The Promise of the Jaguar: Indigeneity in Contemporary Chicana/o Graphic Art

Jenell Navarro, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Much of the artwork produced by Latino Graphic Art.” Overall, two Chicanas/os from the 1960s forward Indigenous themes emerge in this often stages significant elements of selection of artwork that cannot be indigeneity as a resurgent message and ignored: the centrality of the jaguar and meaning crucial to their represen- the prominence of women as powerful tations. While Chicanas/os have transmitters of culture. positively asserted their Indigenous Furthermore, in focusing on these identities at least since the 1960s, others themes, I contend the thread of have attempted to minimize or Indigenous survival in Chicana/o mythologize this reality resulting in contemporary art operates as a visual what many scholars have articulated as and creative de-linking from the logic the de-Indigenization of Chicanas/os and rhetoric of civility that has been (Forbes 1973; Bonfil Batalla 1996; Cintli historically utilized as a physical and Rodríguez 2014). Nonetheless, psychological strategy of colonization. Chicana/o art has maintained These prints disavow the settler state Indigenous narratives and history as a and even challenge Native nation’s kind of visual archive that asserts both insistence on blood quantum in order the spiritual and cultural force of for community members to be claiming Chicana/o indigeneity. And, acknowledged as Indigenous. I detail while the 1960s often presented an how these artists invest in Indigenous essentialist Aztec form of Indigenous alliance building across the Americas by identity, many Chicanas/os by the late privileging organic cultural and political 1970s and early 1980s were illustrating a formations and local cultural practices diversity of Indigenous identities. The rather than blood quantum alone for art examined here was part of the membership in Indigenous commun- “Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: ities. This framework intervenes in the Roots, Resistance, and Resurgence” settler state’s logic of containment since exhibit. This exhibit was held at the that logic heavily relies on blood University of California, Santa Barbara quantum and federal recognition from February to June of 2015 in the policies as a method of local control. main library. The artwork of this exhibit Again, while many Native nations still provides a powerful sampling of the map their genealogical citizenry visual and narrative evidence that through this same vein, countless other graphic prints can constitute a Indigenous peoples in the Americas methodology for collective cultural affirm their indigeneity through culture, memory and identity. For the purposes land, and lifeways. For example, during of this essay, I examine four graphic the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and prints from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s 1970s a large part of the Chicana/o in the section of the exhibit titled community came to consciousness “Indigeneity in Contemporary Chicano/ around the assertions of self- 24 Navarro determination and indigenism (Vargas rootedness and futurity are not staged 2010:3) and the subsequent develop- as dichotomous or linear but organic ment of Chicana/o art was shaped and fractal. around these key themes (Vargas:93). For these Chicanas/os, recuperating Locating Decolonial Aesthetics in their Indigenous (Aztec, Maya, Yaqui, Chicana/o Graphic Art etc.) identities allowed them to clearly The Transnational Decolonial Institute understand the systematic processes of (TDI+) is a group of scholars from racialization and domination in the around the world who are working to United States as American Indians define and implement decolonization in offered an analogous relationship to the various geopolitical contexts. In 2010 settler state. These politics and these scholars opened an exhibit on histories, then, are part of the premises what they termed “Decolonial for understanding the artworks Aesthetics” in Bogotá, Colombia. The examined in this essay and their reliance following year they had a “Decolonial on Chicana/o indigeneity as described Aesthetics” workshop and exhibit at within the parameters noted above. Duke University that was curated by Additionally, as Laura E. Pérez (2007) Walter Mignolo. TDI+ recently released has adeptly noted, many of the artistic a manifesto on decolonial aesthetics representations in this essay are saying these are “genealogies of re- spiritual representations. They also, existence in artistic practices” however, specifically disavow (Transnational Decolonial Institute, exploitation of land and life based on 2013). Within this framework, Mignolo decolonial ethics that do not necessarily and Vázquez argue, “aestheTics [are] an have to be rooted in a spirituality. Thus, aspect of the colonial matrix of power, I locate and theorize this art within two of the imperial structure of control that analytical frameworks: 1) a decolonial began to be put in place in the sixteenth aesthetics that centers radical critiques century with the emergence of the of colonial and neocolonial logics and Atlantic commercial circuit and the practices; and, 2) visual sovereignty, a colonization of the New World, and that term articulated and outlined by was transformed and expanded through Michelle Raheja (2010) that underscores the eighteenth and nineteenth cen- the liberatory politics of various visual turies, and up to this day” (2013). By texts. These analytics provide the contrast, decolonial aesthetics can be framework for understanding how these identified as those that radically deliver artworks embody a Chicana/o a re-existence of life and knowledge Indigenous epistemological formation against the settler state working to of the world. The analytics of decolonial dissolve the colonial matrix of power. aesthetics and visual sovereignty also Indeed, as coloniality operated to help to ascertain how these graphic arts dominate the political, economic, and present time and space distinctly knowledge bases of Indigenous life, it against the grain