Chicano art movement

Some issues the movement focused on were awareness of collective history and culture, restoration of land grants, and equal opportunity for social mobility.

The art has evolved over time to not only illustrate current struggles and social issues, but also to continue to inform Chicano youth and unify around their culture and histories.

The Chicano Movement was focused on a fight for civil and political rights of its people, and sought to bring attention to their struggles for equality across southwest America and expand throughout the United States.

[3] Using symbols, such as the black eagle and creating unique poster and union art, helped raise awareness of the social issues NFWA faced, even while the workers themselves were largely invisible.

Along with this common rhetoric of land claims and civil rights, an alternative to the peaceful protesting of César Chávez, Reies Lopez Tijerina attempted to resolve the issues of communal land grants in New Mexico through the creation of Alianza Federal de Mercedes and eventually resulting in attempts to secede from the Union and form their own territory, Republic of Chama.

Many of the images and symbols embodied in these classic Mexican graffiti murals were later adopted by the Chicano Movement to reaffirm and unify their collective under a specific light of activism.

As Fields further explains, “Linked to its constitutive phased with the Chicano movement, or Movimiento, of the 1960s and 1970s, Chicano/a art articulated and mirrored a broad range of themes that had social and political significance, particularly with respect to cultural affirmation”.

[7] Taking an activist approach, artists illustrate the historical presence of Mexicans and indigenous peoples in the Southwest, human rights abuses of undocumented immigrants, racial profiling, and the militarization of the border.

[8] Art provides a venue to challenge these xenophobic stereotypes about Mexican-Americans and bring awareness to our broken immigration law and enforcement system, while simultaneously politicizing and mobilizing its audience to take action.

[9] Often through the distribution of silk-screen posters, made on large scales, artists are able to politicize their community and make a call to mobilize in effort to stop immigration raids in the workplace and boycott exploitative and oppressive corporations, while exemplifying dignity and visibility to an often invisible working population.

[10] In the early 1960s, the city instead tore down large sections of the barrio to construct an intersection for the Interstate 5 freeway and on-ramp for the Coronado Bridge which bisected their community and displaced 5000 residents.

[10] In response, “on April 22, 1970, the community mobilized by occupying the land under the bridge and forming human chains to halt the bulldozers” who were working to turn the area into a parking lot.

The park was occupied for twelve days, during which people worked the land, planting flowers and trees and artists, like Victor Ochoa, helped paint murals on the concrete walls.

[11] Residents raised the Chicano flag on a nearby telephone pole and began to work the land themselves, planting flowers and “re-creating and re-imagining dominant urban space as community-enabling place”.

The imagery of the murals articulated their cultural and historical identities through their connections to their indigenous Aztec heritage, religious icons, revolutionary leaders, and current life in the barrios and the fields.

Some iconography included Quetzalcoatl, Emiliano Zapata, Coatlicue (Aztec Goddess of Earth), undocumented workers, La Virgen de Guadalupe, community members occupying the park, and low-riders.

The City Clerks Archives joined forces with Chicano park and its artists to showcase an exhibit titled, “Telling Our Stories and Preserving Our Histories: The Chicano Movement in San Diego.” According to an article on the event, it featured photographs of San Diego city records and newspaper articles that helped tell the story of the Chicanx communities of Logan Heights and Barrio Logan.

[15] This collaboration successfully bridged the gap between archival documentation and the vibrant artistry of Chicano park, creating a powerful and multifaceted piece.

The City Clerks Archives joined forces with Chicano park and its artists to showcase an exhibit titled, “Telling Our Stories and Preserving Our Histories: The Chicano Movement in San Diego.” According to an article on the event, it featured photographs of San Diego city records and newspaper articles that helped tell the story of the Chicanx communities of Logan Heights and Barrio Logan.

[17] This collaboration successfully bridged the gap between archival documentation and the vibrant artistry of Chicano park, creating a powerful and multifaceted piece.

Murals created by Chicano artists reclaim public spaces, encourage community participation, and aid in neighborhood development and beautification.

Its significance lies in its accessibility and inclusivity, painted in public spaces as a form of cultural affirmation and popular education of alternative histories and structural inequalities.

For example, la Virgen de Guadalupe, who is an important figure in Mexican culture, is used in a socio-political context by Chicano artists as a symbol of both hope in times of suffering, and empowerment, particularly when embodying an average woman or portrayed in an act of resistance.

Mesoamerica, a region extending south and east from central Mexico to include parts of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua, is a common theme in Chicano art, expressing their shared, yet diverse culture and identity.

“The powerful symbolism of Aztlan as an ancestral homeland emanated from the deep Chicana/o sense of dislocation and deterritorialization experience in the aftermath of the Mexican–American War, which resulted in the annexation by the United States of the northern territories of Mexico, as well as the earlier Spanish colonial invasion”.

[36] In another example, Alma Lopez’s paintings generated controversy due to the representation of queer sexuality contesting La Virgen de Guadalupe religious meaning.

[39] The lowriding scene is diverse including many different cultures, vehicle makes and visual styles; however, it remains an important part of the Chicano community and identity.

It was used to publicly display their artistic expressions with their social and political opinions in response to their lack of access to museums and art institutions, and the continuous strife, discrimination, and struggle of living in the city.

Because graffiti is illegal in most cases, this form of art has flourished in the underground, requiring little money and providing an opportunity to voice what is often excluded from dominant histories and media.

[7] "Chicano art is the modern, ongoing expression of the long-term cultural, economic, and political struggle of the Mexicano people within the United States.