Political and Social Background to Chicano Art - Essay Example

VIS 128D Visual Art History and Politics of Chicano Art AMALIA MESA-BAINS – RASQUACHE, KITSCH, AND DOMESTICANA Introduction Dr. Amalia Mesa-Bains is a director of the Department of Visual and Public Art, and is an independent artist and cultural critic. As a Mexican-American, Mesa-Bains’ work is predominantly concerned with interpretations of traditional Chicano altars, at the same time encompassing contemporary formal concepts, along with ties to her community and history. A scholar of Latino art, she has influenced an improved understanding of multiculturalism, and extensive cultural and demographic changes in the United States1. Amalia Mesa-Bains’ recycling of home altars or revival of the tradition of making altares represents her striving for political re-affirmation of Chicano cultural values2. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to investigate: What is Amalia Mesa-Bains’s argument regarding the relationship between rasquache and kitsch? What does the idea of domesticana mean in relation to these concepts? Discussion Political and Social Background to Chicano Art The Chicano political movement began in 1960, emerging from an alliance of farmworkers striving to unionize participants from various states. Great economic struggles were the unifying symbol of the Chicano movement undertaken by students, urban workers and farm workers3. The Chicano Art Movement arose towards the end of the 1960s, and at first was characterized by a period of non-commercial community-oriented activities of the art groups. There was a change in its dynamics with fluctuations in the political movement and the characteristics of the dominant society to which the art was opposed. Changing perception to the Chicano role in the United States and in the international arena brought an end to separatism for most Chicanos. The increased striving for assimilation was followed by commercialization and establishment of Chicano art. Undoubtedly, the Chicano Movement ensured that Mexican Americans will never again be an invisible minority, artistically or socially4 The Concept of Rasquachismo To be rasquache is to display a bawdy, spunky attitude and taste and to divert or turn ruling paradigms upside down. This emerges from a “funky, irreverent stance that debunks convention and spoofs protocol”5. Those who are rasquache are believed to be of a lower status, with perceptions that are outside the boundaries of approved taste or sense of decorum. Rasquachismo emerges from Chicano modes of thinking, feeling and aesthetic choice, with a comprehensive world view; and it is one form of verbal-visual communication among the Chicanos. Rasquachismo is a sensibility that is not of a high level, but is playful and elemental. It projects “an alternative aesthetic, a sort of good taste of bad taste”6, and though witty and ironic it is sincere and good-spirited. Rasquachismo is a compendium of coping strategies, resilience and resourcefulness used in day-to-day living. Rasquachismo which is brash and hybrid does not suit the taste of the elite who seek out less exuberant and purer traditions. Pulling through and making do are no guarantee of security, so things that are rasquache possess a sense of temporality and impermanence, an ephemeral quality. While improvising, attention is given to nuances and details; form and appearance with color, texture and pattern considered more important than function7. Religious Iconography as Kitsch The popular Latin American tradition of home altars or altares are domestic spaces dedicated to deities and holy figures, and have candles and other objects that are reminders of a history of wishes, laments and prayers, that are built up over time, with each personal incident leaving its symbol. Altares embody familiar or individual histories, and the value of the artefacts is measured both sentimentally and as an offering. Since they are made by people with low incomes, symbolic richness is conveyed through the use of “glitter and shine, mirrors and glass, a profusion of golden and silvery objects, and sheer abundance”8, accounting for their artificial look. Kitsch is known as the domain of bad taste, it represents artistic endeavor gone sour, as well as anything that is considered too obvious, dramatic, repetitive, artificial or exaggerated. The link between religious imagery and kitsch is based on the dramatic nature of their styles. An example of kitsch in religious iconography is mystic fervour represented by upturned eyes, a gaping mouth and levitation9. Amalia Mesa-Bains: The Relationship Between Rasquache and Kitsch Amalia Mesa-Bains has become well-known for her home altar recycling work, emphasizing her family tradition and cultural identity10. Throughout the years of community building among Chicana artists Amalia Mesa-Bains observed and also created artwork that was rooted in the resilient struggles of everyday life or vernacular, which are essential parts of shared working class backgrounds. In Mesa-Bains’ opinion, rasquachismo is often misunderstood as a form of Kitsch, and has become a debated term in relation to the working classes. Chicano/ a art is oversimplified, reflecting popular culture as a form of kitsch, and grouping together the work of Cuban and Chicano/ a artists. In a discussion on kitsch and rasquachismo, it is important to identify the aspects of the vernacular key to the work of Chicana artists whose domestic locales of home, family and labor influenced their creative productions. From the early part of the Chicano Art Movement, serious differences were made between the men and women of the movement. The concepts and techniques in the art forms specific to women give evidence to the feminist aspects of rasquachismo seen in the work on Chicana artists. These strategies highlight the patriarchal control in the domestic sphere, and attempt to bring about its decline through visual practices11. The concept of kitsch is associated with “vernacular, vulgar, inferior, tasteless, and insensible”12. An examination of kitsch makes distinctions between mass-produced objects and intimate expressions of sincere decoration in the domestic space. Kitsch frequently defined as bad taste or false art, is also associated with the economic conditions in which the cheap, mass produced object replaces genuine folk art and is a sign of modernization in many third world countries. An association with the original folk form or lived experience of the artist may not be the basis for the artwork. Using kitsch materials may be from curiosity or recognition of that which is lost. There is a need for greater classificatory information and a more specific definition of these phenomena. Several of the concerns pertaining to meaning and usage can be used on the Chicano phenomenon of rasquachismo or the view of the downtrodden. Rasquachismo is an underdog perspective, a world view of the have-nots, a quality exemplified in objects and places and social interactions, and it has evolved as a bicultural sensibility13. The artist using the rasquachismo perspective projects a