Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this brief, bilingual essay by novelist Zoé Valdés, the author explores the function of Carmen Herrera’s paintings from a visual as well as a poetic point of view. She analyzes the lyricism and yet mathematical approach to Herrera’s style, [...]

This article by Dominican art critic and curator, Sara Hermann, provides an overview of Darío Suro’s lifetime of artistic production and his legacy to modern and contemporary Dominican art. The author emphasizes the three most noteworthy aspects [...]

In this essay, Amalia Mesa-Bains discusses the interplay between a folk ethos and contemporary aesthetic in Chicano art. She begins by tracing the history of Chicano art to the Chicano movement that spurred a generation of artists who had a fine arts [...]

This text includes excerpts from two letters written by Texas artist César Martinez in 1979. The first letter discusses the importance of culture within the Chicano movement, describing the discontent created by negative representations of Chicano [...]

In this essay, Rocío Aranda-Alvarado discusses the work of the Chicano artist and former graffiti writer, Charles “Chaz” Bojorquez (b. 1949) by focusing on his painting, Placa/Roll Call (1980). Aranda-Alvarado examines Placa/Roll Call, an almost [...]

The article by Raul Romero details the conception, planning, and implementation of the Exposición Chicanarte, the first comprehensive exhibition of Chicano art in California. He underscores the unprecedented degree of autonomy with which the Chicano [...]

This essay by Jeanne D’Andrea serves as an introduction to the 1975 exhibition of the same name, Chicanismo en el arte. The author provides information on the organization of the juried exhibition, the art forms included, and short descriptions of [...]

This document is a short essay by Art Hernandez describing what Chicano art is. It begins with a history of the early derogatory uses of the term “Chicano” and several descriptions of Chicano art that incorporate individual styles, art school [...]

This essay by art historian and critic Shifra M. Goldman is a review of two Chicano group exhibitions held in 1981: Califas: An Exhibition of Chicano Artists in California and Murals of Aztlán: Street Painters of East Los Angeles. The former was [...]

This article documents an interview between Esaú Quíroz, a participant in the Chicano art movement, and the Mexican artist José Luis Cuevas. Quíroz and Cuevas discuss the present direction of the Chicano art movement, which Quiroz defined as [...]

This document is a brief article on the state of Chicano art at the time of its publication (1982). Robert C. Buitrón argues that Chicano art is inherently difficult to define, acknowledging the multiple and multifaceted historical and artistic [...]

This is the second essay in a two-part series on the relationship of Chicano art to mainstream contemporary currents in the United States at the time of its publication (1982). Robert C. Buitrón argues against the notion that Chicano art is static [...]

This document is a transcript of a conference presentation given by Chicano artist and writer José Montoya. Referring to the title of the conference [Chicano Art: Resistance in Isolation "Aquí Estamos y no nos vamos" (1981)], Montoya proposes that [...]

In this document, Tomás Ybarra-Frausto provides a brief overview of the conditions and events that precipitated the development of Chicano art, beginning with the origins of the Chicano political movement of the 1960s. He suggests that El Movimiento [...]

In this document, Shifra Goldman profiles several Chicano artists with ties to Texas to assess and highlight the state of Chicano art in that region in 1981. Goldman links the development of Chicano art in Texas to the Chicano Movement in the [...]

Written by Laurie Beth Kalb, this essay profiles New Mexican artist Luis Tapia, known primarily as a santero [religious statue carver] as well as furniture maker and preserver. The essay details Tapia’s childhood in Agua Fria, a predominantly [...]

Amalia Mesa-Bains’s essay focuses on the works included in the Body/Culture: Chicano Figuration exhibition and explores the way in which the specific historical and cultural experiences of Chicanos have influenced their renditions of the human body [...]

This essay by Leonard Castellanos describes the efforts of the Los Angeles Mechicano Art Center and other centros [cultural centers] to develop successful mural programs and provide support to Chicano artists who have not received it from traditional [...]

This essay by Amalia Mesa-Bains was included as the introduction of the catalogue to the exhibition of Carmen Lomas Garza’s art, A Piece of My Heart/Pedacito de Mi Corazón, which traveled to various cities in the states of Texas, California, and [...]

This document is a report by Dr. Lorenzo A. Trujillo of the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council (CHAC) in Denver, Colorado, in which he details the state of philanthropic support for Chicano and Hispanic art production. Trujillo acknowledges the [...]

This essay by artist Rubén Trejo focuses on the roots of humor in Chicano art and, specifically, in his sculptures. Trejo proposes that the major sources of humor for Chicano artists include pre-Columbian art, Mexican folk art and literature, and [...]

This is an essay by independent scholar Max Benavídez in which he considers the impact of what he calls the “internal exile and displacement,” and decades of social marginalization on the self-identification of many Chicanos. He explores the [...]

This document is an interview between artist and guest curator, Ralph Maradiaga, and painter and poster artist, Rupert Garcia, both of who were founding members of the Galería de la Raza in San Francisco, California. The focus of the interview is on [...]

In this essay, artist and author Rupert Garcia focuses on two related modes of Chicano art: the mural and the poster. Garcia maintains that Chicano-Latino mural and poster art were both born out of the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. Both [...]

