International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Documents of 20th-century Latin American and Latino Art A DIGITAL ARCHIVE AND PUBLICATIONS PROJECT AT THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON

ICAA Record ID: 803291 Access Date: 2017-12-06

Bibliographic Citation: Goldman, Shifra M. "Introduction" In Voices and Visions: A National Exhibit of Women Artists, Exh. cat.,Venice, CA: Social & Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), 1983

WARNING: This document is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Reproduction Synopsis: or downloading for personal Shifra M. Goldman’s essay provides a brief history of the and also names use or inclusion of any portion some of the early Mexican American women’s political groups, professional associations, and art of this document in another work intended for commercial groups. She discusses the overall failure of the Chicano Movement in order to challenge gender purpose will require permission inequality and the sexist stereotypes inflicted upon Chicanas. While acknowledging the influence from the copyright owner(s). of feminism on Chicanas, she says that the racism and classism within white feminism at times ADVERTENCIA: Este docu- polarized Euro-American and Third World feminists. Goldman explains the difficulties that mento está protegido bajo la ley de derechos de autor. Se women artists faced in participating in the early phase of the that was reservan todos los derechos. dominated by public art forms, comparing this to the surge of Chicana artists who appeared in Su reproducción o descarga the late-1970s when Chicano art shifted to gallery, museum, and college exhibition venues. para uso personal o la inclusión de cualquier parte de este Goldman provides a history of making that begins in the colonial period and includes documento en otra obra con vernacular art forms and domestic crafts. She notes the sources of key images in Chicana art of propósitos comerciales re- the 1970s, including images of Frida Kahlo and vernacular art of the southwest . querirá permiso de quien(es) detenta(n) dichos derechos.

Please note that the layout of certain documents on this website may have been modi- fied for readability purposes. In such cases, please refer to the first page of the document for its original design.

Por favor, tenga en cuenta que el diseño de ciertos documentos en este sitio web pueden haber sido modificados para mejorar su legibilidad. En estos casos, consulte la primera página del documento para ver International Center for the Arts of the Americas | The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston el diseño original. P.O. Box 6826, Houston, TX 77265-6826 | http://icaadocs.mfah.org Chicana VOices & Visions

A NATIONAL EXHIBIT OF WOMEN ARTISTS

27Artists from Arizona, , Colorado, Michigan, New Mexico and Texas

Social and Public A rts Resource Center Venice, California

December 3, 1983 to January 21, 1984 (closed December 19 to January 6)

Guest Curator: Coordinator: Shifra M. Goldman Mary-Linn Hughes

Funded in part by a grantfrom the National Endowmentfor the Arts

803291 This electronic version © 2015 ICAA | MFAH [2/9] Introduction The Chicano socio-political move­ and characteristics to be considered a ment (as differentiated from the cultural movement-one that articulated the Mexican and Mexican American move­ Chicano experience in the United States. ments preceding it) began in 1965, as a The Chicano experience was not a result of the grape pickers strike in simple one to express, beginning with Delano, California that triggered the its self-designation. Mexicans in the imagination of a whole generation of United States have called themselves by Mexican-descent young people. It was a variety of names corresponding to followed in 1966 by a demonstration in historical and social pressures faced by Albuquerque, New Mexico; by the colonized people. Variously the terms founding of the Crusade for Justice in have included Spanish American and Denver, Colorado the same year; by the Hispanic (the latest "fashionable" term courthouse raid on behalfofland grant rejected by many because it ignores the To fi"t and most impo'tant thing rights in northern New Mexico in 1967; Indian component so important to the that can be said about the women re­ by the founding in 1967 of campus Chicano movement); Mexicano, Mex­ presented in this exhibit is that they are organizations throughout the South­ ican, Mexican American, Raza (the artists. The second fact concerns the west, and the consequent birth of terms Race), and Chicano. In their search for number of Chicana women today who like "Chicano" and ''':' by the a national denominator, faced can be counted in their ranks, whether formation in 1967 of the Raza Unida other problems of diversity: not all were in the fields ofliterature, drama, dance Party in El Paso, Texas; by the 1968 brown, not all were Catholic, not all or the visual arts. The third matter to student "blowouts" from East Los were Spanish-surnamed, not all were be considered are the multiple oppres­ Angeles high schools and the Third Spanish-speaking. Many identified sions Chicanas had to confront and con­ World strike at the State equally as Native American and quer before they could achieve t!l~ first University; by the anti-Vietnam war Mexican. There were also regional stat~ that ofbeing artists. The pith and demonstration of 1969 and the Chicano diversities, and, finally, the question of essence of what is presented in these col­ Moratorium of 1970, both in Los sexual differentiation. lected works derive from a specific Angeles. These, and many other eco­ Mexican and Chicana women have social history, the lived experiences of nomic and political events in the South­ traditionally faced a series of stereo­ that history, and the matured reflections west and the mid-West, were accom­ types, misconceptions and restrictions made on that history by artists born panied by a cultural explosion with a from society at large, and from within Chicana in "occupied America." sufficient number of unifying symbols their own communities. Many of these

