The editorial categories are research topics that have guided researchers during the recovery phase and continue to be the impetus behind the Documents Project’s digital archive and the Critical Documents book series. Developed by the project’s Editorial Board, each of the teams analyzed this framework and adapted it to their local contexts in developing their research objectives and work plans during the Recovery Phase. Learn more on the Editorial Framework page.
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This artist’s statement by Carmen Lomas Garza was included in the catalogue for the exhibition of her work, A Piece of My Heart/Pedacito de Mi Corazón, which traveled to various cities in the states of Texas, California, and Illinois, in 1991. In her statement, Lomas Garza describes her bittersweet experiences growing up as a bilingual child in Texas and how these experiences influenced her decision to become active in the Chicano social and political movement through her art. According to Lomas Garza, the intention behind her art is to share her personal experiences with all people, not only the Chicano community, in order for them to see their common humanity.
Carmen Lomas Garza is one of the key Chicana artists, both in her native Texas and in California’s Chicano art movement, who has received international as well as national mainstream art recognition. This poetic and eloquent essay not only serves as the introduction to her traveling exhibition, but also functions as an artist manifesto. Originally presented at the Contextual Symposium: A Challenge to Institutions at the San Francisco Institute in 1990, Lomas Garza cites the personal and artistic decisions that have marked her career as an artist, the influence of the Chicano art movement on her and her South Texas community, and her thoughts on the important role that Chicano art can play in enacting social change.