of the settler state; how also strategically sought control “over these artworks represent a particular our senses and perception” (Mignolo rootedness in resistance to settler and Vázquez 2013). Thus, a decolonial colonialism in general; and how they aesthetic can be understood to make assert alternate futures in which such visible “decolonial subjectivities at the rEvista, Volume 5, Issue 2 25 confluence of popular practices of re- cornerstone of Indigenous life and existence, artistic installations, decolonizing efforts towards self- theatrical and musical performances, determination. Ultimately, as Scott literature and poetry, sculpture and Richard Lyons has noted, sovereignty is other visual arts” (Mignolo and Vázquez “nothing less than our attempt to 2013). Finally, then, viewing the art survive and flourish as a people” (2000: prints in the “Indigenous Peoples of the 449). Yet, it is important to point out Americas” exhibit within a decolonial that sovereignty is not solely tied to aesthetic challenges the practice and resurrecting a past but rather to idea of art canonization because there is ensuring a present and future. To wit, no goal to establish and control a canon Lyons argues: of art within this decolonial framework. Sovereignty is the guiding story in our Rather, and quite differently, there pursuit of self-determination, the persists a hope that, just as there are general strategy by which we aim to multivalent logics of coloniality, there best recover our losses from the are also multivalent logics of ravages of colonization: our lands, our decoloniality—one of which is the languages, our cultures, our self- assertion for revolutionary artworks to respect. For indigenous people be staged as plural in both their everywhere, sovereignty is an ideal interpretations and political principle, the beacon by which we seek possibilities. the paths to agency and power and community renewal (2000:449). Visual Sovereignty in Chicana/o Thus, visualizing not only the survival of Graphic Art Indigenous peoples but the thriving Furthermore, Michelle Raheja’s work on multimodal and creative ways our visual sovereignty is another critical communities flourish assists in realizing framework for expanding a radical certain forms of sovereignty that are not liberatory politics to visual texts. While tied to the settler state or its courts of she utilizes the term to explicitly read law. In short, artworks that embody a Indigenous filmmaking, here I employ decolonial aesthetic envision various her understanding of this concept to the implementations of self-determination framing of art prints. In Reservation that are beyond those articulations of Reelism she argues that visual sovereignty that rely on the settler sovereignty extends sovereignty beyond colonial state for recognition. the juridical realm to the arts and adds:

“visual sovereignty permits the flow of Victoria Ocelotl Indigenous knowledge about such key The silkscreen print Victoria Ocelotl issues as land rights, language (“Jaguar Victory”) by Yreina Cervántez acquisition, and preservation, which from 1983 details the revolutionary narrativizes local and international commitment evidenced in decolonial struggles” (Raheja 2010:194-196). While aesthetics (Figure 1). Cervántez was definitions and deployments of terms born in 1952 and raised near San Diego, like sovereignty can be quite different California close to a Native American for every Indigenous group in the reservation. She is one of the most Americas, and even contested as a prominent Chicana artists and the settler logic (Alfred 2009), it remains a 26 Navarro majority of her artistic renderings Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer note in showcase Indigenous themes. She has Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American been producing art for over thirty-five Coup in Guatemala that the 1980s years with watercolor as her strongest ushered in a new apex of violence in medium. This print was first printed at Guatemala. They write: Self Help Graphics in the Atelier Terrified by the triumph of leftist printmaking program. The print guerrillas in nearby Nicaragua and the foregrounds an Indigenous Mayan subsequent unification of Guatemalan woman who is facing away from the insurgents into a single coalition called viewer; she is identified by her the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional traditionally braided hair and a huipil (a Guatemalteca (URNG), and traditional hand-woven garment) with encouraged by the Reagan two jaguars on it; the left border of the administration to fight insurgents with print also has images of jaguars that run every means at their disposal, military up and down it; and there are three leaders launched a series of devastating distinct jaguars in the sky of the print. military sweeps in large areas of the The Mayan woman holds a rifle, a countryside deemed to be pro- modern symbol of protection, strength guerrilla. An estimated one million and resistance, but the image suggests people who lived in these areas fled that her strength is really drawn from their homes to escape military the jaguars that surround her. rampages, among them 150,000 who In addition, when placed in the sought refuge across the northern historical context of the time period the border in Mexico. Many who did not print was made, the image clearly move quickly enough were killed. (Schlesinger and Kinzer 2005:258) alludes to a solidarity with Mayans in Guatemala who were experiencing Moreover, in 1982 (one year prior to this violence and genocide at the hands of print) there was a large massacre of their government with support from the Mayan people in the Aldea Río Negro U.S. military. This also demonstrates and 177 women and children were killed how Cervántez intentionally transcends (Smith 2005:27). This violent attack borders in her art moving beyond the against Mayan women and children was U.S. Southwest region. Nevertheless, severe. “The young women were raped even that historical moment had its in front of their mothers, and the roots in the broader context of the mothers were killed in front of their Guatemalan Civil War, which ran from children. The younger children were 1960 to 1996. This was a war fought then tied at the ankles and dashed between a corrupt government that was against the rocks until their skulls were allied with the U.S. and the country’s broken. This massacre, committed by rural poor who were primarily the Guatemalan army, was funded by Indigenous Maya. Thus, the ultimate the U.S. government” (Smith 2005:27). “victory” is still in the making at the 1982 also marks the year of Efraín Ríos time this print is made in 1983. In fact, Montt’s “Plan Victoria 82” that was the hope for victory amidst the violence characterized by a scorched earth of the early 1980s in Guatemala is military campaign and it highlighted astounding given the material the violence noted above and through a conditions on the ground. Stephen psychological infrastructure of “social rEvista, Volume 5, Issue 2 27