803291 This electronic version © 2015 ICAA | MFAH [3/9] are similar to those shared by women in about and for them by male historians, behind and back up her Macho."3 As general; some are specific to a so-called psychologists and other apologists or Martha Cotera has pungently pointed Latin American ethos. According to contributors to female oppression. out, when the men (and even some of various studies, Latin American Chicana and Chicano historians and the women-those she calls the women, continentally, were expected to sociologists are revising the history of "chickie-babies" and the "groupies" of be gentle, mild, sentimental, emotional, Mexican women in the United States the movement) spoke ofliberation, intuitive, impulsive, fragile, submissive, and Mexico: reexamining the legends, "you found that they literally meant docile, dependent, and timid; while discovering and publishing the names liberation for men, and they couldn't men were supposed to be hard, rough, and deeds of writers, labor leaders, and care peanuts about you or your little cold, intellectual, rational, farsighted, social reformers, as well as thousands of . girls or your little sisters, or your own profound, strong, authoritarian, inde­ unnamed working women whose com­ mother."+ However, precisely through pendent and brave. The Mexican bined actions have shaped history. strong, perceptive and outspoken family, in particular, was purportedly There is no question that Chicana feminists like Cotera and Ines Her­ founded on the supremacy of the father women living in North America were nandes Tovar of Texas, Alicia Escalante (machismo), the total self-sacrifice of the also influenced by the feminist move­ and Francisca Flores of California, and mother (hembrismo), the elders having ment whose modern reincarnation was many others, Chicanas began to sense authority over the young, and the men almost simultaneous with that of the their power and speak out on their own over the women. Chicano men were Chicano movement: both products of behalf. They established organizations seen as dominating their wives and the turbulent and reforming sixties. like the Mexican American Women's overprotecting their daughters; expec­ Though women played a prominent Organization, the Comision Femenil . ~ing passive compliance from both.2 In role in the Chicano movement, they felt Mexicana, the Mexican American actuality, the Chicana is the product of the need for a clearer articulation of Business and Professional Women, the two cultures: the traditional Mexican their own role in society. The movement Hijas de Cuauhtemoc, and the Concilio culture experienced at home in diluted called for an end to oppression-dis­ Mujeres. In Texas, the art group forms; and the dominant North crimination, racism and poverty-goals Mujeres Artistas del Suroeste (MAS: American culture (with its own share of which Chicanas supported unequiv­ Southwestern Women Artists) organ­ sexism, but a greater liberty for women) ocally; but it did not propose basic ized exhibits for Chicana and Latina outside the home. But the final point to changes in male-female relations or the women. Publications like Encuentro be made is that Chicana women, like status of women. A commonly ex­ Femenil, Regeneracion, Popo Femenil, and women everywhere, have never con­ pressed attitude on woman's role was, La Razon Mestiza appeared. The rela­ formed to the stereotypes manufactured "It is her place and duty to stand tions of Chicanas with the main group-

