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UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Afro-Latinx Futurism

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UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Afro-Latinx Futurism UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Afro-Latinx Futurism: A History of Black and Brown Arts from 1781–2018 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements of the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Chicana & Chicano Studies by Kaelyn Danielle Rodríguez 2020 © Copyright by Kaelyn Danielle Rodríguez 2020 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Afro-Latinx Futurism: A History of Black and Brown Arts from 1781–2018 by Kaelyn Danielle Rodríguez Doctor of Philosophy in Chicana, Chicano, and Central American Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2020 Professor Charlene Villaseñor Black, Chair Professor Judith F. Baca, Co-Chair This dissertation project identifies the anti-colonial and anti-racist traditions that Black and Brown Angelenos have created, specifically the artworks expressing cultural pride and solidarity with each other. While other scholars have looked at Black and Latina/o/x Los Angeles together, few have looked at the trends and traditions within visual culture and art history. This particular intervention is historical, but also builds from the contemporary moment we live in, where underpaid school teachers have been striking en masse, where women are proclaiming #TimesUp, where Black Lives Matter is ushering perhaps the largest social movement in U.S. history, and still, the movement continues to grow all over the world. Furthermore, this dissertation has been informed by the COVID-19 crisis, which deeply and disproportionately impacts housing, employment, health outcomes and many other factors for people of color, especially Native Peoples, African Americans and Latinx folks in the U.S. As a way to reframe ii this political moment of pandemics, social injustice, and consciousness raising, I freedom dream through Afro-Latinx Futurism, a concept I offer that empowers Black, Latinx and Afro-Latinx people to center pleasure, rest, and joy as a visual practice in the arts and an important expression of liberation. Together, this project will forge a new history of the past by offering analysis of artworks, but also, moments when people lived, fought and created together. In some cases, I will highlight works of art that were not exactly made together, or directly in conversation with the other, but still work within a constellation of struggle against US imperialism and white supremacy.1 I have conducted participatory observation fieldwork, interviews, investigated archives, made maps via Emoji Mapping and Social Explorer; I offer visual and historical analysis to demonstrate the social realities that Black and Brown creative communities have forged for the past 237 years in what is now Los Angeles. Keywords: art history, African American and Latinx solidarity, Los Angeles, freedom dreaming, Afro-Latinx futurism 1 I borrow the term “constellation of struggle” from Gaye Theresa Johnson, who coined it in her groundbreaking book, Spaces of Conflict, Sounds of Solidarity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 20), 6. iii The dissertation of Kaelyn Danielle Rodríguez is approved. George Lipsitz Gaye Theresa Johnson Judith F. Baca, Co-Chair Charlene Villaseñor Black, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2020 iv Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to the reader. Without you, this project is just words on a page. This effort is for Black and Latinx people of all ages engaged in the struggle for liberation. More importantly still, this work is here for the pleasure seekers, the healers, the artists and creatives, the brave among us who believe that despite everything else, true freedom is uncontaminatable and lives within. v Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. viii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... x Vita ............................................................................................................................................... xiii Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Conceptual Framework ....................................................................................................... 5 Research Questions ............................................................................................................. 9 Literature Review.............................................................................................................. 10 Methodologies................................................................................................................... 17 Chapter Breakdown .......................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 1 A Colonial History of Los Angeles .............................................................................................. 22 Twentieth Century Los Angeles: Racist by Law .............................................................. 39 Chapter 2 Ghost-like Resistance.................................................................................................................... 50 Spanish Past Olvera Street and América Tropical ............................................................ 51 The Black Experience ....................................................................................................... 64 Putting them Together: America Tropical and The Black Experience ............................. 74 Chapter 3 Education is a Basic Human Right ............................................................................................... 79 Education—a historical struggle ....................................................................................... 86 Visual Analysis—Reading the Work ................................................................................ 92 In the Making .................................................................................................................... 98 To Protect and Serve ....................................................................................................... 101 vi Freedom Dreams ............................................................................................................. 103 Chapter 4 Watts Still Rising ......................................................................................................................... 108 Background ..................................................................................................................... 108 Memory, Spatial Imagination and the Watts Rebellion .................................................. 111 Community Engagement ................................................................................................ 120 Watts Spatial Imaginary, Past, Present and Future ......................................................... 147 Judy Baca and SPARC, Watts Still Rising, 2018 ........................................................................ 150 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 159 Chapter 5 Afro-Latinx Futurism: Getting Free Through Pleasure .............................................................. 166 What Does It Mean? ....................................................................................................... 166 How It Works: A User Guide ......................................................................................... 171 Case Studies: Afro-Latinx Freedom ............................................................................... 173 Social Death .................................................................................................................... 184 Conclusion: What Is It For? ............................................................................................ 196 Overview of the importance of this work ........................................................... 196 Recommendations for the field ........................................................................... 198 Future work ......................................................................................................... 199 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 200 vii List of Figures Figure 1. Catarina Moreno, 1860 .................................................................................................. 28 Figure 2. Bernard Zakheim and Phyllis Wrightson, The History of Medicine in California ....... 34 Figure 3. Sheila Lavrant de Bretteville with the Power of Place, Biddy Mason Park .................. 39 Figure 4. Charles Alston, The Negro in California History ......................................................... 43 Figure 5. Judith F. Baca, The Great Wall of Los Angeles ............................................................. 45 Figure 6. Judith F. Baca, The Great
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