Figure 1: Yreina Cervántez, Victoria Ocelotl (1983) control, indoctrination and repression” women exercise their own agency and (Doyle 2013). find power and strength in their The historical and political contexts Indigenous identity and their sacred of this print, therefore, are quite telling stances. The presence of the stalwart especially with regard to its title, symbolism of the jaguar, along with the Victoria Ocelotl, and resonate with the armed Mayan woman, clearly serve as explicit image of a revolutionary an unyielding and supreme force of Indigenous woman grounded by the power and represent a determination to symbol of the jaguar. Moreover, by fight the violent repression of the state. reading the spatial narrative of this In the Victoria Ocelotl print, jaguars print, the Indigenous concept of duality surround the Indigenous woman and underscores both the violence carried seem to face-off with the helicopters out by military forces as represented in that hover threateningly above the the image of the helicopters, and the woman, and a spatial reading of the counter images of the Indigenous representation of these jaguars and their woman in the foreground who is posturing suggests that they are as covered by the two jaguars on her huipil. invested as the woman in the battle Overall, then, the images in this print against a dictatorial government and its suggest that military violence can be allies. The three jaguars at the top of the directly challenged when Indigenous print that command the shadowy 28 Navarro night’s sky spit fire at the helicopters Significantly, it has been well that hover above. The jaguar images documented that jaguars were certainly that run along the left border of the understood as animals of power and piece extend from the bottom of the might in Mesoamerican belief (Benson print’s frame to the top of the piece and 1998; Pérez 2007). Elizabeth Benson into the night’s sky to form another details the significance of the jaguar in protective cover for the Indigenous Mesoamerica in her essay, “The Lord, woman. The Indigenous woman at the The Ruler: Jaguar Symbolism in the center of the print focuses her sights on Americas” (1998). She notes: the jaguar these jaguar figures rather than the hunts both in daytime and nighttime; it threatening helicopters above her is also adept at hunting in the water, because of the cover provided by the which is a rare tolerance for cats, and it jaguars. And, as I note above, the two hunts along the land base. Benson also jaguars on her huipil seem to guard her outlines how jaguars may have as though she has summoned these represented different localized ideas for animals as her spirit companions or various Mesoamerican cultures: often counterparts (her nagual) in this fight being understood as a protector for against state violence represented by Olmecs while perceived as a destructive the black helicopters. force for Aztecs. Nevertheless, it Most importantly, the jaguars on her remains true across the Americas that huipil are in a defensive position and this animal commands authority and claw at what seems to be two respect. Also, in the Mesoamerican resplendent quetzals—the national bird worldview, the jaguar could traverse of the nation-state of Guatemala. This multiple worlds—most prominently, attack on the quetzals by the jaguars, as the earthly world and the spirit world a result, symbolizes at least two (Benson 1998:64-67) and it served as a dominant meanings: first, it is a symbol spirit companion to communicate with of the Indigenous resistance to state ancestors who were associated with the violence as the Quetzal is part of the night (Benson 1998:70). In fact, the coat of arms of the national flag of jaguar, for many Mesoamerican Guatemala; and, second, that such cultures, was the first human being and, resistance is also an anti-capitalist/anti- as a result, those who descend from imperialist resistance given that the Mesoamerica could all be classified as quetzal is also the monetary unit of the children of the jaguar (Benson 1998:70). nation-state of Guatemala. The anti- Thus, the representation in Victoria imperialist element is implied by the Ocelotl of an Indigenous woman broader Cold War politics of the region resisting the forces of repression at and notes that Ríos Montt and his night could be read as a multivalent repressive regime have the blessing of representation of various protections the United States because they are afforded to her that the living/material fighting the “communists” in Central world could not provide in the day. As America. In this framing, the jaguar Laura Pérez has argued, the jaguar takes on greater political importance in images in Cervántez’s work “understand the overall decolonizing aesthetics of the human person as a spiritual being, the piece. in fundamental relation and identity with a natural environment imbued rEvista, Volume 5, Issue 2 29 with spiritual energy and tarian purpose: a call to revolution. consciousness” (2007:85). Therefore, I Victoria Ocelotl underscores this suggest there is not a great divide or decolonial artistic re-existence as the dichotomous view of the jaguar and the artist defies a dichotomous past/present Indigenous woman in this print; trope