803291 This electronic version © 2015 ICAA | MFAH [4/9] ings of white, middle-class U.S. Organizations have dealt with problems wives, mothers, and workers with the feminists were not always cordial. of welfare, rape, battering, birth con­ time for creative work; and finally, Racism and classism within these trol, involuntary sterilization of geno­ being sufficiently self-confident and movements often came under attack. cidal proportions, inadequate health assertive to obtain exhibition space or "We are an integral part of(the care, lack of child care facilities, commiSSIOns. feminist) movement," says Dorinda unequal pay, and unemployment. For Moreno, "but the often brutal clashing Chicanas in, or aspiring to the middle of ideas has made the building of that class, the priority toward upward bridge to be a sometimes painful mobility was often in competition with The Many Facets encounter."5 As Third World women men and with white women. discovered in Mexico City at the 1975 In conclusion: Chicanas participated ofChicana Art: International Women's Year, their dif­ from the beginning in the struggles and New Needs, ferences with the U.S. movement were accomplishments of the Chicano move­ sometimes irreconcilable. For these ment, including its cultural expression. New Themes women, and for Third World women in In addition to questions of identity as a the United States, there is more to the people, Chicanas also wished to clarify A few historical notes are in order to question of women's rights than equali­ their identity as women with its special position Chicana women in the world of ty with men. While insisting on their problems and concerns. It was neces­ work, economic and cultural. During right to be considered equal and have sary to confront the racism, classism, the Spanish colonial period, in the Rio the same opportunities for advancement and sexism of society at large, and the Grande Valley which today encom­ as men, they are dedicated, by ne.cessity, sexism within their own ranks in order passes much of the states of New , to liberating their whole people from to achieve full personhood. Simply Mexico, Texas and Colorado, women the injustices of the dominant society becoming artists frequently involved worked as tanners, weavers and which oppresses both men and women. breaking stereotypes within the patri­ seamstresses in a primarily rural Sexism, for Chicana women, is coupled archal family (or the working-class economy. They were also gardeners, with racism and economic exploitation. family that conceived no economic ad­ midwives, servants, nurses, and even The direction of , vantage to be derived from entering the overseers of Indian women slaves. In therefore, has particularly stressed arts); persisting within the educational more recent years, the artisanship issues affecting the victimization of system, especially in opposition to its in­ which formerly supplied internally women due to their color, national sistence on "mainstream" culture and needed domestic and religious articles origin, and poverty, as well as their sex. art forms; juggling duties as lovers, for the isolated colonizers of northern

803291 This electronic version © 2015 ICAA | MFAH [5/9] New Spain/Mexico, has been trans­ tivities in which as crocheted, made dolls for her children formed into production for collectors, a whole were engaged. We know that a and for church sales. In 1973, when her tourists, and the new Chicano middle certain number of men were designers, husband became ill, Monte started class. In northern New Mexico, women caricaturists, commercial photo­ painting gourds she raised in her are engaged in work as artisans, alone, graphers, and printers-especially for garden to pass the time while she cared or with husbands and families, in mak­ Spanish-language publications-while a for him. She then transfered her work ing more or less traditional painted and smaller number were professional to canvas, on which she does stilllifes of carved religious images, silver jewelry, "fine" artists. The information about fruit and flowers, imaginary images, ornamental tinwork, straw inlay, raw­ women is even more sparse. Jacinto and fantastic landscapes. Monte's entry hide work, embroidery, and quilting­ Quirarte's book on Mexican American into painting corresponded with the as well as weaving and plastering adobe artists mentions only two women, both florescence of the Chicano art move­ structures.6 born in the early years of this century.7 ment, and the Chicana women's art By the 1920s, their numbers swelled However there is little doubt that Mex­ organization of Austin showed her work by the great increase in Mexican migra­ ican American women exercized their in galleries. tion to the United States resulting from creativity in a multitude of ways within Like the men, contemporary Chicana the chaos of the , their own homes. Extrapolating from artists are a product of the struggles in women entered the wage labor force in the evidence that is slowly coming in, the sixties and seventies that, to a cer­ large numbers because families could women decorated their homes, tain degree, opened higher education to not survive on men's wages alone. The crocheted, embroidered, knitted, made Mexican-descent people. The same cooking, canning, weaving, and other lace, and painted on a variety of sur­ period saw an efflorescence of a grass­ work previously performed at home faces. Eighty-one-year-old Alicia roots artistic movement within which were transferred into industries like Dickerson "Monte" Montemayor, some women made their appearance. packing, canning, textiles, garment fac­ whom I interviewed in 1980 at the home Both trained and self-trained women, in tories, laundries, restaurants, and where she was born in Laredo, Texas, small numbers, painted murals and domestic labor. By the time of World exemplifies this artistic creativity. made silkscreen posters. Not many of War II, Mexican Americans had been Monte's great-grandparents settled in the self-trained remained in art due to urbanized throughout the Southwest, Laredo before Texas became part of the the problems ofeconomic survival and and were migrating to the great in­ United States. From her strong frontier lack of a support structure geared to dustrial centers of the mid-West. grandmother, she absorbed family their needs. (Trained artists have fallen Insufficient research exists to ascer­ stories and folktales. As Monte's family away for the the same reasons.) In tain the extent and kind ofartistic ac- was growing, she knitted afghans, general, the public art phase of Chicano

