a several-story mu ral by Kent Twitchell of a br ide and g room , and a mural inside Victor's C lothing store on an indigenous theme. After J ohn Valadez moved to a loft studio near Victor's Clothing, he began working on The Broadway Mural, originally a 48 x 8 foot oil on canvas mounted o n eigh t 8 x 6 pa nels. Later expanded to 60 feet , it was installed in 1981 above eye level ins ide Victor's. Based on Valadez's immersion in, and photography of the buildings, sto res, and crowded srreers of shoppers on Broad way, the mural is an aesthetic and social achi evement equal to Berk eley's Song 0/ Unity in 1978. After the O lympics, three murals were added ro the same building: next to Twitchell's work , the Ease Los Srreerscapers did a huge mural on sports . On the Third Street side of the bu ild ing , Eloy Torres executed a gigantic phororealisr portrait of actor Anthony Quinn, and Frank Romero designed a brightly colo red and joyous image of a galloping horse and rider. OrangeCOJl11fy. T wo arcisrs are responsible fo r the most important murals of this area: Mexicanborn and trained Sergio O'Cadiz, and Emigdio Vasquez who has lived since 1941 on Cypress Street in the ci ty of O range. Since the 1960s, he has painted the urban experience of work ing people in the barrio. In 1973 O'Cediz painted a semi-abst ract 40 x 12 foot mural using as main moti fs the eagle and the jaguar. T hese appear on the facade of the J ames Monroe Elementary School in Santa Ana. He also directed the 1974 MEChA mural at Santa Ana College, for wh ich Emigdio Vasquez painted the PachJlco section. In 1975, O'Cadiz directed an enormous mural in Fountain Valley, anold Mexican barrio whi ch had been wal led offfrom a modern Anglo town by a 600 foot concrete wall . Vasquez himself painted Reoerdos eM pasado y nnagenes del presente (Mem ories of the Past' and Images of the Present) in 1978, a mural wh ich traces Mexican histo ry from Zapata to Cesar Chavez, In 1979 , he painted The History ofthe Chicano Working Class. Comm issioned by the city of Anaheim , Vasquez continued with a series ofmurals painted with young peop leamong which are a History of Anaheim and , most notably, the 6 x 106 foot mu ral Nuestro Experiencia en eI Siglo XX (Our Expe rience in the 20 th Century; 1980) on a Salva tion Army pa rking lot wall. T his last work beg ins in 19 10 with images of Flores Magan, Z apata and the Mexican Revolut ion, 49

NUESTRA EXPERIENCIA IN EL SIGLO X X , del;l.il 1980 Em igd io v asquez Salvation Arm y parking lOt", Anaheim

6' J( 8'

and visually follows the history of the Mexican/Chicano peop les and the ir he roes and heroines of the 1960s and 19 70s. Nor only is R ube n Salazar included , but also Ben Corona, intellectual and acrivisr from the 1950s to the present in the Los Angeles area - a he ro whose image has ap peared in no other mural to my knov....ledge. In more recenr years Vasq uez worked as muralist-inresidence fo r Bowers Museu m , and for Rancho Santiago Col lege, both in Santa Ana. Fo r a pe riod of ri me, Manuel H ernandez-Trujillo, co-founder of MALA F in 1969. painted mural s and taugh t muralism at rhe U nive rsity of California, Irvine, in Orange County and J udi th Baca has been teaching a mural class at the same institution since 198 1. 50

GER6N JAlO 1981 Victor Ochoa. CUl l Ur.U de 1;1. RllZll, Balboa. Park , San D iego

c.rnlto

15'9' x 60'6"

San Diego 10 tbe Mexican Border. Unli ke other areas, the twu major sites of muralism in San Dieg~ - Ch ic.ano Park and (he Centro Cultural de la Raza - have been the subject ofl engrhy hisrorical studies: Eva Cockcrofr's "T he Story of Chicano Park," and Phillip Brookman's "EI Cenrro CUl tural.de la Raza, Fifteen Years." l ) Therefore, we can introduce materials on the San Diego area murals In a more abbreviated way. Chicano Park was co nstructed under the term ina ting struet~re of the Coronado Bridge which spanned the Bay beginning in 1969. The bridge, built fo~ middle class com muters to the mainland , bisected and threatened ro destroy the Logan nelghborhoo:t . ~n 1,970, the Chicano cornm uniry claimed the land beneath the bridge as a park and planted It with trees and fl owers - thus mak ing it into "liberated rerrirory'' in the spirit of ot~er people's parks of the 1960s. Since 1973, its pillars have been pai nted by artists fcom San Diego an.d ma ny other pares of California, and it remains a living symbol of unity for the ~om m U Olty. NO( only are new murals reg ularly added , bu t a comprehens ive restoration p roject IS underway to refurbish those that have su ffered the results of weatheri ng . O ne ofthe leading spirirs of Chi cano Park since its inception was Salvador Robert "Q ueso" Torres, who was ed ucated in the 1950s at the Col lege of Ares and Crafts in O ak land at t he same time as J ose Montoya and Esteban Villa. Beyond the q uest io n of muralized pillars, Torres. has. had a long -stand ing interest in the park as an environmental project involv ing its extension mro the water under the bridge. The low retaining walls of the freeway were the fi rst areas painted .b y Torres, G uillermo Aranda, Victor Oc hoa, Armando Nunez, Abean Q uevedo, S~lvador Barajas, Arturo Roman , Guillermo Rosete, Mar io Torero, Coyote, and J oe Cervantes. Pillars we~e. painted by local and invited artist s: groups came from Santa Ana, Los Ange les (Charles Felix), ar.d Sacramento (me mbers of the Royal Ch icano Air Force). To the local arti sts over the years were added Felipe Adame, Pablo de la Rosa, Feli pe Barbosa, Mane Lina, Louie M~nzano, and ma ny ochers. A second set of p illars in 1977-78 (d uring the M uralthon) were painted by To ny de Varga , Socorro Gam boa, and Anglo art ist M ichael Schnorr. Many murals were pain red wit h the assistance of com m unity activists and students. EI Cen tro Cultural de la Raza also has a long history. Its establishment was d ue to the need for artists, dancers, poe ts, and actors ro have a space of their ow n. In 1971 under the g Uidance,of poet Alurista, and of Torres, the Tolrecas en Aztlan acq uired, through pe rsistent comm unIty-based demands, the round bu ilding in Balboa Park whi ch is the present Centro. T he fi rst mural was begun in the interior by Aranda working with a team , and was finall y fin ished

~,.

Eva Cockcrorl, 'The Story or ~~icano Park ,I'. ~. I (Spreng 1984): 79- 103: al\lf Philip Brookman , - EI Cenero ultural de la Rau , FJrl~n Years. m Abu IN li Z/InN. ed. Ph ilIp Brookman and Guillerm o G omea-Pena (San Diego' Cenrrc C ulcural de la Raaa, 1986 ). pp. 12 _ 53. .

'2

"u,U".

in the mid 198 0s. The ou tside murals, some of which have changed over the years, are by M~rio Aguilar, Aranda, Barajas, Arturo Roman , N ero del Sol, David ,Avalos, ~nton io de Her~osdlo, Sam uel Llam as an d Antonia Perez. Vietor Ochoa , rhe one Chi cano artist who has con~l s te n tl y worked on murals chroughour the years and served in multiple capaci ties, painted tI~e Ima~~ of Geronimo which repl aced a huge calaiera on the srreerside curve of the wall. Oc hoa, 10 add ition to murals at the Centro and Ch icano Park , has painted with g roups in She rman Littl e Park , at th.e Bal boa Elementary School , in Oceanside, and many other locations. San Dieguans co nsider rheir "turf" to incl ude all the area from the city to the Mexican border -s-and beyond. The latesr gro.up to be organized from the Centro has been the Border Art W orkshoprraller d~ Art~ .Frontenzo which promotes cultural events between San Diego and its sist er city in MexICO. TI Juana.

• CONCLUSIONS

It is obvious that many locat ions, mu rals, and artists have been left out of t his account. W~at has been attempted has been a general overview of mural production, geographically .orgamzed; a recounting of the participation of numerous arrises; the dy namics of interaction between ind ividuals and the infrastructures they establ ished to carry out their pro jects; and the response to localand world events by Chicano artistic com munit ies. The eigh ties , sta rti ng with the Carte r ad m inist ration , have ~n f~m~ by a swing to right wing politics in government, and a wo rsen ing econom ic and political Sl ~uatlon for the majority of Nort h Americans that is parti cularly oppressive for peoples of the T hird ~orld living in the United States. T hese co nd it ions are ac com panied by the threat and ~raetlc~ of continental warfare that could escalate into an internatio nal nuclear encou nte r. SOCIal services have been cut to the bone causing tremendous suffering, and there has been a reversal of man y ga ins won by labor and wo rki ng peop le d uring the last fifty years. Support ~y go:ernment for com munity and grassroots arc projects has also been d rastically cut , and the Situati on w~rsened unde r the Reagan ad m inistrat ion wh ich foste red a "small business" ap proach fo r artists and advocated support to the arts by large corpo rations and foundat ions. The con~eq~ence of such support often leads to subtle, a nd not so subtle, censorsh ip and to self-censorsh ,~ 10 t~e form of decorative soluti ons to murals. Iro nically, the interest of mainstream insti tuti ons I~ Chicano ~nd " H ispanic" art prod uction in recent years has had che centrifugal effect of forcing coll.ectlve~ apart, of engendering elitist co mpet ition and indi vidualism (the old "every man :or h imself synd rome.) Comb ined with fun ding d ifficul ties, these new atti tudes can have a SC tlOUS ~dverse effect on com munity murals. For those courageous and ded icated murali st s who conti nue to paine meaningfu l works in t he fa ce of adversity , we owe our suppo rr and assistance.

'3

HUELGA

I

196~- 7 G

Andy Zermeno, T311er G ru (j ~o of rhe U nited Farm Workers photo off:;<:[ pes t er

At significant junctures in our human development we ask and respond co fundamental questio ns concern ing our self-id enriry, ou r histo ry, and our fucure. T he same q uest ioning occurs within g roups of people at particu lar moments in their historical tra jectory. For Mexican-descended people in the Uni ted Scares, the 1960s was such a period ofi mrospeetion, ana lysis , and act ion. Mult iple socio-politica l mobi lizat ions brough t fo rth issues of deep resonance within Mexican Am erican comm unit ies rhroughour the COU nt ry. Rural agrarian strugg les, urban civil right confronracions, srudenr acrivis:n and myriadocher bacrles for self-d etermi nation and cultural reclamat ion coalesced inro a collect ive national consciousness known as the "Chicano Movement ." T he repertoire of varied poli tical responses reflected a hetero g eneous com m u nity uni ted by social positioning ofclass, race and erh nici ry wh ich cut across generatio nal and reg ional lines . Among the com mon d enomi nators were the faces that most Chicanos belonged to the working class, that they maintained varian ts of a ge nera lized Mexican cu lture, and that all had the expe rience of living in the United Sta tes . Also they were ma in ly a young populati on worki ng and living th roughout the country in the Northwes t , Mid west and Southwest. Inscribed within a social nexus ofexploitation and disenfranch isement, Chicanos asserted their historical im perati ve as g enerators ofcultu re rather than mere recepto rs ofcultural exp ression from t he d om inant culture. Reclaimi ng t hei r imagination, they procla imed thei r self invention within an aesthetic project that linked visual artists, poets, musicans, and da ncers to the var iou s po litical fron rs of el mooimiento.

• T HE CHICANO AESTHETIC PROJECT An initial task was to re-think representation, the role of che anisr, and the social function of art. In opposition to the dom inant culture, the Ch icano had been co nceived as the "other" and reduced co a system of ideological fiction s in North American culture. Config urat ions of the "other" always included themes of backwa rdness, degeneracy, and ineq uality. As Chicano visual artists countered the exrem al vision s and commenced to create vital and pos it ive visions of themselves and their environment th ey provide a challenge [Q orthodox , hierarchical cultu re by posit ioni ng a more democratic forum wi t h open participation. Ind ividuals could be bo th workers and artists. In fact , the visual art ist was seen as a sort of cultural worker. Art was necessary but not privileged or special. V isual experience was thought to sti mulate the viewer to fuller co m prehension of the com plex hu man environment and the social needs of people within it . Remai ning outside the offi cial cultu ral apparatus , Chicano artists organized alternative circuits to create, d issemina te, and market thei r artist ic prod uction. The interpretive com munity, those who decide what counted and had value as art were ofte n the art ists t hemselves. Goi ng against the normative trad it ion s of art as escape and com mod ity, a prevalent atti tude rewards Chicano art ob jects was t hat they should provide aesthet ic pleasure and del ig ht whi le also serv ing to ed ucate and ed ify. • ALT ERN AT IVE FORMS AND SPACES Uni fi ed by the shared intenti on of using art as part of the struggle to achi eve new and more cred ible h uman values, Chicano art ists by the m id - 19 70s had beco me producers of visual educat ion. Murals, bi llboards, posters, easel pai nt ings, and new forms of com munal ceremonies all served to establish a cod e of visual sig nification that was mean ingfu l, com monly undersrcod, and collect ively validated . Reflecti ng a multi -cul tu ral reality, Chi cano art ama lgamated and united elements from both Mexican and Ang lo American artist ic trad itions. T his art istic syncret ism correspo nded to the historical 11JeJlizaje of the Chicano and provided art ists a vast repository of subject matter and a wide repe rtoire of styles. Beyo nd the form ulation of aesthetic models, the artist ic com munity began the arduous task of creat ing a viewing audience. Recogn izin g the "high art" system with its norms of privilege and exclusion would be intolerant to Ch icano art , a non-art world centered network of support and inform at ion was established . Exhibitio ns were not to be mou nted in museum s or galleries but rather in comm unity sites suc h as parks, storefronts or meet ing halls. An was integ rated with polit ical ra llies, barrio soc ial events, and co mm uni ty cult ural celebrat io ns wh ere viewers were encouraged to interact with t he art and art ists. Exhibi tions promptly became

'6

communal celebrat ions in comfortable environments where art was dem ysn fied and g iven an accesible ordina ry dimension .