that is often used against instead, the multiple jaguar figures of Indigenous peoples to render them the print represent her spiritual self in invisible in the present/future and see balance and positioned to protect her them only as peoples of/in the past. For people and culture from violent military example, in my reading of this print, the action. Because of this, Cervántez may spirit and promise of the jaguars’ also employ these jaguar figures to representations, along with the ultimately represent a source of life backdrop and protection of the against the death and destruction of ancestral night sky, are all embodiments neocolonial and military oppression. of twentieth century decolonial artistic In reconsidering these political and resistance rooted in the past/tradition Indigenous elements of this print, the but articulated in the present to make a decolonial aesthetics of Cervántez’s case for a more positive future. In this work becomes self-evident. Yet, it is still way, the Indigenous representations in important to note, as Eve Tuck and K. this piece are integral parts of Wayne Yang argue, the act of modernity rather than displaced by an decolonization cannot simply be turned understanding of modernity that into a metaphor. As they and other relegates all things Indigenous to a “pre- Indigenous scholars poignantly declare: modern” past as part of a neocolonial decolonization requires the repatriation erasure. This decolonizing framework of both land and life (Tuck and Yang and aesthetic, furthermore, places 2012:21). To frame art within a Indigenous identity, beliefs, and decolonial sphere, therefore, also means practices as significantly rooted/ asserting the radical potential of arraigado in this same past/ cultural productions to incite and call present/future, yet maintains a for this very type of repatriation of land malleability as Indigenous peoples in and life for Indigenous people. In the Americas continue to work for a particular, such a decolonial aesthetic decolonial present in which their also challenges a Eurocentric formation lifeways are maintained, again, without of aesthetics that might privilege and them being relegated to a romanticized determine “beauty” for and by the elite past that effectively erases them from or one that simply mimics their tastes the present and future. and values. And, as Anzaldúa poetically describes this decolonial formation, she Mujer de Mucha Enagua, Pa Ti’ writes: “…my people, the Indians, did Chicana not split the artistic from the functional, Mujer de Mucha Enagua, Pa’ Ti Chicana the sacred from the secular, art from (“Woman with a lot of Petticoat, For everyday life” (2007:88). In this same You Chicana”) from 1999 (Figure 2) is vein, then, a decolonial aesthetic finds another significant art piece by Yreina beauty in revolt, resurgence, and as Cervántez. The three main figures in TDI+ has stated, in re-existence. Most this print are a young Zapatista mother importantly, this print serves a utili- with her children (far left), the 17th 30 Navarro century Mexican poet Sor Juana Inés de for what otherwise might be la Cruz (far right)—with Sor Juana characterized as secular intellectual and wearing an image around her neck of political organizing on the part of these contemporary Mexican poet Rosario women. Specifically, Sor Juana Inés de la Castellano from Chiapas. This image Cruz speaks in Nahuatl, a language she clearly centers the importance of learned fluently. And, her use of revolutionary women in intellectual and Nahuatl in the print summons the political efforts in México, especially as assistance and the blessing of these efforts are grounded in Tonantzin: Mother Earth. The use of Indigenous cultures. For example, in Nahuatl in the print also suggests that explaining the significance of this print, even speaking Nahuatl was “a Cervántez states that the title is a subversive act, considering the common phrase in México that is used prejudices of colonial New Spain against to describe women who have a great the Mother Tongue and the religious deal of “strength, courage, and integrity” traditions associated with it” (Medina and/or used to describe women who 2005:xi). Additionally, Cervántez uses were activistas (Medina 2005:x). earth tones in this print most likely as a Cervántez also noted that these three reference to Mother Earth/Tonantzin, women are part of “a powerful trinity, and the entire print is set against a who all address the tenacious struggle of jaguar pelt background. Finally, on the indigenous peoples of Mexico and the far right there are six distinct Mayan Americas” (Medina 2005:xi). The hand mudras, while the center bottom subtext of Cervántez’s statement is an shows both Mayan and Nahua glyphs, artistic rejection of the archaic trinity and the hand between the two women imposed on Mexicanas/Chicanas: La showcases a tattooed spiral symbol that Malinche, La Virgen de Guadalupe, and represents the Indigenous symbol of La Llorona. As a result, a complex eternal timelessness. Right above this history of Indigeneity in México and the spiral, on the palm of the hand, is the Americas is densely woven together in Mayan phrase, “mixik balamil,” which this print in order to re-cast and congeal means “navel of the universe” (Medina the political interests of feminist and 2005:xi). Indigenous struggles in the Americas. Given these elemental and For example, the Zapatista mother in contextual details, the print incites a re- the print wears an apron with an existence or repatriation of Indigenous inscribed message on it from the Popul life that defines decolonial aesthetics. It Vuh, the most sacred book of the Maya. utilizes a multivalent history including The message operates as a literal revolutionary action for liberation, reminder to all, but especially to these poetry, and Indigenous spiritual activistas that they must “conjure up the traditions to centralize Indigenous faces and words” of the ancestors justice as a continued concern of our (Medina 2005:xi) that give them the contemporary moment. The print’s aforementioned “strength, courage and spatial narrative suggests that women integrity” necessary to fight for are the primary keepers and Indigenous peoples and their rights. transmitters of Indigenous cultures and Moreover, the text from the Popul Vuh that it will also be women who persist in also provides a religious/sacred framing rEvista, Volume 5, Issue 2 31