defiant as well as inventive stand, and the irreverent and the spontaneous are used to make the most from the least. Discards, fragments, even recycled everyday materials such as tyres, broken plates and plastic containers are recombined, with elaborate and bold display in yard shrines (capillas), domestic shrines (altares),and even decoration of the car. Broadly speaking, rasquachismo is a combination of resistant and resilient attitudes devised to allow the Chicano to survive and persevere with a sense of dignity. The core element of this concept is the capacity to hold life together with “bits of string, old coffee cans, and broken mirrors in a dazzling gesture of aesthetic bravado”14. Rasquachismo became a tool of artist activism, a form of resistance to the false categorizations and hierarchies of artists, in an attempt to highlight the accepted superior norms of the Ango-American with the everyday reality of Chicano cultural practices. Rasquachismo is a world view, which provides an identity and contests the Anglo concepts of culture. Unlike the Cuban revival of kitsch in which artists of the educated class could borrow from the working class, for the Chicano artist rasquachismo is a facet of internal exploration that acknowledges the meaning embedded in popular culture and practices. For both Chicano artists and intellectuals, it becomes a vehicle for both culture and identity. This dual function of resistance and affirmation are essential to the sensibility of rasquachismo15. In the comparison between kitsch and rasquachismo, two major differences are apparent. First, kitsch serves as a material or phenomenon of taste through mass-produced objects or style of personal expression in decoration. On the other hand, rasquachismo contains individual material expressions, but more significantly, a personal stance or attitudinal position. Consequently, the meaning of each is inherently different. Second, its usage reflects a radically different position for the artists. The revival of kitsch as a material expression is done by an artist who is outside the lived reality of its genesis. Kitsch is the meaning that can be employed for its sentimental and ironic values. For the Chicano artist, rasquachismo is a gesture of survival, affirmation and resistance to a dominant class, from within a shared group sensibility. “While kitsch is appropriated, rasquachismo is acclaimed or affirmed”16. Rasquachismo is an integral worldview which serves as a basis for cultural identity and sociopolitical practice. Mesa-Bains’ Domesticana: In Relationship with Rasquache and Kitsch Domesticana is the powerful representation of lived experience of Chicanas, and is seen by Mesa-Bains as cultural domestic values integrated with an emancipation from traditional feminine roles. Domesticana is the method by which the private space of the home is brought into the public space of creativity in order to construct new ideologies. Examples are Mesa Bains’ installations which serve as devices of intimate storytelling, through accumulation of experience, memory, reference and transfiguration17 Amalia Mesa-Bains defines feminist rasquachismo as domesticana. The term satirizies the tourist art that stereotypes the Chicano/ a, the genre called Mexicana. The combination of domestic and Mexicana refers to the stereotyping of Chicanas within their own culture. For the Chicana artist, the position of the underdog and the strategy of making do exists in the domestic context. She employs the material of the domestic as she contests the power relations within it. The visual creation of art emerges from the everyday practices of women’s life with style and humor. Domesticana is considered to have subversion, interrogation and deconstruction. The day to day experiences of working class Chicanas is filled with the practices of domestic space. “The sphere of the domestic includes home embellishments, home altar maintenance, healing traditions, and personal feminine pose and style”18. The emphasis is on gender segregation of roles, with women responsible for activities related to the home, children, healing, health and personal glamorization. Domesticana is the Chicana rasquachismo, and like its male counterpart it has grown not only out of resistance to majority culture, against imposition of the Anglo-American cultural identity and affirmation of cultural values, but from women’s restrictions within the culture. Domesticana is Chicana emancipation, challenging existing community restrictions on the role of women. Unlike kitsch, domesticana does not seek an appropriation of low over high, but a position from within Chicano culture. The domestic aspect of domesticana defiance sets it apart from kitsch, a sensibility of tastelessness19. Conclusion This paper has highlighted the concepts of rasquachismo, kitsch and domesticana in Chicano/a art. Amalia Mesa-Bains’ argument regarding the relationship between rasquache and kitsch, and the notion of domesticana in relation to the former, have been investigated. It was found that Chicana Art was part of a whole revolutionary movement, depicting a people’s history and culture that was based on family values rather than on materialism, and it formed part of the struggle for self-determination. The relationship between kitsch and raquaschismo are that kitsch pertains to mass-produced objects of inferior taste, while rasquachismo contains individual material expressions with a personal attitudinal position. Secondly, their usages indicate different positions of the artists. While kitsch art is inferior and tasteless, rasquachismo is bawdy, with a spunky attitude and taste. While the former aims to create products that simulate a look of richness, from gaudy, low-cost materials, the latter emerges from the artists’ lived experience as a compendium of resourcefulness and resilience. Domesticana is Chicana art, created by women with the purpose of fuelling social changes towards equality for women, who were relegated to the domestic sphere. Bibliography Department of Visual and Public Art. “Dr. Amalia Mesa-Bains”. California State University. http://vpa.csumb.edu/faculty/mesa_bains.htm (accessed May 9, 2009). Goldman, Shifra M. & Ybarra-Frausto, Tomas. “The Political and Social Contexts of Chicano Art”, Chicano Studies (1999): 83-96. Gonzales, Jennifer A. “Installation Art: Sacred Places in Secular Spaces”. In From One Medium to Another, edited by Paul A. Soukup & Robert Hodgson, 181-196, New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997. Mesa-Bains, Amalia. “Domesticana: The Sensibility of Chicana Rasquachismo”. In Chicana Feminisms: A Critical Reader, edited by Gabriela F. Arredondo, 298-315, The United States of America: Duke University Press, 2003. Olalquiaga, Celeste. “Holy Kitschen: Collecting Religious Junk from the Street.” In Visual Culture: Histories, Archaeologies and Geneologies of Visual Culture, edited by Joanne Morra and Marquard Smith, 328-343, New York: Taylor & Francis, 2006. Ybarra-Frausto, Tomas. “Rasquachismo: A Chicano Sensibility”, Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985 (1991): 155-162. Read More