• A NEW ART OF T HE PEOPLE H aving cod ified the role of the artists as a visual educato r, having st ructured an altern ative art circu it for production and distribution, and steadily working to create an aud ience, the fundamental task was to elaborare lin mmlO arte del pJleblo (a new arr of the people) created from ~hared. experie~ce and based on commu nal art t radit ions. N ecessarily, a fi rst step was to rn vesn gare, vali date , and incorpo rate authent ic expressive form s arising wi th in the com plex and m ulti -faceted Ch icano community. In opposi tion to the hierarch ical dom inant cultu re with im plici t di stinctions for "fi ne" and "fol k art ", attem pts were mad e to erad icate boundaries an d inceg rare caregories. An initial recog ni tion was that everyday life and the lived environment were the g rime const itue nt elements fo r the new aesthe t ic.

-\ PUERTO AL EG RE BAR 19805 Cord oVll

M ission Dist rict, San FD nciKo apprcx. 10' x 25' A P.'lfwriiI-lYpe mural.

'7

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Cu lrural practices of everyday life were seen as n utrient sources for Chicano art forms . As barrio customs , rituals, and tradi t ions were investigated, they yielded boundless sources of imagery. Man y com munities have long supported Span ish language newspapers (like LeI Opinion in Los Ang eles) in wh ich artists have created a vig orous tradiron of satirical caricature and illust ration. T hese graphic tradi tions were now contin ued in the Chicano Movement press . Large scale outdoor painting (m ural s) in the exu berant style of Mexican pltlqlteria art often decorate barrio groceries, meat markers, restau rants, and bars. Created and signed by skilled commercial artists, such paintings can be nostalgic (an evocation ofa Mexican village), h umorous (a butcher shop with a frieze of little pigs dressed as chefs and cooki ng human s), histo rical (a resta urant with panels depict ing heroes of the Mexican Revol uti on) or information al (a bar named "La Sirena" wi th a facade featuring cavorting mermaids , Neptune, sea nymphs and assorted sea creatures). Painted in brilliant color wi th simple compositional schemes and a direcr rend ering of forms, Chicano p/llqlteria type an is a colorful and charm ing ong oing rradirion of art in public spaces; it is lively, witty, and often rhe torical. The historical panels from this tradi tion are especially sig nifi cant in the develpme nr of Chicano m urals . O p posed to the d ecorative plllqmria type art which is ou tdo ors, the historical panels were pain ted indoors in resrau ran rs o r com m u mrjmeeting halls , p laces wh ere fam ilies g athe red . These panels were self-contained pictorial ren d erings of historical events such as rhe Battle of Puebla (in the 19th century) or the legend of Cuauhtemoc (an Aztec hero of the 16th century). Function ing as d idact ic tools, they served as visual remin ders of the historical past . Another pervasive form ofpopular art in the barri o is the yearl y iss u edalmana qNe (chromo-lithographed calendar) given to Customers by local merch ants who com m ission them as promotional materials. Although created as advertisements to sell prod ucts, the atmanaqne crad ition all y excl ud es rhe prod uct from the visual itself. Rather, the plates feat ure Mex ican ge nre scenes such as evocations of milpas and rancbitoi (ag rarian landscapes), charms and their seno ritas , indigenous my ths, and the full pantheon of Mexican national heroes . The Virgen de G uad alupe is another preferred image in rhe almanaqlles. O ften the calendar illustra tions are saved from year to year and d isplayed in rhe household like con temporary posters.

SAC RED HEA RT OFJESUS 20lh cemu ry .... "on ymous .Yfexican lithograph

9' x 12"

Sin ce the Catholic rel igion is a paramount infl uence in rhe lives of rnosr Chicanos , ie is na tural that artists g ain imspirat ion from relig ious imagery and practices. ESlampas and altares have been a di rect iconog rap hic influence in the work of many Ch icano arrisrs. Esta mpas are ch romo-l ithographed reli g ious images that are sold in barrio stores or d ispensed by church g roups. They are vivi dly embellished depictions of favored image s such as El Sag rado Corazon de J esus (the Sacred H eart of J esus), El Santo N ino d e Arocha (the Holy Ch ild of Arocha), La 59

Virgen de San Juan de Los Lagos (the Virgin of San Juan of the Lakes), and myriad others . Inexpensively or elaborarely fram ed , such images stand in almost every room of Chicano homes. Each saint has an accompanying rale, and many young children are enthralled by the oral rendi rions of thei r anci ent and he roic exp loits. Ind eed, the saints in the estampas are often regarded as cultural heros. Having such an impact on the imag inat ion, it is no wonder that eJla"lpaJ emerged as prima ry sou rces of Chicano imagery found in murals and other an forms . In the ongoing assessment and re-interpretations of barrio cul ture, many arr isrs foc used on (ll'ara (home rel igious shrines) as expressive forms whi ch typified the confl uence of tradition and change. They are environmental pieces cha t project conti nui ng cultural and spi ritual statements. In their creative eclecticism , allares reflect pa rticular concepts of beauty, orthodox religi ous and spiritual beliefs, and disp lay t reas ured objects deriving from sign ificant events and si tua t ions in the lives of their creators. In Chicano homes , they served as pa rt of dai ly life. T ypical constit uents m igh t include crocheted doill ies and embroidered cloths, fam ily photog raphs, reaerdos (personal momenros such as flowers o r favors saved from a dance or parry), JIW/OJ (religious chromos or statues) espec iall y venerated by the family, and a melange of many other elem ents. T he g rouping of the various objects in a pa rticular space- atop the television set, on a kitchen counrer, atop a bed room dresser, or in a spec iall y constructed nicho(wa ll shelf) appear to be random , but usual ly respond the a conscious sensibil ilry and aesthetic judgement of what thi ngs belong together and in what arrangement.

W HERE HEROES A RE BORN 1983 J uan Ord ui'ie1

3881 No. Broadway WI Los Angel" 6' X 20'

By the mid-1970s in rhe rhrusr to fo ment a nl/cvo arledel pl/ehle, Raza artists began the process of investi gation and rei ntegration with vast resources of barrio popu lar arr. O ne necessary cultural task was to de monstrate how the Ch icano com munity had mainrained and adop ted eleme nts from Mexican folk culture. A llIlaT/aq/(eJ. altareJ, estampas and pl(lql(eria type art were appropriated as examples of cultural continuity and adaptatio n. There was also a conscious effo rt to validate expressive forms specifically rooted in the American urban experien ce. The style, sta nce, and visual d iscourse of sub-cultures within the Chicano comm unity were also acknowledged as generators ofspecific art forms . Placas (spray pa inted gang g raffit i), It:ll/(aje.r(india ink rarroos made with improvised needl es), customizing of ranjlaJ (low-rider cars), youth ga ng regal ia,pinlo (p rison) arc such as panllelilOJ (ballpoint or pen and ink decorared hand kerchiefs), the self- presentation of tbotos and countl ess other expressive forms evoke and embod y a barrio sensibil ity - a sense of self worrh that is de fi an r, proud , and roored in resistan ce. Wh.i1e learn ing and d rawing inspirat ion from conremporary barrio expressio ns, Chicano artists also began the rask of reclaiming arti stic rradi rions rooted in ances tral heri tage. 61

Sculptors especially found historical affinities in the santero and penitente art of the Southwest. The potent santero traditon has ebbed and flowed but continues as a vital contemporary idiom . Santos are sculpted or painted rep resentations of Christian saints often anon ymously created by self taugh t or semi-professional artists. When carved in t he round either in separate sections or in a sing le p iece, t he image is called a tndto; when pai nted on wooden panels, it is a rezablo . Santos were ord inarily used in the home or in local ch urches as ob jects of venerati on. Althoug h func t ion ing as religious icons, they were given human d imens ions and integ rated as art objects wit hin the everyday life of the home. Chicano artists seeking to relate their work in a direct way with commu nity concerns gained im petus from th is h istorical antecede nt ofan art form developed and nourished directly within a social context . T he Penitente Brotherhood , a secular relig ious order, was another sig nificant force in the formarion ofa d urable arrisric exp ression in the Southwesr. Penisente esxmost often portrays Chr ist in his Passion th rough life-sized. realistic statues of the Ecce Ho mo (sor rowful Chr ist) . O ther typical penisente subjects are the skeleton or death uanitas fi gures rep resenting the folly and transience of human life. Forceful examples are the caretas de la nuarte (death cats) which contain powerful images of dearh affectionatel y known as Dona Sebastiana. The striking imagery and emoti ve power of penitenle art had a profou nd impact on those Chicano artists fo rg ing an art which sough t to comm unicate content with integ rity. In penisente art , careful anencion to precise detail is seconda ry to the more sig nific ant "exp ressive" qual it ies often rransmi rted by d istortion and exaggeration. Vigo rous colo rarion , crude texture, and rhetorically simplified form s aid in creat ing the passionate mood ofpenitente sculptural figures . T hese stylistic aspects could well be related to the socially consc ious mu ral art be ing created in California. Con tem porary Chicano ar t, much of it ful l of indignation and outrage, could clai m righ tful affinity wi th the emotively charged antecede nt expression of penitente art. K nowledge about the Indo-H ispanic art forms of the Southwest cam e neither from academic or scholarly sources. It was gained from so urces within the movement like El Grito del Norte, a newspaper issued from Espanola, New Mexico starting in 1968. T his journal had a gress-roors orienracion a nd placed a ma jor emphasis on preserving t he culture of the ru ral ag rarian class. Often, p hotographic essays focus ing o n local artisans or documenti ng t radit iona l ways of life in the isolat ed jJlleblitos of northern N ew Mexico were featured. Cleofas Vig il. a pract icing santero fro m the region, traveled widely speak ing to g toUPS of ar tists band ing together to form the nascen t Chicano arts movem ent . T he carvers Patrocinio Barela, Celso Gallegos and J orge lopez, all master se nteros, whose works were collected, documented , and exh ibited by Anglo 62

DOLOR 1979 Ralph Ma rad iaga G aleria de ]a RazafSrud io 24 silkscrcen 24 ' l( 30'

patrons during the fi rst part of the century. gained renewed sig nificance within th e budding associations of Chicano art ists . Old and tattered exhibit ion catalogues, newspaper clippings and barely legib le magaz ine articles t hat documented t heir work were xeroxed and passed from hand to hand CO be eagerly scru t inized and savored. Some an ises made pilgrimages ro the museums and collect ions where their work was d isplayed and made photographs available co Movement newspapers and magazines . Pri m ar ily t hrough th is process oforal t rad ition and informal sharing of visual documentat ion, arrisrs in California became aware of one of th eir ancestral folk trad itions, an art isti c trad ition rarely incorporated into "offic ial" art history. T hu s the recovery and transmiss ion of sanrem and penitente art was accomplished by t he same SOrt working class artists who had p rod uced it. Al thoug h penitente and sanrero art are not acknowledged as primary or direct in fluen ces on Ch icano art (except for artisans maintain ing the trad ition in t he Sou rhwest), th ey form ex plicit n utrient sources in t he esta blish men t of an artist ic cont in uu m with Chicano co mmunities. Because of t heir popul ar roots and their development in a co m m u nal social nexus, they offer abiding proofoft he process by which a durable art t rad ition ca n be integ rated inro d ai ly life. Stressing public co nnection rather than private cog ni tion, artists continued their quest to evolve flu id and integrat ive art fo rms. The goal was not si m p ly co recl aim vernacular t rad itions but to re-interpret them in ways allowing for hi storica l change. An orig inal inventive m anner of organ izing the com m un ity throug h art-centered act ivit ies was the creation ofco llect ive secular celebra tions ofte n based on rradironal custom s. La Fiesta del Maiz (Corn Festival), £ 1 Die de los lHlIertoJ (Day of the Dead ) and many other group obse rvances we re d eveloped to nurture and sustain ethni c p ride and cu lt ural solidarity as a necessary first step towards t he formulation or a new cul tural res ista nce. Artists working at the various art ceaoer chroughour t he counrry set them selves the taskof inventing new forms ofsecu lar ceremon ies and rituals; rhei r purpose being ro suscain and t ransmi t t he pol it ica l goals and cul tu ral ideals of t he emerging Chicano et hos. Especiall y p revalent were ceremoni als that st ressed nee-indig enous elements. Ancient and su rvivi ng Ind ian cu lt ures were valued as root sou rces from whi ch to extract last ing values that wo uld bring unity and cohesion to the heterog eneous Chicano comm un it y. Reenactment of ind igenous ritual s g ave the m odern Chicano com m u nit y access to the now myt hical sources of its cu ltural identity and to assert rhar identity through sym bols that m ade StatementS about unity , dest iny , su rv ival and end u rance. Furthermore, the neo-indigenismo purveyed in the rit uals and ceremo nies gave aut ho rity and legi timacy to t he political indigeniJ1Jlo wh ich fl ou rished as a d om inant aspecr of the cultural nat ionalist phase of the Ch icano Movement.