Figure 2: Yreina Cervántez, Mujer de Mucha Enagua, Pa’ Ti Chicana (1999) efforts to sustain the cultural and maintain the culture as historical spiritual heart of their communities. narrators, language preservers, and Just as Tonantzin is represented by the spiritual leaders. Note, for example, Sor double heart between the Zapatista’s Juana Inés de la Cruz disavowed a strict and Sor Juana’s feet, the print Spanish colonial rule as a mestiza but undoubtedly suggests that mujeres de also as an insurgent intellectual who mucha enagua/ “women with a lot of challenged the principle ideological petticoat,” will continue to be the mode through which settler colonialism bloodlines that carry on the literal and was carried out in colonial México: the metaphorical life of decolonial action Catholic Church. And, Sor Juana’s and aesthetics. methodologies were equally important; The women in this print, as a result, it is well known that Sor Juana re- represent resistance to the genocidal appropriated and re-purposed the attempts of “settler colonialism [as] a Catholic Church’s resources and used genocidal policy” (Dunbar-Ortiz them to challenge the Church and the 2014:6). Also, because these women State on intellectual, poetic, and were insistent on Indigenous peoples’ political grounds. Similarly, the rights, they stand for a repatriation of Zapatista woman’s presence in this print the land, their right to give life to the underscores the present political aim of next generation of revolutionaries the Zapatista Army for National (literally and metaphorically), and Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de 32 Navarro Liberación Nacional, EZLN): to stop soledad prospera su rebeldía (Anzaldúa oppressive military and corporate 2007:45). interventions in Chiapas, México from Overall, then, the women portrayed in the 1990s forward. In fact, the EZLN this print highlight various Indigenous remains dedicated to land reform and histories and identities as living, focusing on indigeneity as central intergenerational, and resurgent. These components in its war against the state histories and identities are also rooted and corporations especially those in thriving cultures from the represented by policies like the North Chiapaneca to the Chicana. While these American Free Trade Agreement women in the print represent different (NAFTA). historical moments in México, as In addition, many scholars working Cervántez channels and represents within the field of Native Feminisms them and their struggles, taken have documented the violent colonial together, they all operate as profound attempt to exterminate women in order activistas/mujeres de mucha enagua to completely dissolve Indigenous committed to Indigenous existence/re- cultures in congruence with the existence by resisting the genocidal importance of Indigenous women to the politics and practices of elimination in maintenance of their cultures (Smith dominant Mexican and American 2005; Anzaldúa 2007; Dunbar-Ortiz cultures. 2014). Many Indigenous women constituted themselves as revolu- Laura Molina’s Comic, The Jaguar tionaries to ensure their peoples’ In Laura Molina’s self-produced zine/ survival and disrupt genocidal practices comic titled Cihualyaomiquiz, The and policies. Gloria Anzaldúa Jaguar, the narrative revolves around a acknowledges such genocidal forces in superheroine that fights injustice when Borderlands as she notes how Chicanas she transforms into a powerful jaguar have been made to “believe that the woman (Figure 3). The main character, Indian woman in us is the betrayer” Linda Rivera, is a law scholar who can (2007:44). Nonetheless, though the transform into a jaguar woman to fight odds have been stacked against the systemic realities of racism and Indigenous women, Anzaldúa also sexism. As Laura Pérez reports, readers recognizes how Indigenous women are told that the Nahuatl name of the survive and transcend the limits set by comic means “woman ready to die in Spaniard and Anglo colonizers. She battle” and the villains in the story are writes: racist police officers and neo-Nazi The spirit of the fire spurs her to fight skinheads (2007:238). The bottom of the for her own skin and a piece of ground print reads “a woman warrior dedicated to stand on, a ground from which to to the struggle for social justice, human view the world—a perspective, a rights, and mother earth.” Other homeground where she can plumb the captions on the print exclaim, rich ancestral roots into her own ample “Corporate Crooks, Look Out!,” “I mestiza heart. She waits till the waters resist!,” and “I Won’t Be Tamed!” are not so turbulent and the mountains Significantly, the strength of not so slippery with sleet…Aquí en la Molina’s plot is found in her attempt to rEvista, Volume 5, Issue 2 33

Figure 3: Laura Molina, Cihualyaomiquiz, The Jaguar (2003) undo a racist and sexist present by belief in the jaguar’s ability to move connecting the empowered super- beyond and between the physical and heroine to her Indigenous animal spirit spiritual worlds and by Molina’s (nagual). Pérez underscores this notion recognition of the Jaguar’s Indigenous by arguing that Molina “draws from a roots through its name. As a result, Mesoamerican cultural past and present Molina’s representation of the Jaguar identification with the Indigenous in superheroine figure makes her a greater constructing her fearsome heroine,” and force with which to be reckoned. adds, “this in itself is a tactic in the Moreover, this print also embodies a larger ongoing struggle against a racism form of visual sovereignty as it depicts a that, like a evil comic book nemesis, woman warrior who is ready to fight for keeps rearing its ugly head in ever-new her people, their land, and their human twists of the same old plot” (2007:241). and civil rights. The print and its Therefore, in representing the heroine