In this document, Sid White and Pat Matheny-White discuss the results of their field research study of Chicano/Latino art in the United States Pacific Northwest (states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho), which they suggest is the first of its kind [...]

This is a published letter sent to the Sunday arts editor of the Washington Post by Robert Velasco II that was written in response to a review by Paul Richard, from December 3, 1995, of a Carmen Lomas Garza exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum. In the [...]

The brochure begins with a part dictionary, part humorous definition of the words “Con Safo,” which is followed by an anonymous short essay that functions as a manifesto for the Con Safo artist collective. In it, the group outlines the [...]

In this document, Vernon Hunter presents a brief artist biography of New Mexican wood-carver Patrocinio Barela. Hunter discusses Barela’s early development as an artist, noting that he began his career making conventional carvings of saints before [...]

This document is a description of the Concilio de Arte Popular (CAP), a statewide coalition of artists and art organizations in California. The statement outlines the need for CAP given the high percentage of bicultural and bilingual people reflected [...]

This document is the program brochure for the 1979 Conferencia Plástica Chicana [Chicano Visual Arts Conference], which consists of an introduction, schedule, the presenters, listings, and credits. In the brief, bilingual introduction, the [...]

This document is an essay by Amalia Mesa-Bains in which she argues in favor of developing a new critical language for the evaluation of Chicano and Latino art rooted in the formative experiences of the artists throughout the communities from which [...]

Mildred Monteverde’s social art historical essay provides a survey of the various artistic elements that comprised the Chicano art movement during its initial period in the 1960s and early 1970s. As an auxiliary of the Chicano political movement, [...]

In this document, artist and art historian Eva Cockroft details the history and development of the Chicano mural movement in the United States, focusing on its beginnings as a means of voicing solidarity and political resistance during the United [...]

In this document, Margarita Nieto interviews Frank Romero about his career as an artist as well as the current state of Chicano art. The artist opens up about his role in the artist collective, Los Four, and shares his thoughts on the basic tenets of [...]

In this Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) thesis, Salvador Torres presents the theoretical foundation for his project that traces the development of the United Farm Workers’ Huelga (Strike) banner through a series of six paintings and six drawings. [...]

This is an essay by Alberto Híjar Serrano in which he addresses the notion of culture as a product of history and, particularly in the case of Chicano art, an important element in liberation struggles. Híjar Serrano remarks on the relationship [...]

In this document, artist David Avalos posits that the Chicano community has been marginalized, and exists “outside of the law”; it has, for the most part, been kept outside of the institutions of mainstream American society. He writes that this [...]

This document is a curatorial statement by Kathy Vargas, curator of the exhibition, Intimate Lives: Work by Ten Contemporary Latina Artists. Vargas notes the similarity of preoccupations reflected in the exhibition works but stresses the importance [...]

This is a curatorial statement published in the catalog for the 1977 exhibition Dále Gas: Chicano Art of Texas. The exhibition’s curator, Santos Martinez, Jr., defines the term “Chicano” as referring to a highly politicized, radical [...]

Federico Suro—a journalist and former diplomat who is the son of the artist, Darío Suro—wrote this essay. Anecdotal in tone, this article offers many insights into the artist’s almost obsessive approach to drawing, which he called the “life- [...]

This article by Gustavo Valdés, Jr. serves as a review of the final phase (1990–97) of the work of Dominican painter Darío Suro, emphasizing its fierce and iconoclastic form of expressionism, particularly with regard to his depictions of the self [...]

In this brief and posthumous profile of Dominican artist Darío Suro, critic and art historian Marianne de Tolentino starts by recounting the affectionate link she had with him and how her professional trajectory was marked by Suro’s mentoring and [...]

In a continuation of an article published in Artes Visuales in 1978, Carla Stellweg provides an overview of issues relevant to Chicano art and the diverse approaches artists use to negotiate such conditions. She further outlines how early Chicano [...]

Building upon scholar and cultural critic Tomás Ybarra-Frausto’s theorization of rasquachismo as a set of aesthetic practices that adopt an oppositional stance to dominant culture and articulate a Chicano identity, Amalia Mesa-Bains—a cultural [...]

This document is an editorial within a newsletter published by El Colegio de la Frontera Norte [The School of the North Border]. It describes the work of the painter Malaquías Montoya and declares that he is responsible for the first mural painted [...]

This document encompasses the entire special issue of the journal El Grito, which consisted of statements and artwork by five Mexican-American artists from the San Francisco Bay Area, in California. The issue begins with an introduction by one of the [...]

This is a brief review of the state of Chicano mural production in New Mexico at the time of this publication in 1978. It includes a short personal and artistic biography of the author, the New Mexican muralist Francisco Lefebre, and articulates his [...]

El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan [The Spiritual Plan of Aztlan] calls on Chicanos to assert their nationalism by mobilizing the masses and realizing a free, independent nation. The manifesto is developed in three parts: 1) Nationalism, a key organizing [...]

This document is a transcript of the interview between Olivia Evey Chapa and Chicana visual artist Carmen Lomas Garza. Chapa outlines her motivations for conducting the interview, including her personal enthusiasm for her work, as well as her desire [...]

In this article, members of the Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo (BAW/TAF) respond to several misrepresentations of the group and factual errors about its genesis carried out by former member Guillermo Gómez-Peña. Citing quotes from [...]