or

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Affirm ation ofindigenous heritag e led artists to study and internalize the works of Miguel Leon- Portil la, Ang el Garibay and ot her scho larly interpreters of the p h ilosophy and an of the ancient Mexicans. Through such intellect ual channels as well as throug h the oral tradition of co mmun ity eld ers and sages such as the Conchero dancer And res Seg ura, Chicano artists gained insigh t into the spi rit ual and aesthetic roots of t heir own ex p ression. T he p yram id , rhe Aztec ca lendar stone, design mot ifs fro m ancient cul t u res and t he entire pan theon of g ods from Mayan , Tol rec, and Aztec cul tures became root meta phors in Ch icano arr, not as em pty reminders of past g lories bur as powerfu l sym bols of co ntempo rary relevance. T he integ ration of cul tu ral sym bols with artistic exp ressio n was also g enerated by the newly design ed form of communal cerem on ies m entioned above. On e such spectacle o f much resonance was the commemoration of the firsc day of N ovem ber of £1 Dia de los AtHer/ OJ. Customaril y in Chicano communi ties, thi s day was set aside for vi siti ng th e cem etery, cleaning th e graves of loved ones , setting out fres h flow ers and remembering d eceased family members and fri end s. T here we re no special rituals saved for individual medi ta t ions on mortality. Some comm unities also ma intai ned the custom of publi sh ing calaveras, b roadsides of satirical verse embell ished wi th drawings of sku lls and skeletons based o n t he art of Jose Guadalupe Posad a. Recent arriva ls from Mexico mig ht st ill bake pall de »mertos, o r set up an of renda (a profuse ly decorated altar with food and drin k offerings honori ng recent ly d eparted kin). Perhaps receiving impetus from EI Teatro Campesino wh ich had long since incorporated the colaiera tradition in its production, artists at th e various antros foc used on th is trad iti on as a sp ringboard for d evel ping viral new forms of co m m unal ceremon ies. Self H elp Graphics, an art ists cooperative and com m uni ty art center in East Los Ang eles , can be cited as an example of how artists used the Da y of the Dead trad ition to m obili ze t he co m m un ity wh ile creati ng a sp irit of un it y and cultural pride. As described in a Self H elp G raphics p ress release , the celebration takes pl ace the firs t week of N ovember and is open to all of Los Ange les. Openi ng with an indigenous ce remony at a near-by cemetery, t he activities of the day contin ue wi th a colorful parade featuring costumes, pflpier macbe crosses and mask s, skeletons with sm iles and papel pimdo (cu rour ti ssue paper banners). Led thro ug h th e streets b y t he sound s of tradi tional music, the crowds watch and spontaneously join in to conclude t he march in front of al ta rs assembled at th e Self H elp Grap h ics st ud io . H ere the celebrants present offerings to t he dead at fes tively decorated altars const ructed by com m un ity parti cipants in workshops held months befo~e the event. Performin g teatros, m usician g roups, and other festiv iti es continue into early eVenmg concl ud ing w ith a cand le lit procession.

6'

In the spon taneity and spi rit of the fest ival, the com muni ty has time to specu late and take cog nizance of itself and its cul tu ral trad itions. T he new forms of comm unal celebrations funct ioned as art is tic st rategies to symbolically transm it key assumpt.ions of the Chicano an movement. They introd uced and propagated many of the sym bols, them es, and mot ifs be ing cod ified into a visual vocabulary by Chicano art ists. Wh ile stressing p te-Co lom bian and ind igenous subject -ma tter, the em ergent visua l vocabulary also incorporated urban rypes and explorations of the hybrid Chicano soc ial mil ieu . Integ rally related to the human concerns of their local neighborhoods, artists pursu ed the vital tasks of creati ng art forms that streng the ned the will , fort ified the cultural identi ty, and clarified rhe consciousness ofthe com muniry. The forem ost aesthetic ai m conci nued to be search for an organ ic unity between actual social livi ng and arr. By the m id- 19 70s posrers and m urals were ubiqu itous purveyors of visual cultu re in Chicano co mm unit ies. For their visual dialogue, artists soon cod ifi ed themes, motifs, an d iconography which prov ided ideological direction and visual coherence to m ural and poster p roduct ion . In the main, rhis arrisric vocabulary included referents to pre-Colum bian, Mexican , Ch icano, Ang lo American, and in tern ational sources. T he search was for a visual lang uage t hat was clear, emotionally charged , and easily understood . Pre-Co lum bian citations include pyram ids, the Azt ec calendar stone, cul tural heroes like Q uerzalcoarl , and deit ies like Tlaloc and Coar lic ue. From the Mexican heri tage references to revolut iona ry heros an d cultural traditions are widespread . Potent cultu ral sym bols like e/ maglley, La Virgen de G uadalu pe, and la ralavera are prevalent . Chicano motifs like placas or the hlle/go thunderbird appe ar constantly with such heroic fi g ures as Che Guevara and Cesar Chavez. Ang lo America provides sat irical visions of Uncle Sam , rhe Srarue of Li berty, and caricaraures of the bourgeoisie _ bosses, landowners, and robber barons . Internationalism entered the pictorial vocabu lary of Ch icano m urals and posters with motifs and iconographic details from the people's strugg les in Vietnam, Africa, and Latin America. C reati ng a d ialect ical an is an ongoi ng process and ma rks the ma tu re stage of the Chicano an movem ent in the 1980s. Thi s phase entails the appropri ation of t he most advan ced styles, techniq ues . and technolog ies in the persistent ,discipl ined, and cont inual effort toward developing an enhanced artof resistan ce - an art whi ch is not a resistance ro rhe marenals and form s of art , but rather a resistance to entrenched social systems of po wer, excl usion, and negation. A BAJD CON LA /l ll GRA 1979 Malaq uiu Mont oya black and whi tC' s ilksc rcen poster 24 ' x 30'

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Amalia M£sa·Bains

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Quest for Identity: Profile of Two Chicana Muralists

The Chicano Movement can be seen as a coming of age, a selfdefi nition rooted in a cri t ical per iod of development both Bas~d on ind ivid ual and social. Concerns with improved edu cat ion , Int~ rv i~ws with labor condi tions, biling ual support, land retrieval, and comJudit h F. Baca munity empowerment were bound together within the encompassi ng challenge of ident ity. For th e art ist, this selfand Patricia defin ition by vin:ue ofits historical placement was the impulse Rod ri9u~~ for both personal and coll ective expression. In a historical sense, the Chicano Movement co_uld be interpreted as collect ive act ion toward cultural , polit ical, social, econom.c, or educational change. Viewed privately throug h the self of the sing ular artist , the Moveme nt was a struggle with past heritage , societal rejection, ado lescent cont rad ict ion, and inevitabl y, the need for purposeful ethical en listment. This need to blend a historical and pe rsonal identi ty as Ch icano was a dr iving force in the social act ivism of el mooimiento. Those ind ivid ual arcisrs whose developing self was indelibly marked by this experience refl ect the larger and more massive q uest for iden ti ty of their g roup. Acco rdi ng to Erik Erikson in his groundbreak ing book, Life History and the Historical Moment: A his/orical periodmay pm tn/ a singularch«lIClfora col/edit't rmeuiai which opens up unlimiud -Zoot Suil Riots ', d erail, GREA. T WAU OF WS A "JGELES 198 1 J ud ith F. Bao. T u jung Dr-.linag. e Cana l' San Fernando V, II--y·, tos A ng eIes I a \'(Iash I [01".1 mu.... OV~r 1/2 mile long , [h is derail approx . 13 ' x H'

idtmi/ie,sffW lhoseu'ho, b)' a combina/ioll ofuRYl/linm , giftedness, and rompttttlct, rtpmmt a nnu leadership, a new elite, and new l}peJ rising /0 dominance i" t1 flew peep/t. I I. Erik Erikson, U/ t Him '] aNd fbt HiJ/Or ;mf M omeNt (Nrw York: \ 'iI . W . N Or!on & Co., 197'5), p. 2 1.

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T he Chicano mural rnovemen r was a major effort in che expressive arts which expanded these concerns ofidentiry through a public discourse. Mura ls served as a larger tha n life visual voice linking com munities, narrating m issing histories, presenting cult ural th emes, reap. propriacing neig hborhood space, and creat ing a new imagery of the Chicano. As a funct ion of identity development, murals provided idealized portrai ts which celebrated fami ly and cultural practices. T hei r themes often outl ined poli t ica l demands and spiritual beliefs significant to the larger Chica no community. Wi thi n this mural movement collectives and brigades which sought to develop collaborat ive models and struc tures provided important leadersh ip. This leadership was marked by the active presence of women muralists. As women they broug ht gender perspective to the issues of identity and com munity ; as artists they affirmed a p ublic expression that incorporated both historic an d personal narrati ve. Patricia Rodrfguea form erly of the 1970s mural collective, Mujeres Muralisms, is a sig nificant figure in Chicano cultural activity within the movement. J udith F. Baca, creator of the Great \'Voll of Los A ngela cont inues to be a moving force in mura l activi t ies internati onally. In looking at rhe developmenr ofth ese two leadi ng muralisrs as women, art ists, and parti ci pants in the Ch icano Movement we can perhaps begin to understand the relationshi p between social and indi vid ual identi ty. T heir journey is of an individ ual and personal natu re, yet like a mirror it refl ects the life histo ry of a com munity.

• PATRICIA RODR IG UEZ For Patricia Rodriguez th e earliest child hood sense of boundaries was of solidity and protection from her own com munity as well as of excl usion and alienat ion from an Anglo societ y. She was born in Texas to a Ch icana sing le parent of the Zoo t suit era and was raised by her grandmothe r while her moth er worked . Her earli est recolle ctions were of a racially tense separation between Mexicans and Anglos: \'Veknew tbat thn-e were certain territories ue didn'l go into. erptciolly in T O:OJ. It U'aJ oery dose-emt, WI! hod 0/11' oum barrios and 0 111' own districts. In Jchool wegot ((dIed names and thingJ like tbas. Despite th e restrictiveness of the comm unity sett ing, Patric ia Rodrfguea' grandmother was able to provide an optimistic model, clearly becom ing a source of strength. He r caretaki ng played a major role in the early developmen t of a fem in ine ide nt ificat ion.

She had(/10/ ofstrengtband energy. Sbebrongbt meup muil tbe flgeojJel/t!1l. JO I uias molded after her pretty much instead ofmy mother. She u-as /-'elY prodllctive. 11f')' creatne... She enjoyed every/bing abonr lift. She was never bitter, never depressed. 70

FA NT AS Y WORLD FOR Ol/ LOREN 197::> Patricia Rodriguez. G raciela u,-i llo, and Irene Perez .. s , . . . B S '{ ' ·on D 'Sfr1CI . an ranCISCO Ralph Marad laga Min i-Park . 2ith and ryant [S., ,. ISSI approx. 30' x IY

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It was in this setting of community cul tu re that Rodrfguea experienced those sou rces th at have cont inued to playa parr in her creative identity. The inte rplay of fami ly gatherings and barrio festiv it ies provided an acceptable method of fe mi nine creat ivi ty. T hrough cultural and comm unal trad iti ons th e artis t developed a sense of product ivity: \'Vhen I was grouang liP in the little Texas fown, we J/Ied to hatlt 10fS o[ jamt/) ctJJ. which are les/hlt days - chllrch celebrafionJ, Alo/her's day, or something like that - and everybody uf()rks IOWd l,J tbat day. lt's oery festive... \Vomen producea 10/ ofpillow ram. embroidery, knilling. )oJholders or aprons or doilies. A ll tbar WfI.J very colorf u/, tt tva! a big event. II had a lo! of ellKI on me. I was "'erJ excited abofll what my grandmother WaJ showing and tht neighbor mas showing, Th is sense of shared expression p rovid ed by the nurtun ng setting of her g rand mothe r's suppo rt stirred her fi rst explorations in art making: I Can remember being creative ever since I uos a tbitd.: the earliest thing I can remember is being at a neigbbor'sbouse when / still tioed with my grandmaber in Texasand creating a dress and trying tosew it, A clllally, / didn't sew it ~alm when the lady tried 10 PIli tbedress all the doll, it cameapart, 8 111, it toasa dress tbat had IWOparts 10 it which usas very interesting 10 her, She was amazed that I cOllld do that, T he move to Californ ia in her ch ild hood allowed Patricia Rodriguez to neg oti ate a new sense of openess about cultural boundaries, It also provided a conflicrual sit uat ion as she struggled with the loss of he r g randm other, the eme rgence of a new stepfather and a new cornmuru ry:

I Camef roma 'I-'eTJ repressive type of back.grolmd where)'oll jllst didn't hang oat with }.nglos - m ,[w they 'U £rt very poorand lhey camefrom tht s4meneighhorhoods wecamefrom, ln California the division wasn't as blatant, \Ve all bnng ast togober.. It WaS no/ easy in tbe beginning became/ didn't know ifl sholtld trill! them, or whether it WaS theright thing to do, or if l wOltid gel into t1'OlIble. Ad olescent strugg les gave way to the opportunity for self-exp ression under these new infl uences. Du ring this pe riod , Rodrig uez began ro formulate a sense of herself as an artist. T h is ambit ion was influenced by recogni tion fro m ochers:

\Vhen l toas in junior high / had a uJOnderfll1 art teacher who 'WtIS gay and very creative ...Hekepftl1COllraging me. Hesaid, "YoII'regoing tobean artist, YOII'vegOItogo tocoUege." A nd J said, "lVell, J'I/t always wanted to be an artist." The interact ion wi th a caring ad ul t outs id e the fam ily served as a bridg e to greater aspi rations. As fo r so many adolescents, the in te rest and concern of a significan t teache r provided 72

l.tI TlNOAJlIEHJCA

1914 las Mu jeres Mu ralistas (Patricia Rodrig uez, O reclela Carillo, Co nsceto Mendez, Irene Perez) Mi5.Sion St reet !xtwt>en 2 ~ t h and 26 th Srs.. Mission District , San Fra ncisco approx. 2 ~' x 70'

the motivation for independence. \Vh ile the Anglo environment was at nmes isolati ng , Rod rig uez' artist ic aptitude was essent ial to her self-esteem and competency. With this wideni ng sense of ident ity her artistic impulses flourished and she began to envision her futu re as an an ise. For Rodriguez as for many Chicanos of her generation , the lim itat ions im posed by soc ial attitudes were an obstac le in developing her sense offuture. YCt Pat ricia Rodrfguez relied on her growing sense of end urance and perseveran ce, encouraged by th e model of her moth er: I ioas vny imprwed with her became she was also very enduring and hardworking. She hada p~silivt!alli1Jldeabo"t eoerytbing anddidn't let dllylhing get in her way. Shea/Ii'ays tlJfJlighf tbat I sho,,/d strioe fflY the best, I should strive f or the highest JJ(JJJible, uibetber it be in high school or to gel a job. Duri ng this st ruggle for independence and future, she was for a time married to an Ang lo. After her marriage ended in divorce, she began realizing her potential as an arrisr. The collect ive force of the poli tical change for Chicanos began co sweep her along as she joined th e Movemenr.Tbe turn ing point was rhar I was, fo r the fi rst t ime, in che erwironm en r of the Chi cano Movement. There werea lot of things going Off, a lot of dC111011JiI"ations, a lot ofexciting moments. I decided if I can do all these things and be a woman who can work for the rigbts 0/ Cbi({1I1 OS to be at the University, 'Work for the rights of women. work for the rights ifuoreers, then I sbosld be able to work/or my own rights, to makemy dreams cometrue. It was the ideal oftrying to be liberatedand trying to befeminist, oftrying 10 WGrk for something yo" co,,1d never achieve otherwise becallSe sKiety wo" ldn'tlet yo". I jasr worked toward tbat, Making use of an art scholarship, she went to arr school, however she found it to be isolati ng and chaotic. The fo rmali ty and srrucrure she expec ted to fi nd there was based on a romantic ized percept ion that proved to be untrue. t rbosgbt art school was going to be like the Hollywood movies ofthe ] 940s where )'0" have to wear a smock and a beret. The only role models I had were television and maybe Hollywood movies where some middle-class gid went to Paris to art school. In the ferm en t of new ideas and potentialit ies ge nerated by el movi"'ientoshe joined other Chicanos comm itted to fight ing for their right to higher ed ucat ion. In the conrexr of this momentum . a new consciousness was formed and earlier idenrificarions ofst re ng rb and perseveran ce became layers in t he development of her self concept as an art ist . What she was unable to find in support in the majori ty inst it ut ions she d iscovered in her barrio activit ies. But even th is collec tive work was restricted by the polui cel expectations of he r male counterparts: 7.

They responded u ntb "well, it's aile bill it dcesn't say vtry much. " A nd I said, "well, nat everything has 10 bepalitical. " T!Je,-e'; osber tbings that onecan say, especial/y asan artist, I mean it's in an artist's creed toexpress how lhey feeL .I net," believed thai )'011 had tobe so dogmatic, in/act. I resented it, But I uenr ti-Iong with it became I wasvery much involved with the group. She began stu dy ing the work of the Mexican m uralists and was inspired to join other women art ists in a group called Mujeres Mu ralistas. T he development of the women 's painti ng g roup allowed her access to new ideas and exp ressions on a public level.

Thefact that ! UJo;painting.that I was doing Iarge-scalefignres, that I was working with massive scale and I was 0111 in pllh/ic, made it a lot more exciting. As her community arrachmenr deepened , the artist relied more on the cultural sou rces of her own expe riences as content and model in her murals. In particu lar, the consistent patterns ofcelebration , ki nshi p, and comm unity from her chi ldhood became pa rt ofthe mu ralist 's themes and imagery that were translated through the collect ive vision of th e M ujeres M uralistas.

A lot of the rimals and the richness 0/ theculture, tbe combinations 0/ mltuml beliefs that the/amily has and 0/theparticular groups I've been iaitb are tbe influences I have now. But they all go back to my grandmother, or to my earty childhood. They derive/rom my early stages of development. J oining with the collect ive mural movement she conti nued to maintain an ideal sense of arti st ic iden ti ty, a role imbued with a larger m ission . .This sense of m ission, despi te the cha nges in her art all iances and in the Movement, is expressed by her perseverance:

Aty philosophy is that an artist should IN dedicated. Sometimes it is very'diffimlt. Some poplesay, "bmband and wife and kids first, and if tbm's time, there's art. .. And I say, "no. " I say, "art first. A rt first, everything else second", It takes work and means some sacrifices ill yosr life...i/)'oll call yoursel]an artist, )'0/1 have 10 Pl1t 0111. YOl1 htweto work hard. YOl1 hatlt toproduce work, T he inspirations , sources an d contrad ict ions that pro voked change for Patricia Rod riguez solidifi ed a comm it ment and sense 0: self inextri cably tied to bot h her identity as a Chi cana and as an arti st . In a collective sense the Ch icano adolescence provi ded a major impetus to el mooimimto. T he awareness of inj ustice rbar is intensifi ed for evety adolescent was doubly intense for m inority youth. Like orher adolescen rs, Patricia Rodriguez relied on her ow n g rowing artistic competency as an escape from t he sense of frustration and limitation encountered in school where tracking and discrimi nation were everyday events. 75

You understood what discrimination was about,.. 1jelt that I hada responsibility, 1had a duty as part of this )'otmger gmeration u-itb this kind of consciousness totry and correa some of those things. It was like enlisting in the arm)'. If I had to have art become part of that duty for x amount oftime. thm it would, became it was simply something that I would have felt terrible if 1 had not done. Personal development propelled Patricia Rod riguez coward her own amsnc needs and the Chi cano collectivity provided a context for social change. Mujeres Muralisras was formed out ora need for women to work toge ther in a supportive way. Like earlier familial models, the Mujeres Muralis ras included only women : Irene Perez (G uatemalan), Graciela Carrillo (Chi cano), Consuelo Mendez (Venezuelan), and Patricia Rodrfguez. In man y ways, the g roup was also a prototype for t he development of movemenr values wh ich reinforced publicly accessible , anti-elite work ofe ccl lective nature. T he images of their murals, Laci noamerica and Pecos Tacos, expressed a pan-American aesthetic where highly visible images of women and emphas is on ceremony, celebrat ion, caretaking , harvest and a conti nental terrain worked toward th e creation of a new mythology. T he power of the murals relied on precisel y that widely held memory of th e everyday wh ich allowed the work of the Mujeres Mural isras to provide a recollective function for a broad com mun ity during a historic period t ime,

or

• JUDITH F. BA CA In t he period of t he Chicano Movement life paths crossed the historic t ra jectory of the group. Making sense out of th is juncture req uires us to refl ect on the key elements, personal histo ries, memories, and recollecti ons that marked th is experien ce. ForJ ud ith Baca, perhaps it was th e srory of her ow n famil ies m igrat ion to Californ ia shortly before her birch that fi rst made her aware of the oppression and resistance of women. She was reared in a matriarchal family. As fo r many Chicanos of her generat ion, her g randmot her offered a constant nurtur ing while her single mother made a living .

Aly Mother ioasu't young when I was born, she was 23. They hadbeen Iivillg in Colorado. The barrio was a very big, very oJd A"exicall collmumity. She had oIder brothers who complelely rontrolledber lift, a situation which she collldll't bear allY more. SIx made the journey west. She was thepioneer in the family. The struggl e of th is family of women became a model for the artist's later structures of fem inist empowerment . J ud ith Baca was greatl y influenced by the character and ind igenous sensi bility of her grandrnorher while her mother's working class perseverance in providing for a di sabled sister, an elderly mother, a younge r sister, and her daughter created a 76

UPRISING OF THE tl1 UJ ERE.S , d.,lai! 1979 )ud i[h F. Baca portllbl.,. aeryl;, on wood 8' x 24'

model of service and dedication that inspired the young J udi th Baca. In part icular, her grandmo ther's beliefs and practices created a worldview for the arti st (hat remains a potent force in her own ph ilosophy regarding the environment, harmony and world relations:

th e commune1 narure O f her work was valid as art. Yet , her col lective d work I w it h. you t h gangs in barri breakth rough in her own self-defi nition, her ow n eve opmenc: the arrm was a • . . . fi he

My grandmolherU1aJ a lJerY spiritual, vtry Indi,m . /ooleing woman. I remember walking down the street withherandhelding her handandknowing thai sonIehow wewere wolking down the uTong streets in/he wrong coumry and we wert completely 01({ ojslep with what was happming here. Shegovt me a rremendom spiritual force. Ilhink she b«ame the ideal ofwhat love should be. I really findthis the absolille jOlmdafi on ofmy cOllfitiuln . J know my sense ofself was formed al thai time.

ked 'th the kids theexperience WaJ JO 1/tOtJing and so big: b1/a~l1~e 1/, ~r t he l \\'1 11 WOP'. WI .. . her They were g IVing 1JOfceJ to first timepeople were takhtg co",m/lmty action 111 art toget . d k' h the people who bad not spoken, whose stories were largely not told ':/1 fa mg a: ' I owned bv other hNlh/e. l saw the men who were Pllltlllg me down 0 w at were large y J r -rr . . ho he people l was did, follow Illy lead. I began to see that some thing was ~orng on, I working with 'w ert king changed, bow l was also changmg and teaming.

H er mother's marriage ro an Anglo proved

to

be a conflicrual relati onship for

Baca. She responded co th is sense of al ienation by increas ing her reliance on rhe extended fam ily and assert ing more and more control of herself th rough her an . An early marriage co an Ang lo made possible some separa tion from family co nflic ts and provided a suppe-r for her an ed ucation. H er marriage ending in d ivorce, Baca found solace, conso latio n and a sense ofpower in her errisric abilities. Yet her ea rly an lacked a sense of purpose. She remembers a moment after graduation when a simple inquiry by her grandmother called t hese issues into q ues tion :

I was thefirst woman in thefmnily ever tograduatefrom college. There was a big party. Everyonecame. l took mycertificate tomy grandmother the nightof llrygradl!otionandsaid, "Look." I was very happy. She took me illt!) the back bedroom ofIIry littleapartment and she said, "Show mewhat yOIl do." So l twk ont what / couldfind that was realistic, some drawings, and showed them to her. She said jllJ1 One thing, "What's it forl" ! was devastatedby that onelittleremark. ! 'wasgoing to say "To hang on your usdls," but she was right. "What was it f or?" Her qtastion really gllided mefrom that point on. l knew I had to UIe this partimlar skill ! had, bllt that it had to be connected with something that had meaning or purpose beyond my selfgralijicalion and couidspeak to the people ! cared most abollt, 'ny family and cOHim/mity.

u:

H er involvement with young people has been a conti nu ing aspec t of her work whi ch is refl ect ive of her own st ruggles and beliefs: / 'm very anatbed to Joung /Jt'Op/ebecame / identify with their ndJtllion, tbe strugg~ /heJ.' rt . through! be/itvt that they hafJtafuture, that they are the galtgeof what ; JOC/~t~

1;;;;111g or nor'doing tonatJlre -

they are the harometerofracism. That's why l work w it

f h G t U't. 1/ Moving fro m barrio co m m u ni t y murals to the underra 109 0 ~r e. . TM a, Baca moved into a period ofg reater p roductivity and i nvo lve~ en t ~i ( h issues ~f rem I01s: . It : : a movement nor wi thout some co nflicts, but as her sense of Identi ty as an art ist grew , r ere an acceptance of t he unconventional path her life would take.

youth.

ki

. oJ ,f yOllr~e . Jr' T be ronsta nt is yOllr;elf And tbeextension "J ISyOIl r wore . . . Tberearenorolemodels kfi '

r:

tobe a woman m emially aloneand willing to do that - wzllmg toPllt II/Y.u:or mt.tn my lifeanddeal with what that might mean. Thereis a co'if/i~ be/ween and be~llg a lone woman, it; a conflia between not making the comentional laHuly, ~" rec;~atll/g the comfort and Jecurity of that without doing it the way it has been done 111 my . asory.