representations suggest moving beyond as a jaguar, Laura Molina suggests that the mere survival of Indigenous peoples the fight against racism is carried out in by indicating how oppressed peoples the earthly/material realm, but this can thrive through rebellious art and battle is also fought in the spiritual even humor. The visual and textual realm. This connection is underscored, narratives also disrupt any logic that as I note above, by the Mesoamerican relies on the U.S. legal system to render 34 Navarro justice or to be a guarantor of “Corporate Crooks” to “Look Out!” sovereignty for Indigenous peoples. Clearly, Molina’s Jaguar Woman Instead, the plot contends the justice understands how the matrix of settler system is a corrupt branch of the settler state abuse is characterized by state and needs to be “Indigenized” in interlocking systems of racist, sexist, order to arrive at fairness and equality. and classist domination that affect both Furthermore, The Jaguar/Warrior human beings and the land. In Molina’s Woman is expressly charged with taking print, as a result, humans and land are care of mother earth in this print and, as positioned as equal relatives who must a result, I contend the print/text live in balance—an incredibly impor- underscores not only a visual tant Indigenous belief. Luckily, then, sovereignty, but a political sovereignty the Jaguar Woman can be seen as tied to the land. As such, this image utilizing her superheroine powers to takes a political position requiring a fight for justice as framed through critical land ethic be implemented in feminist, Indigenous worldviews rather order for this formidable warrior to rest. than one that is beholden to the very Of course, land ethics are central to settler state that ironically carries out many claims about what constitutes oppression against Indigenous peoples sovereignty across the Americas— throughout the Americas. Conse- especially with regard to Indigenous quently, while The Jaguar is imbued peoples and their land in the Americas. with magical qualities to undo systemic For most, the land is a central abuse and violence, the zine’s visual component to a repatriated life. And, narrative hinges around the anthro- sovereignty cannot be granted to the pomorphous Jaguar Woman who has people until it is also granted to the the capacity to recall ancestral ways of land. This indicates an approach to life in the throes of various oppressive living with the land rather than over the techniques and logics of modernity. land, an approach that can be theorized Finally, then, in this print, I understand as a Native feminist land ethic (Navarro, the jaguar as a simultaneous embo- 2014). In this print, the thunderous call diment of: human/animal, past/present, to destroy racism and sexism while protector/destroyer, and earth/sky; not simultaneously protecting the earth is, as simple binary oppositions of these similarly, part of a Native feminist land elements. Overall, The Jaguar Woman ethic that calls for living with the then represents the complex self- land/Mother Earth rather than determination, agency, and self-respect practicing a destructive dominion over necessary to deploy sovereignty in our her. Molina’s representational narrative, contemporary political moment. then, highlights the reality that racism, sexism and classism are intimately Dando Gracias linked to a destruction of the land Finally, Leo Limón’s Dando Gracias especially as the land is gendered female (Figure 4) is a print that visualizes and then transformed into various Indigenous sovereignty as part of commodities for exploitation in a Chicana/o politics and art in the early capitalist market system. This Native 1980s. Limón was a member of the early feminist land ethic is best exemplified in Chicano arts movement with Los Four this print by the Jaguar Woman’s call for and the Mechicano Arts Center in East rEvista, Volume 5, Issue 2 35

Figure 4: Leo Limón, Dando Gracias (1983)

Los Angeles. In 1980, he joined Self Help important element because it is a Graphics, where he established their symbol of indigeneity throughout Atelier printmaking program. Dando México and in Chicana/o communities Gracias was the first print he produced of the Southwestern U.S. in that program and it portrays Limón’s Dando Gracias centralizes Limón’s vision of an Indigenous Chicana/o commitment to the depiction of cultural and spiritual legacy—especially Indigenous spiritual elements and the with regard to his incorporation of a geopolitics of sovereignty in his prints. positive representation of an Again, if sovereignty is defined as the Indigenous woman. For example, the ability for Indigenous peoples and bottom of the print shows a cultures to flourish, this print Mesoamerican woman figure as she beautifully underscores this position. gives thanks to la luna (the moon) with Roberto Cintli Rodríguez has argued, for an offering of three fruits and a example, that there were multiple forms flowering cactus. Obviously, the viewer of conquest implemented against recognizes this woman’s indigeneity Indigenous peoples in the Americas. because of her bronze skin color and the One form of conquest called la otra regalia she wears. However, the nopal conquista (the other conquest), Cintli (cactus) she offers in thanks is also an notes, was a specific effort to 36 Navarro strategically fashion a spiritual the most part, the nopal is revered for its genocide. He writes, the “primary ability to alleviate high blood pressure objective was the destruction of the and help with diabetes as a high fiber maíz-based beliefs and cultures of food (Yetman 2011:133). Moreover, many Indigenous peoples, ushering in a established ceremonial uses of the nopal radical shift in the axis mundi or center make it an excellent choice of an of the universe from maíz to the offering and this seems to be the most Christian cross” (Cintli 2014:7). As a relevant tradition relayed in Limón’s result, Limón’s Dando Gracias shows a print. In fact, the cactus variety known resurgence of Indigenous peoples in the as peyote has been used in many Americas posturing toward their sacred Indigenous cultures