803291 This electronic version © 2015 ICAA | MFAH [6/9] art-street murals and posters-which college and university galleries, and cer­ 1976 bilingual book 450 Anos del Pueblo reached its production nadir in the mid­ tain museums. The aperture is not Chicano/450 Years of Chicano History in seventies, was not conducive to much large, even for the men who were on the Pictures, produced in Albuquerque, female participation. The problems of scene earlier, but it exists. with a text by Elizabeth Sutherland working outdoors on a large scale, of be­ Women's art (overwhelmingly repre­ Martinez 8 Mexican peoples from both ing subject to the comments of the pass­ sentational in the Chicano art move­ sides of the border, of all periods, ages, ing public, the strenuous nature of the ment) has engaged many new themes occupations and, activities appear in its work in light of how women are social­ and interpretations that reflect different pages and solidify an iconography of ized for physical effort, militated against realities and perceptions. From the struggle, work, and culture. The role of their participation. Among the dedi­ beginning, positive images of active women in all these areas is clearly cated women muralists, , as women began to appear. One of the delineated in historical photographs. director of the Mural Resource Center most ubiquitous images in male art If 450 A nos provided a rich vein of ex­ in , early recognized this (derived from Mexican calendars) has troverted imagery, the life and art of problem and, in addition to her regular been the sexy, often semi-nude figure of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo provided mural manual for art directors and the Aztec princess from the Iztac­ an introverted model: woman focused neighborhood teams, produced and il­ cihuatl/Popocatepetllegend, carried on her interior life, on the cycles of birth lustrated: U'oman's Manual: How to "Tarzan:Jane" fashion by a gloriously and death, on pain and fortitude, on the Assemble Scaffolding. arrayed warrior prince. This Holly­ sublimation of the self in art. The whole The great surge of women artists cor­ woodized rendition epitomizes the no­ feminist movement was fascinated with responded with the "privatization" of tion of the passive woman protected by Kahlo; but for Chicana artists she pro­ Chicano art in the later seventies­ the active man. In its place, Chicana vided a needed role model. Not only which itself corresponded to a diminu­ artists substituted heroines from the was her art of great interest and beauty, tion of the intense activism of earlier Mexican revolution (particularly those but her whole life, lived as a work of art, years. As the Chicano gallery structure culled from the photographs of Agustin was intriguing. Kahlo's brilliant color, expanded in many states of the Casasola), labor leaders, women asso­ minute detail, exhuberant use of plant Southwest, and community and ciated with alternative schools and forms, fusion of the pre-Columbian and feminist galleries became aware of clinics, working women, women in pro­ the modern, and the self-portrait as a Chicanas, the possibilities for exhibi­ test. In other words, activated women mode began to appear in many Chicana tions of smaller, more intimate work who shape their lives and environments. works. also expanded. To these possibilities The single most influential source of Another source of female imagery have been added, in the last five years, imagery for all Chicano artists was'the and inspiration was the vernacular art