/r:

/ struggle not to be lost from my CIIlturebecause ! think it is the Vtl': spirit .of ~rn; My work is informed by the connection. There'sforce in the cannearon. / 1 IS t ease rom which the work flows. ,

! didn 't think / had the right to ca// myselfa" artist, became the image ofwho em artist

T he pervasive elem ent of resistance that colored t he larger Ch icano ~o vem ent . as assumpoons . arti stcoand artalso affected C hi cano artists a bout t be p rivar e and elit ist. natu f re ofblic llec ti ve · vo Ived with che conscrucrion making were overturned. Even as a mu ra I ·rsr m . .o a puh i Ib,sh ped her movem ent In ' art, J udiIt h Boca did nor, lose touch wi th rhe personal m otivations W IC a p roduction:

The cole of rhe artist, the issue ofdefi n ition, conrin ued co be a problem as) udi rh Baca began to work wi t hin rhe collectiv ity of the Chicano Movement . She q uestioned whether

•

Yet even her new mode l of a femini st id entity d id not sever her link to.cu.l tural sources. She derived energy from t he cu lt ural beliefs and experiences of her comrnumry:

Baca turned m ore intensely co her wo rk as an art ist and reacher as she struggled to defi ne her role. As a woman and a C hicana she did not seem to fi t wi thin the romantic imag e of th e boh emian whi te male art ist work ing in a garret:

was didn't fn. / did,,'t know tbat / couM make my OMI definition.

78

J:;m;

79

If /here's a sosra ofpain, I do not avoid it. I think mgeand the transformation ofit ima positive action is one of tht great somas 0/productivity for me. Rageat injustice or 0/ the spirifflal disharmony with the earth, u dtb uibat is[emale is a starling poim from which 10 develop alternatnes. In thesubsequent problem solving one thing leads 10 anotber. 1am part ofthflt proem, [ really believe tbat someumes I'm carriedby this great wave of uhat happens when I Pllt people /ogtfhw, From Baca's earlies t work of o rgan izing you rh ga ngs ro do mural work . ro the Great \Vall. ro her cu rrent travel ing piece The World \'(IaU (on societal t ransformation ro peace). the arrist has been concerned with p ublic space. commu nity empowerment . and creat ing relationsh ips between d iscordant peo ple.

Onedoes 0 1/ analysis of a site and it doesn't matter whether it 's East Los A ngeles or whnher it's Skid Row or whether if's a migran/fa rm worker's toum. In each cast )'011 begin isitb an analysis of lhat site, A ndy OIl begintofind 0111 iobat are tbesocial oswell asthephysical elements ofa parliclliar jJlace...jJri111ary, is to really look (1/ the social siluat ion even be/ore thephysical side becameifthe social situation dictates tbat it is an important site towork. at, then even if the physical sift is difficult or almost impossible, I may sriil rbance II. T he comm unity part icipa to ry process Baca developed . wh ich involves im pur from histori ans, cultural informants. sroryrellers , com muni ty residents and young artists, has become an irnporrant model for collecti ve mu rals. T he collective process was based on the need ro create murals by Ch icanos for Ch icanos, Consequently. models of com munity invol vem ent were essential ingredients in allowing the hisroriesand ideas of the murals to reach their inrended audience. Although the collect ive process draws in many diverse infl uences, it is Baca's well developed fi lmic nar rat ive using con necting images that lends the uniq ue q uali ty to wo rks such as the Great \'(1011. She describes its metaphoric quality as fo llows:

In the case 0/ the Great Wall the metapbor really is tbe bridge. It's aboli/ the interrdationship between nbnic and racial groliPS, the develop1llt1lt of in/erracial bannony. The prodllct _ there art nail)' two prodmts - the 11111'-01 and anotber prodsct which is invisible, the interracial harmony between the!Jeople who have been involved

~ Di v ision of [he Barrios and Chavn Ravir>t'" from the- G REA T WALL OF LOS AN GELES

1983 J ud ith F. Baca T u junga W ash Drainage Canal, San Fern ando Valley, Los Ang"l e~ tot al mural over 1/2 mile long . [his derail ep prcx- 13' x 35 '

In t he long history or Californ ia's comm unit ies of color conflicts between racial groups are a his toric reality, J ud ith Baca's work serves to bind together disparate hi stories and adversarial consriruencies. In particu lar. the individual [uncrures of he r life have intersected with the historical moment of the C hicano. Femi nist . and Public Art movements. In th is respect her life history has encompassed mult iple cultural realit ies. Yet there is a common th read of social 81

indignation , res istance and struggle for justice that permeates her murals. Through her work she has forged a new defi nit ion of the urban art ist: I consider myselfan urban artist, ' hal is, I'm parliada dy toned into an urban environman which could he the barrio thaI I grew lip in. I believe that OJ an erban artist J haut to be respomioe to the urban enoiromnem. I'm interestedin tbe transformation of/hephysical el1t1;r0Il1Iie111 as wt!/1 and tberreation of a spare thaI in itselfreflects the people wholive there. I see nl)'selj as an imlrJI11le111 to gitlt ooias (0 the the general sentiment.

• CONCLUSION The parallels between the idenu ry developm ent of Parrica Rodrigu ez and Jud ith Baea ate nor surprisi ng when they are viewed in th e context of the ir generation, their region, and their historical epoch. T he forces of m ig ration, extended fam ily, racism , and sexism were encoun tered in a historic period of massive social change for coun tless orher Chicanas of thei r age. The mann er of transformation available to the arrisr has al lowed them to use what was personal and ind ividual in service o f their group. Like o ther Chicanas un der sim ilar circumstances of m igration and change, the grandmorhee served as a sanctua ry ofculture and a bridge to memories and heritag e, serving both as conrenr and model for the ir murals. In the same fashion, the folk ceremonies and healing and relig ious arrifacrs of their fam iIies formed a sp iriruali ry and sense ofcontinui ty crit ical eo their de velopment. T he crisis of adolescence, as well as the d iscrepancy between the accepted norms of Ang lo America and thei r own experiences propelled these women into the development ofthe ir ta lent, their only avenue ofselfesteem . Most important is the conti nuous strugg le eo resolve the role of woman as art ist. Beset by the ge nd er-bou nd image ofa white male art ist, both) udi rh Beca and Patricia Rod rIguez redefined , in thei r ind ivid ual manner, the arcisr as fema le. Forg oing marriage and child ren, the journey of the self has been marked by the creat ive expression of cultu ral belief.

82

As wom en of a movement dominated by men, they have provided rheir own reparations for the pain of personal con fli ct, soc ietal racism and the limi ta tions of gender roles. In the larg est sense the women 's models ofcol lecri vi ty, inel usiveness, spa tial retrieval , and histori c and persona l me mory have become shared eleme nts in the d evelopment ofmural narrat ives am ong Ch icanos . In each, life history has encou ntered his to rical mo ment in a junctu re where on ly wom en of their" unruliness, g ifeed ness and com petence" could have risen to leadersh ip. The explora tion of individ ual identity has become a reflection of a g reater cult ural identi ty among Chicanos. In this pe riod of historic redefi nition t he role of these lead ing women muralists provides a stud y of intention and belief common to Chicanos of their generation.

•

"Pi ckers" from GUADALU PE

"'lU RAl~

1990 J ud ith 11. Baca Leroy Park , Guadalupe acrylic on pl ywood , • total mural (4 panels}, S' It 2S' S' . [hi s panel S' x 7 2 .

Marcos Sanchez·Tranquilino

~ Murales del Movimiento: Chicano Mura ls and the Disco urses of Art and America n• • Ilation

ONAL[ RAZtl 1974 f ran k Fierro Esrrada Cou rt5 Housing Projecr East Los J\ , I approx. 20' x 30' ' ng e es

A Cbicano is 0 Af tx;( a 1l Amtri{on who doe! 1/ot Milt 0 11 Anglo imoJt ofhim!tlf _ Ruben Salazar, 1970

"O RALE RAZA!," the textual focus of Frank Fierro's colorful 19 74 mural at the Est rada Courts H ousing Pro ject in East Los Angeles, is an exuberant g reet ing to all Chicanos. The literal Eng lish translat ion of th is g reeti ng is awkward , mean ing "R ig ht O n! Mexican Am erican People: ' H owever, the id iomatic Chica no translat ion would be close r to " Rig ht on! my People," or even "my Commun ity ." The g reeti ng im rnediarel y establishes a cultu ral recogn ition between the Chicano m uralist and t he Chicano viewer, acknowledging both as be-

longi ng to the national Ch icano com m unity. The m urals as well as the other arts of this commu nity played a sem ina l role in the esta blish ment of th is important in tra-cul tural bridge, the effect s of wh ich ulti mately had significant implication s for U nited Sta tes soc iety in general and Chicanos in patt icu lar. As w ith the majori ty of Chicano murals of its period, "Orale Raza!" art iculated a cultural represe ntation of bot h reg ional and nat iona l political agendas for el mooimiento, the Chicano civil rig hts movement wh ich began in the mid- 1960s and cont inued through various nansforrnarions into the late 1970s and beyond. Chicanos (men) and Chicanas (women) representing this new cu ltu ral/political identity eme rged from the long establ ished U.S. Mexican (or Mexican Amer ican) community, and sought to red ress t heir plight through a series oforgan ized pol itical efforts desig ned to recove r their civi l rights as Ame rican ci tizens . Towards its goal to effect substantial chan ge , this new comm uniry enlisted the assistance of Chicanos o n all fronts, i.e. from labo r, ed ucation, and pol itics, as well as from t he visual and performi ng arts . T he response from everyone was

85

overwhelming, incl udi ng that of the artistic com m uni ty, due in part to its particular excl usion from meaningfu l partici pation wi t hin t he mai nstream art world. T he call to arrisrs to actively participate in th is movement coinc id ed wit h their pe rsonal and political need s for individual self-fu lfi llment and t he opportuni ty to d emons t rate t heir capaci ty to create legitimate form s and practices equal co t hose of Anglo culture. There was no Chicano art produced before 19 6 5; ir came inro exisrence with t he Movement. What is ca lled Mex ican American art fit s a categ ory of art p roduction in which both the wo rks an d the artists rep resent various d egrees of assimilati on. ' Unlike Chicano art wh ich was cons id ered an integ ral com ponen t ofChicano liberation , Mexican American art was mainly co ncerned with formal and artistic resolut ions. Chican o art represented t he artist ic o utput of m en and women who: identified themselves as be ing in alliance with the m eans and en d s of el movim iemo: bel ieved t hat an was never fo r its own sake; s urvived Americanization and soug ht to reclaim their Mexican he ritage as necessary to their cu rre nt U .S. identities. For Ch ican os, "Ame rican h istory" has not been a fair retelli ng of t heir his tories. It has instead meant the im posit ion of a whi te Ang lo-Saxon proresranr cul t u ral t ra jec to ry over ti me and space as t he U nited Scates increased it political borders in t he 19 th centu ry to include Texas, Arizona, California, N ew Mexico , U tah , N evada, parts of Wyom ing and Colorado , that is the terri tories and peoples ofwhat is now called t he Sout hwest. T hose popu lations represe n ted a regionally d iverse developm ent of Mexican cul tures in t he Un ited States who had to be "Am ericani zed" u nder t he mand ate of M anifest Desti ny, t he p revaili ng ex pansionist ph ilosophy of t he times. The Americanization ofM exicans in th is country can be seen as a h istory of bath resistance and affi rmat ion i n their struggle to survive not as an alien residenr u nderclass, but rather as a m u lti plici t y of cit izen classes contributing co t he Am erican social whole. Unfortunately, their history also has un t il very recen tly been circum scribed by soc ial assignment on t he part of the domi nant class. Although class ified as an American minority, U .S. Mexicans nevertheless found li t tle acceptance un less t hey would assi m ilate, Th is meant that acceptance was p redica ted upon t he exp ressed display ofa p reference for Ang lo cult ure - especially the use of Er.glish - over Mexican cu lt u re, Whi le some members of th is group cou ld an d would assi m ilate, others were not wi ll ing cr able.