in the Americas for Indigenous beliefs in twentieth century visioning ceremonies, and many other Chicana/o art against this attempted varieties of the nopal remain symbols of spiritual genocide. Moreover, this print protection because the piercing spines represents a spiritual legacy that was on these plants make them self- never fully supplanted by settler sufficient (even las tunas can harbor colonialism. In effect, the print many micro spines) (Yetman 2011:132). evidences the failure or at the very least These plants are also symbols of survival the limitations of la otra conquista. Of since they grow in desert conditions and course, this position does not ignore the require very little water, making them destruction and violence of the an appropriate representation of a attempted spiritual colonization of people who survive equally harsh Indigenous peoples in the Americas, but conditions. Thus, I suggest the gift of it suggests Indigenous spiritualities are the nopal with the beautiful red tunas not extinct and colonialism can never offers a symbolic assertion of self- fully render them as such. sufficiency and protection granted to In fact, the nopal seems to be the the people by the ancestors, who are greatest gift offered to the moon as this represented by the night and la luna (as symbol has multivalent significance for they are in the Cervántez piece above). Indigenous peoples and Chicanas/os in Yet, while the ancestors are carefully México and the U.S. The nopal has represented in the night sky and the incredible import to the state in México moon in this print, equally important is as a symbol of its Indigenous origins and the Indigenous worldview of time that mythohistorical predestination—it even works against the settler state’s shows up on the nation’s flag. But it also dichotomous view of time (past/ has a broader Indigenous history in the present) depicted in this graphic. For Americas. The nopal is a native plant to example, the Indigenous woman who the Americas and emerges in hundreds makes the offering is not relegated to a of varieties; it continues to be a staple past where her humanity and gifts are food for Indigenous peoples across the only relevant in the pre-Columbian era. continent (Yetman 2011:133). The plant Instead, she reads as consistently also provided medicinal qualities that mixing the past and present as she were known to Indigenous medicine maintains traditional offerings that are keepers for a number of ailments during still seen as sacred today to la luna, who the Mesoamerican period, still used for may also be interpreted as Coyol- health reasons today. In the present, for xauhqui. This offering to la luna/ rEvista, Volume 5, Issue 2 37 Coyolxauhqui is important because it Conclusion maintains a feminist sensibility All the Chicana/o prints examined in regarding Indigenous Chicana/o iden- this essay highlight a historical and tity and politics. Namely, a Nahuatl persistent rootedness in Indigenous narrative suggests the moon is the head knowledge and spiritual belief systems. of Coyolxauhqui, thrown into the sky These artists, as contemporary cultural after she was killed by Huitzilopochtzli. workers, posit a thriving Indigenous Her head becomes the moon so her identity and practice for Chicanas/os mother could continue to see her through their art rather than a nostalgic daughter’s face. Therefore, this offering longing for a bygone past as an overt is a way to remember intra-communal political act against the settler state. In violence given the Nahuatl myth related this light, the Indigenous Chicana/o to the death of Coyolxauhqui and her elements of these graphic prints are brothers at the hands of “cultural markers that survived the Huitzilopochtzli who was said to be ravages of colonization and [connect] defending his mother. Nonetheless, it is the contemporary Chicana/o com- also a form of reconciliation and re- munity to the great preconquest casting of the how female deities remain indigenous civilizations and cultures in guiding lights for Indigenous peoples, the Americas” (Latorre, 2008:4). These but especially women. This can be contemporary prints, however, do not further noted by how the shift away simply suggest Chicanas/os are from the lunar calendar and descendants of Indigenous peoples, but Coyolxauhqui, and toward the solar that they are Indigenous peoples. calendar, was a patriarchal move since A plethora of Indigenous scholarship the lunar calendar helped position has emerged to emphasize this women’s moon time (Luna and Galeana important reality especially because, in 2016). Importantly, as evidenced here many cases, a mestiza/o identity has then, much of Chicana/o art “engage[s] been used against Chicanas/os to effect Chicanos’ Mexican past not as a form of erasures of their indigeneity historical determinism but as a way of (Castellanos, Gutiérrez Nájera and thinking actively about the present… Aldama 2012). This has arguably been a historical thinking is a form of cognitive tactic by the state to ensure Indigenous mapping” (Noriega and Rivas 2011:90). peoples do not form political alliances Thus, the art-based cognitive mapping, and re-constitute ourselves with greater as Noriega and Rivas suggest, is a mode enumeration. In essence, this is a settler to narrate history from the margins logic of forgetting that has led to greater (2011:73). Dando Gracias represents a control over “smaller numbers” of disruption of time as dictated by linear “modern Indians” that require constructs in the framework of recognition from the state for their “modernity,” challenges a patriarchal legitimacy (especially in the United settler state by reinforcing feminist States). Thus, to establish a Indigenous relationships between methodology of (re)membering, where Indigenous women and deities like Mexicanas/os and Chicanas/os are not Coyolxauhqui, and presents Indigenous solely bound to the “cosmic race” life as ever-present and continually descriptor, aids in the processual work vibrant. of decolonizing mestizaje where the 38 Navarro mestiza/o can at once be lo indígena y lo resurgence that articulates indigeneity mestizo. This