Rasquachismo

This art movement has also been defined by artists and scholar Amalia Mesa-Bains "as a survivalist irreverence ('based on sustaining elements of Mexican tradition and lived encounters in a hostile environment') that functioned as a vehicle of cultural continuity."

[8] While the term was widely used as a classist slur, it has been reclaimed to highlight the creativity and uniqueness in Chicano and Mexican working-class communities.

Behavior such as reusing plastic utensils and zip lock bags could be described as "rasquache" in a negative way by people of upper classes.

Chicano art can be a form of protest as the vibrant colors combined with the attitude and elements of rasquachismo.

[4] Amalia Mesa-Bains, artist and writer, writes that "In rasquachismo, the irreverent and spontaneous are employed to make the most from the least... one has a stance that is both defiant and inventive.

The capacity to hold life together with bits of string, old coffee cans, and broken mirrors in a dazzling gesture of aesthetic bravado is at the heart of rasquachismo.

This art form primarily focuses on the experiences of those who are working class, lower income and identify as Mexican or Chicano.

The art movement has been accepted into institutions through the recognition and culmination of Latinos in academic spaces like multidisciplinary artist and author Amalia Mesa-Bains.

In the smaller text Hernandez highlights the amount of chemicals farm workers were exposed to while working under the Sun Maid Raisin company.

In front of the enlarged print and panels is an ofrenda full of the objects like fruit, hats, gloves and other belongings usually associated with farm workers.

Hernandez's work exemplifies how "rasquachismo" can be multifaceted for its political message while centering the history and identity of Chicanos even if it is reformatted into another medium.

Amalia Mesa-Bains, born in Santa Clara California, is a multidisciplinary artist, curator and author best known for coining the term "domesticana".

[12] As the Latino community holds patriarchal values such as machismo and marianismo there are certain gender dynamics that Mesa-Bains dissects within her work.