. ilacion in add ition to t he absence of docume~ted The myriad responses co assi m " 'd" ib le for Mexicans in the United . "A Icanhisrory rna e ltl m possl 19 60, (O men . ' 11 iaed g cou p befote t he late , U .S. Mex ican co ntribu u ons I" n hesive nanona y recogru if States [0 develop as a po mea y co .' h d d earl ier. Thus, they had litt le.I any , OtgaOlzlOg a occure . I I alt hough many reg iona attempts at I ~~ d nde rstood by the larger SOCiety, n . h h e acknow euge or u . . I . voice in the mannet in whic t ey wer . s continued to be practiced In ISO anon . d M .can Amencan art 'b the real m of the arts, Mexican an eXI . . in rhe national discou rse of fine art ur \I ed to pa rticipate I ' . n in the barrioJ. 2 They were not a ow T h is lack of cultural-political represe ntauo con fi ned reg ionally at t he level of. folk ~rtsu S M exicans not only lacked cul tu re b ur were support ed uni nformed popu lat nouons t . a~-l .' ' of Mexicans livi ng in Mexico done by . ' Wh 'l t here ex tsreo Imagery · , d irh i h incapab le of creat LOg It. Ie. his sid of the border we re unrecog nt ze Wit LO r e raiseworrhy Mexican artists, MeXIcans on r IS sr e p . h' try . c:;w:egories of art p roduced In t IS coun . . . from American popular imagery , MeXicans Although not com plete ly rmssmg . n by d erogatory stereotypes. entlo fUS h teleg ated to repres and Mexican Americans were, oweve r,. of hi scorically or art istically co rrect im~ge.ry 0 ' .' Prior [0 the Chicano Movement , the creation ld h co ns ti t uted a visual contrad lCtlon to chis Mex ican s b y other Am ericans or themselves WOli . ave "

country's insistence on itself as a "~ultur~l m~ltlngf~tdependence from England in the l ~th Since t h is country s d ec aratlo~ 0 bil i p resent irself as a un ified sovere ig n dicated on u s a I icy to 1( Cen ru rv its narionh nod h as been pre . . . depended upon the acrua or -P . I' l ik II uOlfym g st rategies, . en ti ty . Arnencan nat rona Ism , I e a . h . ulations Thetefo re, the malOstream. . f hi nT'S dlversc et OICpoP ' . .J 1 symbolic) co-habltatlono r ISCount . / I I · pot" cou ld on ly be achleveo as ong a "culru ra me ung . . f II . f ingeffect of t he concep t 0 Amenca as d. 1 It.. eal uniry. Whatever socLn1plta s ~ -, b ppose nat rona cu as ethnic d ifferen ce was su b surnec ya su . kl be~me gap ing holes when ever ItS . hi inon t hey q u rc Y ...... were inherently included Wit h r IS propos. ,I , h plu ralist myth , a homogeneous yet C II h l nslstence o n c e .. I ' p ractice attempted to IO ow t eory . f 1 s p rivilege and erhnic exclusion. r rs . " . eiled a structu re 0 c a s . " it s p lu ralist ic "American soc iet y v I I I ngaged in nat ionali st st rateg ies 10 I important to note t hat rhe emergi r.g C hicano cu rure a so e \.U

,

. a! image of the Ch icano com m u n it y (often st ruggle for su rvival. 1 ) h d been p ri marily defined by nonPrior to t he Movement, t he. na~ ~on I b n sk lOneu peop e a eth nical ly mis recogni zed as on y rOWA

I

178 \ 1985 (Los Angek-s: Chicano I Cast illo 11.1/ IllNltralM HiJ/Ory 8/ Mexican I..IIJ ~~ tl ~ l...nhors ci(edass segralion; 2. Antonio R'os. Busraman , . an~ p« ~ni" el'loity'ofCalifornia. l.os Ange les, I ?8~). P~ba--~Ol~ meansof~cultural self--defeOSf"' Studies Research Cen ter Pu b"rcsncos. d raging Mexican arts to sray wllh lr, t "' alielUtion,a nd isolation in Los Angelesan enCOU

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I . For funll<"r d iscussioo orMexican American art sec: also: J acin to Quirarte, MexICan Ameriran ArciJIS(Ausrin:Uni versit yofTexllS P ~s , 1973), and Shifra M. Gold man and Tomas Ybarra. Fl1Iusto, Am Chicano: .... C_ prchtIlJio't AlinolalM Bibliograpby ojChiral1O II.rc. 196:H 981 (Berkeley: Chicano Studies Library Publia t ions Unit, Uni versity of Cal ifom ilr., Berkeley, 198)), p 26· 29 .

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David Rivas Borello Ford and O lym pic Hlvd s., 10 ' x 20' 3. George Carpenter Barker. "Porh"ro: An Am erican-Spanish 1H8 0l and irs Social Functions in T ucson, Arizona," StJ(;ol Sritllrt lilll/el;" (Uni versity of Ariwnal no. 18, reissued Decem ber 19~8. p- 19. 4. Whil" the term "Chicmo" Can be read to sig nify a :><,panll;St sranct-a nd indeed , such an interpretation was c ncounlg''
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The su bsequent recog nit ion by U.S_Mexi cans of them selves and thei r co mm unityas "Chicano," was a major prerequi site for achieving social integration into American life on their own terms. T he Movement soug ht change through peaceful intervent io ns; however, its some t imes mil itant profile was put forth when necessary as the appropri ate response to an aggressive Anglo-dom inated society . Like the Black civil rights movement which began in the 1950s, the Chicano Movem ent beg inning in 1965 sought to reclaim the civil rig hts of Chicanos which had been historica lly and syscernacically denied t hem since the Mexican Amer ican W ar. The denial ofcivil rights for mo re than a century to U.S. Mexicans had relegated them to second-class citizenship. By the mid - 1960s Chicanos saw them selves as a colonized g roup d isen franchised from civic, polit ical, and econom ic opportu nity by Ame rican soci al st ructures . They had become a resource pool for unski lled labor needs as well as d raftees and recru its for the V ietnam War. 5 T hroug h inter-regional networking ofurba n and rural act ivists incl ud ing poe ts, artists, students, academicians, and o thers, the Chicano com munity dep loyed a nation-wide conceptual st ruc ture or Chicano "wo rld view" known as cbicanismo in order to facilita te the movement towards collective political sel f-fulfi llme nt . Planes or manifestos, such as the Plan Espirirual de Aztl an , were collectively created to set fort h the broad philosophical prem ises for rhe unde rstandi ng as well as the pract ice of cbicanismo. In effect, cbicanismo was a complex of natio nalist strateg ies by which Chicano origins and histories, as well as present and futu re identi ties, were const ructed and legi tim ized . Furthermore, it provided a context for historical reclamation of the self through the affirmati on of Ch icano cult ural narratives while resisti ng Anglo models of assimilation. The renaming of the American Southwest as Aztl an wit hin the national Ch icano com munity was an im portant initial Step in reclaiming the land-base upon wh ich furt her de velopment of this Chicano world view could take place. T he name Azd an was bo rrowed by Chicanos from rhe l 6 th century Aztecs who sett led in central Mexico. T heir seat of power was located in what is known tod ay as Mexico Ciry. For t hem, AztIan desig nated the geog rap hical area of thei r origi n. In t hei r N abuad language Azrlan meant "land to the nort h" among other related inrerp reracions." Chicanos considered this

~. Rodolfo f .....cuna. Orrllpitd AJMrira: A H illOry ~ ChKall~s. 2d ed. (New York: Harpe r and Row. 198 \), 1'. 3,66-367. T he perr~ntag~ ofChicallQ war casualnes at 19.4 of total soldiers killo:d from the Southwesr bcrwl.'CnJanuary 196 1 and F ~ bruary 196 7 outnum bered their national r~presem a t ion for the same area of 10- 12% . 6. Luis Valdc~ and Stan Stt'" ioer. eds., Aula,,: 1\.9 AIIlhtNID ~ III",irlitll t'l IIIn';rlitll !.iln>lllllT ( N~w Yo rk; Yintage Books, 1972),

p. 40 1.

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northern land co be th e American Southwest, and thus the borden; of the Ch icano Azetan were perceived to be the same as those of the Aztecs' original homeland. Wh ile AztJan served as the location of th e origins for th e Aztecs, it now also signifi ed th e roots of a 20th century Chi cano "archaeology ," that is socially identified St ruc tures for historical reconstruct ion and cul tural reclamation. Because U.S. Mexicans had systematically been denied a fair and legitimate role in "American history," they were fo rced to look outside their U.S. home fo r one. Due to thei r ancestra l ties t hey were able co look without any hesitation to Mexico [0 provide a hi storical and culrural continuity. In this way. Chicanos were able to establish their own history whi ch was indeed traceable in part through Mexico bu r more Irnporran rly, an d ironical ly, had its beg innings with in the borders of wh at is now the American Sou thwest . Azdan mapped out the conceptual an~ ~h~s ical rerritories by which Chicanos could affirm cui rural and his torica l genealogies legi rimi aed by the ancien t Mexican past. Besides laying clai m to an Aztec patrimony, they were able to claim the cult urally ad vanced civili zations ofth e Ol mecs and the Maya. In the arts, Azthin fostered the inclusion of infin ite ph ilosophica l, literal, and figurative refere nces to th is preEuropean berirage," T radi tion all y in chis country, U .S. Mexicans involved in the arts could o nly attai n a measure ofsuccess by working wirh in rhe para me ters of the "cuirural melr i ng pot " fallacy. T hey, like all art ists, were expected to follo w, perpetua te and even esta blish new t rend s within the confines of wh at was k nown as the International (Euro-Ame ricnn) art world , while suppressing any potential references to or acknow ledg me nts of erhnicity in the ir work." 1n add ition to suppressing eth nicity for fine art purposes , U.S. Mexicans art is ts also had to avoid o r deny ethn ic imagery whose mean ing had been debased throug h negative associat ion with de rogatory stereotypes of Mexicans_on both sides of the border. T hese negative images had ob tained a wide currency, and ironically a meas ure of legiti macy on all levels of Am er ican cu lture. T hese various form s of cult ural suppression , coupled wi th the face that Mexicans living in the U nited Sta tes predom inantly belonged to an econom ic class which could not easily affo rd the luxury ofconsidering art as a profess ion, served to help valida te t he po pular notion rhar U.S. 7. To scene n iti'7' [ ik~ J uan G6rn~~-QLinoncs it sewed to immerse d~ G uano (;om muni ty into an uncrit ical remanriclzed arrC?ca~ of rbe h,sloncal JmI. Sa-J uan G6mu -QuifMmes, /'IIa k "" StlltktrU f»r la l&u : ThrChk"l/tJ SllItUnt MOf-~nt In SfJIlfhrnr Calijill7f,lit '?67.- 1 977(~nta .Barbal'"ll. W\: ~di.lor;a1 la CaUSll. 19 78 ). In the serviceof prciecring a unified national Chicano image, so":lc ~om bmanO n50fl1Jstofl.("aily an~agorllsnc elements su~h as Spanish conquistadors and Alt~C nob les togethe r (;o n5 ritulcd a deliberate suppression of raCial. ethnic, gender, a nd d ass dlff~ren(;~ Of even conflict. 8. 9u;rart~, P~~~ace. Beyond .th~ iss~ ceoceming "universal" and "in reroarioeal" art, are rbe add itionai ones wh ich idemify ~th~(; art ~ pohr~cal. As s~h It. is ccesideeed to have Icssnarutt and YlIIuc: than so-called "ocn-polir jcal," "eon-propagandist ic" Universal an . fun her discussion of art a nd value follows in rhe text. 5« abo note no. 9.

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Mexicans (li ke or her et hnic minorit ies in the U nited States) could nor produce fi ne art or a fine art cul ture . That idea was further supported by th e consc ious exclusion ofeth nic diversity as part of th e mainstream process of prod ucing the "market value of culrure." " The fixi ng of value in th is system depends upon a hierarchical st ructuring which assig ns a lower value to art whi ch is not considered "fi ne" or "vang uard" whi le assig ning a much greater valu e (and th erefore greater social Stat us) to aft which is claimed to be of thac lofty catego ry. "Fine an " in America could only maintain such a high status if it suppressed an y references co erhnici cy which would otherwise surely lower its posit ion on the art market value scale rc that of "folk" art. Chicano art in general, and murals in particular, generating from a hisrorically specific. com muni ty- based conte xt went contrary to rhis mainsrream-supporced value hierarchy. The mainsrream media portrayed rhe Chicano mural movement primaril y as one group's colorful attem pt to reclaim the decaying American urbanscape. Murals were to be unders tood mostl y as environmental change and not as arr .!" The Ang lo-domi nated art comm unity cont ributed to the suppression ofChicano murals as art because th ey were judged by criteria as defined by Euro-American art trad it ions in th e market place, and supported by academ ic arr histori cal st udies. The art market anel academ ia furt her concribured to chis bias against U.S. Mexicans by vi rt ually igno ring developm ents in Mexican and Lat in American fine arts even withi n the context of "Internati onal" Modern Art. Striving to meer the needs of th e Chicano communi ty throug h t he visual articulat ion of its newly constructed political positions, th e painting of virtuall y thousands of Chicano murals throughout t he Southwest and Midwesr were inscru rnenral in rhe demysrificacion of popularly held notions of Mexican Americans as poli tically passive anell acking history as well as cul ture. Much of the work to be done in this arena meant th e supplanting of negati ve images of U .S. Mexicans by portrayals based on a mo re realistic and complete interpretation of a broader-based and ethnically diverse Am erican history. Muralists became importa nt educators as th ey painted Chicano contribut ions to American society not included in school cexebooks. Through rhicamsmo, they also hig hligh ted th e ancient cultures of Mexico in order to show histo rical conti nuity and cultural legi t imacy. Throughout, th ese art ists inspired everyone with their sizable talents. 9. Raymond W illiams. C.I,.",(London: Fon tana Paperbacks, 1981). p. 127. "T'he rerm 'culture' in - ,N, markt ' v::d...,ofCUItIlCe· mers [0 tile inn imt ioos and pl1lCtiCt5 of music. liu: ...ru re, tn...:l'er. film , and ,he visual arts. Magaz' M, 7 April 1975. n.p. An an icle co"~nng lilt QiClno murals in Ease Los Angeles 10. So:e. 'T N, Mura l Messag e,app...a n.-d in tilt "environ ment" $('Clion whi l... the-an-s«lion feat ured pain te r Franels Bacon and his current work in Nt w Ymk Cily .