is an important as a decolonial aesthetic and, in so distinction because México and the doing, make art a persistent site for United States have historically used the demanding self-determination. Produc- racial categorization of mestizaje to tively, then, these prints intervene in the swallow up an Indigenous identity in assumed and expected silence of favor of Spanish/white racial ancestry Indigenous peoples by creatively (Gutiérrez Nájera, Castellanos and expressing our realities and Aldama 2012:6). My analysis of these representing our lives. Still, while some graphic prints, then, offers a critical prints may initially read as more counternarrative to visual represen- politically active than others, I suggest tations of indigeneity as part of the prints examined here all engage in a meaningful ways to decolonize productive disobedience to settler logics regressive understandings of mestizaje. that can, at a minimum, act to “liberate Thus, while this art is produced by our senses” (Transnational Decolonial Chicanas/os in the twentieth century, it Institute 2013) but that also work toward strategically employs Indigenous the liberation of Indigenous lifeways elements to expose the colonial and land. entanglements of a regressive mestizaje by narrating “mixed” racial identities through an Indigenous lens rather than Works Cited a Eurocentric one. Through this lens, Alfred, T. these artists contribute to the plurality 2009 Peace, Power, Righteousness: of decolonizing methodologies and rely An Indigenous Manifesto (2nd ed.). on decolonial aesthetics as described Oxford: above. Nonetheless, because de- Oxford University Press. colonization is a process, it is also necessary to deploy persistent Anzaldúa, G. multimodal practices of decolonization 2007 Borderlands / La Frontera: The to arrive at a complete repatriation of New Mestiza (3rd ed.). San Francisco, Indigenous lands and lives. CA: Aunt Lute Books. Consequently, in this context, art has the potential to decolonize knowledge Benson, E. P. and aesthetics while offering a narrative 1998 The Lord, The Ruler: Jaguar of re-existence and the political Symbolism in the Americas. In necessity of Chicana/o indigeneity. Nicholas J. Saunders (Ed.), Icons of Overall, then, I also contend these Power: Feline Symbolism in the prints operate as an affective form of Americas. New York, NY: Routledge, healing from settler state violence pp. 53-76. because, as Indigenous scholar Dian Million argues, Indigenous peoples Bonfil Batalla, G. “seek to present our histories as 1996 México Profundo: Reclaiming a affective, felt, intuited as well as Civilization. Trans. Philip Adams thought” (2013:57). In the case of art, Dennis. Austin, TX: University of these particular prints materialize this Texas Press. “felt” history as a mode of resistance and rEvista, Volume 5, Issue 2 39 Cintli Rodríguez, R. Lyons, S. R. 2014 Our Sacred Maíz is Our Mother: 2000 Rhetorical Sovereignty: What Indigeneity and Belonging in the do American Indians Want from Americas. Tucson, AZ: The Writing? College Composition and University of Arizona Press. Communication, 51(3), 447-468.

Doyle, Kate. Medina, L. 2013 “The Final Battle: Ríos Montt’s 2005 Las Hermanas: Chicana/Latina Counterinsurgency Campaign.” Religious-Political Activism in the Retrieved from U.S. Catholic Church. Philadelphia, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/ PA: Temple University Press. NSAEBB425/ Mignolo, W. & R. Vázquez. Dunbar-Ortiz, R. 2013 Decolonial AestheSis: Colonial 2014 An Indigenous Peoples’ History Wounds/Decolonial Healings. Social of the United States. Boston, MA: Text: Periscope. Retrieved from Beacon Press. http://socialtextjournal.org/periscop e_article/decolonial-aesthesis- Forbes, J. colonial-woundsdecolonial- 1973 Aztecas del Norte: The Chicanos healings/ of Aztlan. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications. Million, D. 2013 Therapeutic Nations: Healing in Gutiérrez Nájera, L., M. B. Castellanos & an Age of Indigenous Human Rights. A. J. Aldama. Tucson, AZ: The University of 2012 ”Introduction: Hemispheric Arizona Press. Encuentros and Re-memberings.” In Castellanos, M. B., Gutiérrez Nájera, Navarro, J. L., & Aldama, A. J. (Eds.), 2014 Solarize-ing Native Hip-Hop: Comparative Indigeneities of the Native Feminist Land Ethics and Américas: Toward a Hemispheric Cultural Resistance. Decolonization: Approach. Tucson, AZ: University of Indigeneity, Education & Society, 3(1), Arizona Press, pp. 1-19. 101-118.

Latorre, G. Noriega, C. A. & P. Tompkins Rivas. 2007 Walls of Empowerment: 2011 Chicano Art in the City of Chicana/o Indigenist Murals of Dreams: A History in Nine California. Austin, Movements. In Chon A. Noriega, TX: University of Texas Press. Terezita Romo and Pilar Tompkins Rivas (Eds.), L.A. Xicano. Los Luna, J., & M. Galeana. Angeles, CA: UCLA Chicano Studies 2016 Remembering Coyolxauhqui as Research Center Press, pp.71-102. a Birthing Text. Regeneración Tlacuilolli: UCLA Raza Studies Journal, 2(1), 7-32.

40 Navarro Pérez, L. E. Yetman, D. 2007 Chicana Art: The Politics of 2011 The Cactus Metaphor. In Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities. William H. Beezley (Ed.), A Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Companion to Mexican History and Culture. Oxford, UK: Wiley- Raheja, M. H. Blackwell, pp. 131-142. 2010 Reservation Reelism: Redfacing, Visual Sovereignty, and Representations of Native Americans in Film. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

Schlesinger, S. and Kinzer, S. 2005 Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, Revised and Expanded Edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Smith, A. 2005 Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.

TDI+ Transnational Decolonial Institute. 2011 Decolonial Aesthetics (I). Retrieved from https://transnationaldecolonialinstit ute.wordpress.com/decolonial- aesthetics/

Tuck, E. & K.W. Yang. 2012 Decolonization is Not a Metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 1-40.

Vargas, G. 2010 Chican@ Contemporary Art: Color & Culture for a New America. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.