[3] The social and political conditions impacting Chicano communities as well as queer people, including the HIV/AIDS epidemic, are conveyed in the scene’s expressive work.
The Chicano art movement beginning in the 1960s pushed to create artistic identity for Mexican Americans, but centered a heteronormative and gendered way of being.
[4] Queer Chicano art dealt with issues of sexuality, gender, ethnicity and belonging, and impact of a generation devastated by the AIDS epidemic.
[citation needed] The queer Chicano community in Los Angeles can be viewed as an extension of this solidarity and representing a cultural arm of the civil rights struggle.
[7] Artists were emboldened by the ideology of gay liberation to create art representing their sexual identity and denounce heteronormativity.
[citation needed] While, the feminist movement were making strides for change, there still presented a challenge of the exclusion of brown and black bodies within the space.
As a result, the movement worked to make an inclusive space that simultaneously challenged ideas of patriarchy, racism, and gender.
[10] Consequential queer Mexican American women artists working within this community include Patssi Valdez, Judith Baca, and Laura Aguilar.
While, the Chicano culture had strong ties with machismo many queer women in the art movement were criticized for not being feminists enough or Chicana enough.
[13] Meza worked through a variety of mediums ranging from abstract paintings, sketches, performances, and window displays, but is most regarded as a painter.
[15] Meza’s work drew from experiences and shared stories within his network to express identity and fight stigma of stereotypes surrounding the LGBTQIA+ and Mexican American community.
[citation needed] Aguilar is a photographer and a key figure in the Chicano and queer art scene in Los Angeles.
Her photography centered identities focusing on large-bodied, working-class Chicana women, at the time were considered background subjects.