Altares embody familiar or individual histories, and the value of the artefacts is measured both sentimentally and as an offering. Since they are made by people with low incomes, symbolic richness is conveyed through the use of “glitter and shine, mirrors and glass, a profusion of golden and silvery objects, and sheer abundance”8, accounting for their artificial look. Kitsch is known as the domain of bad taste, it represents artistic endeavor gone sour, as well as anything that is considered too obvious, dramatic, repetitive, artificial or exaggerated.

The link between religious imagery and kitsch is based on the dramatic nature of their styles. An example of kitsch in religious iconography is mystic fervour represented by upturned eyes, a gaping mouth and levitation9. Amalia Mesa-Bains: The Relationship Between Rasquache and Kitsch Amalia Mesa-Bains has become well-known for her home altar recycling work, emphasizing her family tradition and cultural identity10. Throughout the years of community building among Chicana artists Amalia Mesa-Bains observed and also created artwork that was rooted in the resilient struggles of everyday life or vernacular, which are essential parts of shared working class backgrounds.

In Mesa-Bains’ opinion, rasquachismo is often misunderstood as a form of Kitsch, and has become a debated term in relation to the working classes. Chicano/ a art is oversimplified, reflecting popular culture as a form of kitsch, and grouping together the work of Cuban and Chicano/ a artists. In a discussion on kitsch and rasquachismo, it is important to identify the aspects of the vernacular key to the work of Chicana artists whose domestic locales of home, family and labor influenced their creative productions.

From the early part of the Chicano Art Movement, serious differences were made between the men and women of the movement. The concepts and techniques in the art forms specific to women give evidence to the feminist aspects of rasquachismo seen in the work on Chicana artists. These strategies highlight the patriarchal control in the domestic sphere, and attempt to bring about its decline through visual practices11. The concept of kitsch is associated with “vernacular, vulgar, inferior, tasteless, and insensible”12.

An examination of kitsch makes distinctions between mass-produced objects and intimate expressions of sincere decoration in the domestic space. Kitsch frequently defined as bad taste or false art, is also associated with the economic conditions in which the cheap, mass produced object replaces genuine folk art and is a sign of modernization in many third world countries. An association with the original folk form or lived experience of the artist may not be the basis for the artwork. Using kitsch materials may be from curiosity or recognition of that which is lost.

There is a need for greater classificatory information and a more specific definition of these phenomena. Several of the concerns pertaining to meaning and usage can be used on the Chicano phenomenon of rasquachismo or the view of the downtrodden. Rasquachismo is an underdog perspective, a world view of the have-nots, a quality exemplified in objects and places and social interactions, and it has evolved as a bicultural sensibility13. The artist using the rasquachismo perspective projects a defiant as well as inventive stand, and the irreverent and the spontaneous are used to make the most from the least.

Discards, fragments, even recycled everyday materials such as tyres, broken plates and plastic containers are recombined, with elaborate and bold display in yard shrines (capillas), domestic shrines (altares),and even decoration of the car. Broadly speaking, rasquachismo is a combination of resistant and resilient attitudes devised to allow the Chicano to survive and persevere with a sense of dignity. The core element of this concept is the capacity to hold life together with “bits of string, old coffee cans, and broken mirrors in a dazzling gesture of aesthetic bravado”14.

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