803291 This electronic version © 2015 ICAA | MFAH [7/9] of the Southwest: particularly home plastering of adobe constructions (the retablos (religious works painted on altars which are created and tended by latter traditionally done by women) wood) to the most avant-garde methods women. Reinforced by Mexican altars have long been practiced in New Mex­ of manipulated photography, xerogra­ for the Day of the Dead, the altar, as a ico and southern Colorado. They were phy, and book art. Ifthere are unifying cumulative sculptural object, passed in­ revived in New Mexico in the 1920s and characteristics in this exhibit, they in­ to Chicano/a art in numerous varia­ 1930s (by Anglo artists and tourists as clude the overwhelming concern with tions. Other popular re~igious imagery well as federal patronage) and again in images of women, their condition and includes the Virgin of uadalupe­ the 1970s by the impetus of the Chicano their environment. Many works are di­ traditional and transformed; and the movement and the land grant struggle. rectly or indirectly autobiographical; a cural1dera (female faith healer) whose New Mexican women engaged in these certain number deal with sexuality. roots are older than Catholicism. skills also pay tribute to their ancestors Another common denominator that has The first half of the 1970s was of several generations back who have emerged is the tendency to use organ- dominated by militant or pre­ passed on these skills. ic rather than geometric form: the Columbian images denoting Indian In the alienated urban areas, rounded corner, the flowing line, the ancestr\'; the second half has been more Chicanas have also turned their atten­ pot-like shape shared by clay vessels, the nostalgic. Or perhaps it also has been a tion to barrio women: particularly the pregnant body, and the adobe fireplace. search for roots, but closer to home and young cholas characterized by dramatic It was not the intention of the curator more familiar. This search is, perhaps, make-up, chic barrio-style clothing, and to a priori force the exhibit into these best symbolized by the play . tattoos, with the toughness and tender­ directions; the possibilities were left Many artists have dipped into family ness to survive in a difficult environ­ fairly open until the works themselves photograph albums to recreate the ment. Others have documented grand­ presented their own testimony, their of the 1940s and older eras. mothers, mothers, and children, and own tendencies. Above all, the curator Women became interested in female the family affection (immediate and was interested in displaying the greatest ancestors and their activities, tracing extended) that provides a support struc­ possible variety of Chicana art; the multi­ back family members-especially in ture throughout the Southwest. faceted woman with which this essay such long-settled areas as New Mexico This is by no means a complete list of opened. and Texas-as much as five genera­ the concerns which occupy Chicana art­ tions. Others have revived the domestic ists; it is intended merely as an in­ arts, which owe a strong debt to Native dicator. By the same token, Chicana American influence and intermarriage. artists employ a wide range of styles and Weaving, pottery making, and the techniques, from the most traditional of

803291 This electronic version © 2015 ICAA | MFAH [8/9] Notes birth and death hot in my thighs: I see 1. Rita Sanchez, "Imagenes de la Chicana," death grin between my legs and my in Imdgenes de la Chicana, Menlo Park: body holds back and I'm Nowels Publications, 1974, p. 2. 2. Maria Nieto Senour, "Psychology of the bursting Chicana," in Female Psychology: The Emerg­ to birth houses and trains and wheat and ing Self, Sue Cox (ed.), New York: St. coal and stars Martin's Press, 1981, p. 137. and daughters and trumpets and volcanoes 3. Alfredo Mirande and Evangelina Enri­ and hawks and quez, La Chicana: The Mexican American J.1loman, Chicago and London: The ~tones sons and porpoises and roots and University of Chicago Press, 1979, p. 235. and worlds andgalaxies 4. Martha P. Coteni., The Chicana Feminist, ofhumanity and life Austin: Information Systems Develop­ yet to be born. .. ment, 1977, p. 31. 5. Dorinda Moreno, "Un paso adelante," La (Alma Villanueval Razon Mestiza, June 20-22, 1980, p. 1. Los Angeles 6. See William Wroth (ed.), Hispanic Crafts oj November 1983 the Southwest, The Taylor Museum of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 1977. 7.Jacinto Quirarte, Mexican American Artists, Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1973. 8. 450 A nos del Pueblo Chicano/450 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, Albuquerque: Chicano Communications Center, 1976. 9. Excerpt from Alma Villanueva, Blood Knot, Austin: Place of Herons Press, 1982, with thanks to Sue Martinez for reprinting it in El Tec%te Literary Magazine 13, No.6 (March 1983): 8.

803291 This electronic version © 2015 ICAA | MFAH [9/9]