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we A RE NOT A III INOR/ T Y 1978 Cong rcsso de Arti sws C hicanos en Aulan (Ma'io T orero with b pilm..., Rocky, EI Lton, Zade) Esu ada Co urtS Housing P rcjece, Eas, Los Angeles :lppl'Ox. 20' x 30'

•

Ch icano murals, along with oth er art ist ic and po litical effo rrs of the Movement, arrempred [Q rad ically change many of rbe rnisperceprions previously mentioned regardi ng Chicanos, thei r arc, rheir artists, borh wirhi n and wichcur the community , Chicano murals go beyond signifyi ng artistic accomplishment , they stand as a resramenr to the capacity of u.s. Mexicans co organ ize. plan and direct rhem selves toward the process of social change and the production of arc, includ ing the reconstruct ion of meaning of their exploited and abused et hnic pre-Chicano period imagery. In particular, th e prolific creat ion of murals represented successful collective effo rts on th e parr of the comm unity roward nati onal self-defi nit ion through political and cul tural activism. As they put into effect th e ideals of Chicano liberation through th is organizing process, arcisrs and members ofth e Mexican American commun it iesserved ro ed ucare each other, whil e also edu cating non -Chicanes. 93

T hroug hout the early mural-making period , ind ividual as we ll as collective efforts at self-definit ion were g iven tentati ve validation by the emerg ing region al Chicano com m u nities as activ ists and artists co nstantly ret u rn ed to t hem for affirm ation as well as for insp iration and suppon. The comm unity was the beg inning and the end in terms of the murals ' articulation of the sources and goals of the Chicano M ovement . Perhaps one reeson that murals were so abundant so q uickly was t he al l-i m po rtanc reciprocating relationship they en joyed w ith the stro ng early political mo bilizations towards the ful fillment of the Movement 's immediate goals. O n a person al level , it cannot be de nied t hat the Chicano mural movement prov ided an attract ive showcase as well as a train ing ground wh ere the art ists could g ain basic and advanced technical expe rtise (for other art forms as well), while enjoying collective supp orr from the ir commu nity. Mura l maki ng represented the com m unity 'S public efforts at self-de fi ni t ion in and throug h an artistic form wh ich d id not requ ire valida tion by the academ ic, museum or g allery oriented arr worl d . Fu rt hermore, pe rsonal com m itment to contemporary com munity-based polit ics could be affirmed throu gh the organ izing of barrio residents wh o pa rticipated in the des ign and execution of the m urals . (O ften murals could go up on ly because the art ist and his/ her crew were paid a nomi na l fee or d onated their labo r.) Ch icano artists who "returned to the communi ty " sough t to experience the new fo und energ y whi ch was fueled by the po litical idealism of social chang e. In ad d irion, as Chicano art ists worked with their commu ni ty, rhey "reclai med" not only the repressed positive imagery of U .S. Mexicans but also the walls of the barrios whic h had prev io usly served onl y to resrri cr them.'! T hese early years of the Chicano mural mo vement were particularly exciting due to the experimentation continually called for by the emerg ing un ique Ch icano mural form . H owever, the prodigious success of the Chicano mural wou ld not have been possible without the incl usion and pa rticipation of thousands of Chicano yourh. A stud y on the ma king of early murals in East Los Angeles, in part icular, has served to d emonstrate the de pend ence on the pre-existing for ms and practices of Chicano youth cul t ure in assisting to organi ze the painting of murals in the Chicano barrios, 12 For many yo ung murali sts, the long established practice of barrio

callig raphy , a highly devel oped system of artist ic standards by which to properly create and ap preciate neigh borhood "g raffi ti ," played a crucial role in prepari ng them to reattack the same walls with mouimiento imag ery . In fac t , Chicano m urals sprung up wherever there had been a wal l displaying this "g raffiti." Murals were pai nted there not to necessarily censor the "graffit i," but beca use the wal ls also represented the im portant locat ions of effect ive p ublic comm unicat ion for a particular seg ment of youths in the barrios. T his fact alo ne sets Chicano murals uniq uely apart from vague references to their connections to early 20th cent ury murals d one in Mexico. W hile t he M exican murals were funded , sanct ioned and p romoted on g overnment bu ild ings (usually painted in the interiors) by a pose- Lo t 0 Mexican Revolution administration, Ch icano m ura ls appeared virtu ally overnight on the sides of zopaten as (shoe stores), panaderias (bakeries), camicenas (meat mar kets), centros (communicy-based a rt centers), other store fronts, fences, and alleys. W hile Chicano m urals would conti nue to demonstrate the stre ng th of a public visual articulation ofChicano li beration into the m id-1 980s and beyon d , their in itial creation and p urpose also p rov id ed suppo rt fo r a larger ar t context in the barrios. That context p layed a very important role in the realizarion for many Chicanos and Chicanas which was that "they could indeed create art ." 13 T his is a deceptively simple lesson whose value may better be appreciated wh en one com pa res it to the long history of artistic an d other suppression of the Chicano community. For an art ist such as Wi llie H erro n mural mak ing in East Los Angeles had p resenred him wi th particular cultural poli tical challe nge s whi ch he would continue to ad d ress through pa int ing and conceptual performance art, as well as throug h music-as the lead er of the cri tically acclaimed Chicano rock and roll band Los Illeg als. W illie H erron's m u ral , The Wall that Cracked Open , 1972, sought to infuse a Ch icano social consciousness into the potenti ally self-destructing youth "gang" me mbers of his commun ity , as it also sig nall ed his probing of the limi ts of the m ural form. In orde r to reach his desired audience, H erron painted the mural in his neighborhood , in an alley frequented by the young people he wan red to reach . Although H er ron had previously painted a m ura l at the en trance to this same alley , The\Vall that Cracked Open, painted in the mid dle of the alley, is a poig nant personal protest agai nst a local youth g ang's brutal beating of his brother , as well as a powerfu l polit ical protest against the destructi ve effects of alienation suffered by t he ci ty's Chicano comm unity. To provide a more relevant street culture di mension to the m ural's content , he integrated his d esig n

I ~ . Nored in conversation. Joh n 'r-ss is a prof.... ~o r of art theory, criticism , and history at the State University of N ew York, Bing ham ton, H e has published exren~ i vel y on the develop mem of stare/social srrucru res of e mpowerment. 12.. r.b rco, sanchez-T ran<j uilino, "Ali Cmit No Es 5/1 CaM: Chicano Mu rals and Ba rrio CaJligraphy as Systems ofSigni fi carion at ~s tra~a ("..oucts· (Ma~ rers ' Tlwsis, University of California, Los Ang d cs, 1990), n.p. J udy Baca. "O"r People arc the Inrernal EXIles:' Interview by Diane N ewrnaier in C"It,tre.J ill COlllwtioll, ed. Doug las Kahn and Diane Neum aier (Sea rrle : T he Real Comet ~ress , 1985!, p- 05-68. See also, Joan W . Moo re, Hamehayt: Gangs, Dr:lgJ. ({lid PriSOIlS illl~ Barrios of Los Angeles (Phi ladelphi a: 1 emple U nIversity ~re", 1978 ), f:oc furrher descrip~i ons of you th participation See also: Jam es Dieg o Vig il, Burrio Gangs: S/ rmli[e and ldtntuy 1>1 Sail/hem Califorma (Austin : University of Texas Press, 1988 ).

13, G ronk , interv iew with aut hor, Los Angeles, CA , 1 1 Novem ber, 1984 .

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INSTA NT AIUR AL 1974 ASCO Chicano Peefcrmaoce G rou p

W hittlc! &uJ ~rd , East Los Angd t'5 ASCO members Pami Valdel and H um berto S;andov:a1 were raped (0 the wall by G ronk.

of a gang-victi m ized bleed ing young man, fig hting youth, and crying grandmother with the "graff ti" already on the walllefr by the young barrio calligrap hers of t he area . By i ncorporati rig the Ch icano "graffi ti" in ro an "art work, " Herron ini tia red a crit ical techinki ng ofg raffiti as solely signifying vandalism wh ich in turn has led ro a deeper understanding ofth e relationship between so-called Chicano g raffi t i and Chicano murals." Th rough an art ist ically produced illusion of the mural's victimized sub ject as well as his arrackers breaking through the wall on which they are actually painted , Herron was able CO demonstrate how space in th e mural form could be manipulated to produce a qu esti oning of th e fo rm itself. Althoug h Herron would concinue to paint im portant murals by himself and with others, this particular mural made him keenly aware that Chicano art also had to break away from th e walls or boundaries creared by Chicanos and non -Chicanes alike . T HE WA LL THA T CRACKED OPEN 1972 W illie H errOn 4 12) CilY Tem. rear; Easl Los Angeles 25' x 16'

,""v'n

14. J eny Romoesk y and Sally R. Romouky, 1AJ &m~ Call'KMPb, (Los Angeles: o...WSO:l'S Book Sbop, 19 76 >. presen ts an analysis of lilt social and lll'$(ht.-tic crileria which separates Ihis panirular form of p ubl ic comm unicanon from common vaodaliaing -rype g raffiti. See also. Marcos Sanchez-T ranq uilino, n.p.

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By lace 1972, Willie Herron, Harry Gamboajr., Parssi Valdez, and Gronk , as the pioneer Chicano conceptual art performance collect ive in th e United Scates, were the first to recog nize the pe rformarive aspect of m ural making as an art form in irself Some of their earlies t conceptual art performances continued H erron 's earlier resting of t he bounda ries of th e mural fo rm by using it as the basis fo r at least two importa nt performances. Towards the end of 197 2, the \'(Itdking Mural went beyon d the breaking through of walls found in W illie's earl ier mural by havi ng the ASCO mem bers become living eleme nts of murals seeking to free themselves from thei r form al and cu ltural resrricrionsas they walked down Whinier Boulevard , the bustling ma in commercial artery of East Los Angeles, the heart of the Ch icano com munity. T wo years later, in the same area, G ronk fastened Herb Sandoval and Parssi Valdez ro an exterior wall with co mmon masking tape two inches wide, thereby creating the Instant Alllral, bringi ng into quest ion what const ituted a mural. jusr as important, ir also quesrioned our own complici ry in the pe rpetuat ion of boundaries which confi ne us by exposing thei r frailty (masking tape). ln both of these examples ASCO questioned the assumed continuing vitality of some painted murals. By excha ng ing livi ng forms for pai nted ones in vital areas of social interchange, the Instant Mural art iculated a concern with the parti cular effects of co nt inually reviving pre-Columbian and other imagery whi ch could unfortunately become cliche-ridden and prevent the explorat ion of new concep tual and iconog raphic ter ritori es. T hroug h innovative presentat ions, ASCO joined other comm unity art ists in poi nt ing out the threat of weakening the Chica no co mm unity's capac ity fo r cul tu ral self-c riticism by the unquest ioned contin ued use of the romant ic elements of Ch icano nationalist st rategies. ASCO's work contributed to a reassessment of the use of pre-Columbian symbols and other icons from Mexican (not Ch icano) history in terms of whether they affected the immediate needs of the Chicano community in a . . . posmve o r negat ive manner. At the present time, Chicanos th roughout the U nited States continue ro make murals. Although the type of Chicano mural which was created by g rass roots organizing is no longe r produced , murals by Chicanos art icu lating a social awareness of that commun ity brought on by the Movement are sti ll being made. In 1984 , T he O lympics Organi zing Committee commissioned several murals for the freeways of Los Angeles of which three were done by Chicanos (Hi/til1g the Wall by J ud y Baca, Lscbas dtl Mundo by W illie Herron, and Going to tbe Olympia by Frank Rome ro). T hat same year t he East Los Sc reerscapers created the New Fire mu ral which connected the 1984 O lympics with a pre-Columb ian rit ual on a three-story build ing in the heart of the ci ty. In 198 9 , Yreina Cervantez created La Gfrenda, a ci ty-funded mural ad m inistered throug h t he Social and Publ ic Art Resource Center (SPA RC) which co nnected the 98

GOING TO THE OL Y/\ l PKS

1984 Frank Romero 10 \ Freeway, Los Angeles 22' ~ 10}'

plight of Central Americans with those of Chicanos by honoring D olores H uerta, co-founder of t he Uni ted Farm workers Uni on . Indeed , Chicano art ists have changed the focus of their attention over t he years accordi ng to the social debates wh ich currenrly affened their commun ity . T be conrenr ofpresenrday Chicano murals is nevertheless informed by a cu ltural and polit ical conscious ness developed in the earlier days of the Movement . This is also true for the co ncenr of much of Chicano art produced in t he st ud io . C hicano art is currenrl y entering its "appreciation" period as it gai ns increased accep tance in the larger ar t market. It is highly valued for t he art market as a new source of color, fo rm , imagery and te xt. H owever, the understanding of it can only be ach ieved throug h analysis of itS hisrorical roots and developmen r. Pa radoxically, its certifi ed roors (throug h social art histories) in social resista nce w ill inc rease its value in the ma rket place. Chicanos, bo th artists and non-art is ts, in add it ion to everyone else in this country, are having to reform ulate the contexts of their identities as the dem ands of living in an increasingly publicly acknowled ged mul ti cultural society beg ins to seriously im pinge upon hard-earned recent social positionings. In the wake of the cur rent dism antling of narion-srares into new global config urat ion s insp ired by the mu lti-national corporate model, this country's nation -ness, like that of the test of the "First World" (whethe r they conside r t hemselves core or periphery nat ion s), is being called into q uestion. " Americanization of ethnic minoriti es in the U.S. is still with us, The term "H ispanic" is currently the preferred catch-all assig nati o n by the Administration , the media and comme rcial product advertisers for Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and o ther Latinos. As such, there promises to be a cont inuous flurry of new ste reotypical imagery from these sectors which attempt to reptesent this he terogeneous co mmu nity as a cultural unity. In every case, claims ofan assimilated U .S. H ispanic unity will be incorrect. For Chicanos and other Lat inos it supposed ly sig nifies that they are no lo nger to be considered "outside" of the American ma instteam . However, by consolidat ing these diverse group identities withou t regard to part icular contributions by or needs of each g roup, the term itselfbecomes on e of assig nment into a sub-national category.

Assimilation through the H ispanic model is a legacy of Ame rican ization efforts inherited from the N ixon adminisrrarion which sought to rep lace Johnson's W ar on Poverty prog rams with the Office of M inorit y Enterprise in an effort to "encourage Black and brown capital ism ." \6 It represents a process of Americanizat ion by defau lt for the convenience of the adm inisrrative and business secrors which tend to trad ic ional ly support conservative political and cultural agendas. Fot Chicanos the term is especially insensiti ve. For it robs them of the opportun ity to ack nowledge their ind igenous Mexican heri tage while it privileges the colonialist European culture of Spai n, T he q uestion m ust remain open whether these seccors, in add ition to all of this country's citizens who consider themselves Ame rican, can appreciat e the legacy of t he Chicano Movement in thi s context: that (he Chicano experience represents a mod el for all Americans to acknowled ge their current idencic y as an ourcome of ewe (or more) living histori es coming together; char there is a mult iplicity of ways to be American; that the word "Chicano" is an Am erican word (not only an English, or on ly a Spanish word) because it sig nifi es the un iq ue ama lgamat ion of the old and new identities w irhout the denial of one in favor of the other . That is Ch icano ; tha r is Am erican. Los Angeles O ctober 1989

•

15., SHIMt H aJJ , "O ld and .New ldcn ricics," record ed leerure delivered 13 and 14 Ma rch 198 9 at the Un ivers ity Ce nter, State Um vetsltyo .f N ew York, ~mgh,amto n . See also,J ud ilh McW ill ic, -ne Migl1l cions of Mean ing ,'· Yiuom. 1-9$ tI.>ige/u(FalJ 198 9): p. 4 -5 : ( mng J am es Cl Ifford s o bservatio n on the p resent sta te of increased global ization, "where syncret ism and parod ic lIl ven t lon an- r..,com ing the rul e, not the except ion, an urban mu lt i-national world of insriru rional uan sience - where American ~ I o thes mad e in Korea a r~ worn by young people in Russi a, whl're ,,"eryonl" s 'roots" are in some degree cut _ in such a wo rld ,t becomes inc reasinglv d ifficulc to attach hu man ide ntity and meanin g ro a cche renr 'cu lru re' o r 'lang uage' ,. McW i1 1ie concludes ~hat ",ma.' s comm un icat ions ~nd t ravel. the et hnit heteroge neity of nat ions and the accelemrion of our planer have mad e t he tsolatlo nlst p rogram s of p revious generations obsclcr e."

16. Rod olfo F. Acuna, A CO/mlllmily Under Siege." A Cbronidc of Cbicanes EnS! of I~ I-os Angeles RiVl'r 1945 -1975 (Los A ngel e.~: Chicano Studies Research Cors e r Publicat ions, Un ive rsity of Cal iforn ia, Los Angeles. I98 4), p. \ 80.

10 1

100

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• CONTRIBUTORS • Holly Barnet-Sanchez is an an historian, one of rwo project coord inators for the UCLA W ight Gallery 's interpret ive exhibition of the Chicano arr movement: "Chicano An: Resistance and Affi rmation, 1965-85," was an archi vi st for SPARes California Ch icano Mural Slide Archive, and has lectured and wri tten on Pre-Colum bian and Ch icano art. • Eva Spe rli ng Cockcrofc is a mura list, photog rapher and writer. An author of Towarda PtQpleJ A rt: The Contemporary Mllral Afovtmenl, (N. Y.: E.P. Dutton , 1977 ), she has also wrircen extensively for books and national magazines on mura l art, arr and society, Lati n American and Chicano art. • Shifra M. Goldman is an art historian. She teaches at Rancho Sant iago College in Santa Ana, California, is a Research Associate with the Lat in American Center, Va A, th e author of Contemporary Mexican Painting in a Tillie ojCha'lge, and co-comp iler of Arte Chicano. A Comprehensive Annotaled Bihliography, 1965-/ 981 , with Tomas Ybarra-Frausto. • Amalia Mesa-Bai ns is a Ph D in psycholog y, educat ional consultant to the San Francisco Unifi ed School D ist rict, an artist, and the author of several articles deali ng with contemporary Ch icano cultural rep resentation. She currently is servi ng as Comm issioner of Art for the City of San Francisco.

102

• LIST OF P LATES Cover. J uana Alicia, Las Lech"glleras, 1983, photo: TIm Drescher. 1.

Carlos Almaraz with young people from the 3rd S(. gang, No compre oinc Gallo, 1974, p hoto: Shifra M. Goldman , p. 4

2.

East Los Srreerscapers, "La Fam ilia" from Cbicano Time Trip, 1977 , photo: W ayne H ealy, p. 8

3.

J ose Montoya and the Royal Ch icano Air Force, Chicano Park Freeu1ay pylon, 197 5. photo: Centro Cul tural de la Raza, p. 11

4.

Cornmonarrs, Song oj Unify, 1978, photo: Tim D rescher, p. 13

5.

Jud ith F. Baca, Hitting the Wall, 1984 , photo: G ia Roland , p. 15

6.

Yreina Cervantez, La Ojjrenda, phoro: J im P rigoff, p. 19

7.

Mike Rfos, Inspire ( 0 Aspire, 198 7, photo: Tim Drescher, p. 20

8.

Anton io Bernal, T he Del Rey Mural, 1968, photo: Robert Sommer , p. 22

9.

Manuel Cruz, Untitled (Homeboy), 1974 , photo : Al Flores, p. 3 1

10 . Barbara Carrasco, The History oj LA ., A Mexican Perspeaioe, 198 1-3, photo cour tesy Barbara Carrasco, p . 32

• Marcos Sanchez T ranquilino is an art histori an, one of two project coordinators for "Chica no Art: Resisrance and Affirm ation, 196 5-85,"and was an archivist for SPARe s Cal ifornia Ch icano Mural Slide Archi ve. He has written , lectured , and published on the subject of Chicano an , includ ing the relat ionships berween Chicano mu rals and Chicano graffi t i of the early 1970s.

11. Daniel Ga lvez with O sha N eu man, Brian Th iele and S. Barrett , Viva fa Reza, 1977 , phoro: Linda Ebcr, p. 33

• Tomas Ybarra-Frausto teaches Lat in American literature, literary theory and Chicano literature at Stanford University. H e has wr it ten extensively on Chicano cultural product ion , a a recent publ icat ion being A rteChicano, A COlllprehens;,:eA nno/ated Bibliography, 1965- 198 1, coauthored with Shifra M. Goldman. Currently, he is the Associate Di rector of Arts and Humanities for th e Rockefeller Foundation.

14 . Tortuga Patrol , Ball/Jiayers (TIt1chit), 1978 , phoro: Ti m Drescher, p. 42

12. M ike Rios, Frida. Billboard, 1978, phoro: T im Drescher , p. 37 13. Las Mujeres Muralisras, Para el Mercado, 19 74 , photo: Eva Cockcrofc, p - 39

1S. W illie Herr6n and Gronk , Black and \'(Ihite Moratorium Mllral, 1973, phoco: SPARC archive, p. 45 16 . J ohn Valadez, The Broadway Mural, 198 1, phoco: Eva Cockcrofr, p. 48 103

17. Em igdio Vasq uez, Nuestra Experiencia in el Siglo X X, 1980, photo: Shifra Goldman , p . 50

• SUGGEST IO N S FOR FURTHER READING

18 . Viccor Ochoa, Geronimo, 198 1, photo: Centro Cultural de la Raza, p. 5 1

. no Studies A ZTLA N: Chicanojonrnal of tht Social Sciences and the Arts. Los Ang eles: Chic' Research Center, U n iversi ty of Cal ifomia, Los A ngeles. 1970-to the p resent.

19. Andy Zermeno, H lle/ga, 1965 -70, photo: Marcos Sanchez-Tranquili no, p. 54 20. Cordova, Puerto A legre Bm", 19805, photo: Marcos Sanchez-Tranquilino, p . 57 21. Anonymous, Sacred Hearl o/Jes"s, 20th Centu ry; Mexican, photo: Blair Partridge, p. 58 22 . J uan Ordufiez, Where Heroes art Born, 1983, photo: Marcos Sdncbez-T ranquili no, p. 60 23 . Ralph Maradiaga, Dolor, 1979 , photo: Marcos Sanchez-T ranquilino, p. 63

. ."er,i ty Presses, Barnett, Alan W ., Community Murals. Cran b u ry, N ew J ersey: Associaced Un i

Inc., 19 84.

, , h COl1 fempOI"dIJ' Cockcrofr, Eva , J ohn W eber, and James Cockcroft. Toward a People s Ar/: T e Mural M(Well/ent. N ew York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 19 77 .

24 . Malaqufas Montoya, A bajo con la A{igYa, 1979. photo: Blair Partridge, p . 66 25 . ] udith F. Baca, "ZOOt Su it Riots" from the G reat \Vall 0/ UJ; Angeles, 198 1, phoco: Lind a Eber, p- 68

.

.

.

Commsmty Mlirais i\lagazine, 197 8-1 98 8 . ComPlmllty Murals Magazme IS

, p ie from availo

CMM , 1019 Shattuck Aven ue, Berkeley, CA 94707.

26. Pat ricia Rod rig uez, Graciela Carillo, and Irene Perez , Famasy \floridf or Children, 197 5, ph oro: Tim Drescher , p. 7 1

. . A l/1Iototed Goldman , Shifra M ., and Tom as Ybarra-Frausto. Am Chicano: A. ComprehenslI/l . atiOnS . . ' IbllC Bibliography ofChicano Art, 1965 ~ 1981. Ber keley: Ch ican o Stud ies Library Pv

27 . Las Mu jeres M uralisras, Latinoamenca, 1974, p hoto: Eva Cockcrofr, p. 7 3

U n it, Un iversity of Californ ia, Berkeley, 1985 .

28 . Jud irh F. Baca, Uprising ofthe Mlij ereJ, 19 79 , photo: Linda Eber, p. 77

. • . ' . {states. N ew McW illiam s, Carey. N orth From A1exICO: [ he Spanish-Speaking People of fht Unlltl

29. J ud ith F. Baca, " D ivision of the Bar rios and Chavez Ravine" from the Grea/ \rIall of Los Angeles, 198 3, photo : G ia Roland , p. 80 30. j udith F. Baca, "Pickers" from GlIadalllpe Mural, 1990, p hoto: Gia Roland , p. 83 3 1. Frank Fierro, Orate Rozo , 1974 , photo: SPA RC archive, p. 84 3 2. David R ivas Bote llo , Read Ben oeen the Linn , 1975 , photo: D avid Bo tello , p. 8 9 33. Ccngresso d e Ar cisras Ch icanos en Aztlan , We are not a Minority, 1978 , ph oto: T im Drescher , p . 93 34 . Willie H erron, The \'(Iall that Cracked Open , 197 2, p hoto: Will ie H erron, p. 96

35. ASCO ,/ns/am A1ural , 19 74 , ph oto: H arry Ga m boa , p. 97 36. Prank Romero, GOiflg to the Olympics, 1984 , ph oto: Doug las M . Parker , p. 99

York : G reenwood P ress, 19 68 . M unoz, Carlos , J r. Youth, ldentity. Power, Tbe Chicano lHOlfemmt . London : VerSo,

.

..

Q ui rarte,]acinto. Mexican A merican Artists. Austin : Univers ity o f Texas Press -

.

19 7 3,

.

. ' . UP A ngeles, R fos-B usramanre, An tonio and Pedro Castillo. A n ltlnstrated History of MexICa" h # 12 178 1- 198 5 . Los Angeles: Ch icano Stud ies Res earch Ce nter Publi cations Mon Og fol P U n iversi ty of Ca liforn ia, Los An geles, 1986.

,

" ca n Press,

Rog ovi n, Mark, Marie Burton and H olly H ig hfi ll. Mural A1anual. Boston : Be'

1975. ·ltI,pfm·e.

Valdez, Luis and Stan Steine r, eds. Aztldn: An A ntboiogy of ,Hexican AlJi/11"ican LI N ew Yo rk: Vin tag e Books, 19 72. 104

1989.

10 5

Over the put twenty,..., ChicanoArlists have made a unique contribution to public an in california "ansfcH mill9lhousands ofwalls into colorful artworks that uprcss the dreams, achieve ments, aspirations and culturalldcnlityof the Mulcan-Amcrican community. Sign. From th. Hean tells the inside story of the development of this n_ a nd important American art form in four Interpretive essays by noted Chicano scholars about Its historical, artistic, and educational significance.

Social and Public Art Resource Center

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