Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

This document is an essay by Jacinto Quirarte outlining key moments in the history of modern Mexican and Mexican-American art in the United States. It begins with a discussion of the Mexican School, detailing central figures, sociopolitical [...]

This document by Shifra Goldman is a review of the 1987 exhibition Hispanic Artists: 30 Contemporary Painters and Sculptors held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1987. Goldman applauds the [...]

This essay posits the 1980s as a period of intense self-reflection among Latin American artists living in the United States. Susana Torruella Leval considers the complex relationships of these artists to the tumultuous North American art milieu, [...]

This document consists of paragraph-long statements by three members of Mujeres Muralistas. The first one is by Consuelo Mendez, who identifies herself as an artist-worker. She articulates her reasons for being a muralist and the importance of having [...]

This document is an editorial page outlining the motivations for the creation of the magazine Tin-Tan. It cites its primary focus as addressing a critical absence in the print media of publications dedicated to the concerns of Mexican-Americans and [...]

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 [...]

Raquel Tibol wrote this statement introducing the exhibition Artistas Mexico Americanos de San Francisco, California [Mexican American Artists from San Francisco, California] held in Mexico in 1987. It begins by suggesting the existence of [...]

In this document, Tim Drescher and Rupert Garcia consider the conditions that influenced the proliferation of mural production by Chicano artists after the start of the Chicano Movement in the late 1960s. It details various thematic and aesthetic [...]

This document is a letter addressed to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and signed by Artists of the Fifth Sun Exhibition. It was written in response to the review of the exhibition The Fifth Sun: Contemporary/Traditional Chicano and Latino [...]

This document is a review by Alfred Frankenstein of The Fifth Sun: Contemporary/Traditional Chicano and Latino Art exhibition at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum in 1977. Frankenstein begins by describing the show, detailing the [...]

This document is a brief article written by Frank Schreider detailing the motivations behind the creation and development of Goez, an art studio and commercial gallery in East Los Angeles, run by brothers Joe and Johnny González. The article [...]

In this document, curator and art historian Susana Torruella Leval considers works by several artists whose practices reflect an interest in articulating a particular historical consciousness that is tied to their cultural identity as Latin Americans [...]

This document by Jacinto Quirarte begins by proposing possible definitions for the terms “Hispanic” and “aesthetic” and their potential implications for a study of Chicano art. Quirarte states that the focus of his essay is an exploration 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 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 [...]

The document is an undated letter from Juan Carrillo, the interim board chairman of the Concilio de Arte Popular (CAP), to its members. Along with stating its founding history, purpose, names, and affiliations of the founding board members, the [...]

This document is an essay by Rupert Garcia that considers the educational and political potential of two distinct but contemporaneous modes of aesthetic practice—easel painting and muralism— championed by the artists of the School of Paris and [...]

This document posits that the perspective of the urban Chicano artist—in this case one from the San Francisco Bay Area—is fundamentally different from that of rural artists, suggesting that thematic concerns of artists from both areas reveal [...]

This anonymous document considers the relationship between socially engaged artistic practices by Chicano artists and the development of particular stylistic characteristics that have come to define Chicano art. It posits that the desire to create [...]

This is an anonymous statement that documents the need for Chicano artists to pursue a practice that is engaged with the community of which it is a part, and considers the broader implications of artistic production. It posits that while some Chicano [...]

In this document Chon Noriega considers the process of developing a panel discussion organized in conjunction with a museum exhibition. As a scholar who is also a curator, Noriega notes the existing tension between museums and universities as [...]

This document is a copy of an application for a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant submitted by Chicano artist, Gronk, in 1981. It briefly outlines several major moments in the life of the artist, beginning with an anecdote about the [...]

This document involves a brief article published in the Los Angeles Times in late 1973 that reports on the early developments in Chicano muralism, focusing on the large-scale mural project at the Estrada Courts Housing Project in East L.A. It begins [...]

This document is a partial transcript of a conversation between Chicano scholars Amalia Mesa-Bains and Tomás Ybarra-Frausto that took place at the Mexican Museum in San Francisco, California, in October 1999, in which they discuss broad developments [...]

This document is an essay by Amalia Mesa-Bains in which she explores the history of indigenismo, an embrace of one’s indigenous heritage, and the integral role it has had in helping to develop a sense of personal and collective identity within the [...]

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 [...]

This document is a chapter from a book on “Hispana” and “Hispano” artists from the New Deal Era (1930s and ‘40s). In it, art historian and scholar Tey Marianna Nunn focuses on the lives and works of several artists working under the Works [...]

This document is an abstract for a planned symposium entitled “An Analysis and Interpretation of the Hispanic American Aesthetic: Origins, Manifestations, and Significance.” The abstract details the themes and questions to be addressed at this [...]

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 [...]

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 by Tomás Ybarra-Frausto is concerned with the practice of altar-making as a spiritual and cultural endeavor that blends influences from European, African, and indigenous American sources. Typically characterized as a kind of “folk [...]

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 transcript of the contribution to a panel discussion by the art historian, Amalia Mesa-Bains, in which she addresses the ways in which the social circumstances experienced by Chicanos in the United States have influenced their [...]

In this document, Amalia Mesa-Bains details the development of the Galería de la Raza [Gallery of the People], an important San Francisco cultural institution established in 1970 in the midst of the Chicano Movement. Mesa-Bains describes the ways in [...]

In this document, Amalia Mesa-Bains profiles Chicana muralists, Patricia Rodríguez and Judith F. Baca, focusing on their respective artistic developments and their roles in the Chicano Movement, attempting to shed light on the links between social [...]

In this document, Amalia Mesa-Bains writes about the women’s practice of altar-making, suggesting that while there has been a decline in the performance of and engagement with popular ritual in contemporary life, the creation of altars as both [...]

This document is a short interview with photographer Andrés Serrano, conducted by Enrique Chagoya. Along with recounting his personal background, Serrano discusses how he got interested in photography, which he said was the result of his failure as [...]

This document is the transcript of an interview between arts writer Meredith Tromble and Chicana visual artist Amalia Mesa-Bains. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship awardee, Mesa-Bains talks about her motivations as an artist, and her particular [...]

This document is a brief article from the San Francisco Chronicle in which art critic David Bonetti considers new developments in Chicano/Latino visual art in recent years, so that he articulates the most notable, which is an increasing tendency on [...]

This document is a letter by Judithe Hernandez to the Los Angeles Times, written in response to the review of the Los Four exhibition by staff writer William Wilson. She refutes Wilson’s statements, that the museum lowered its standards and [...]

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 [...]

This document details the conflict that erupted over the 1983 proposal by artist Luis Jimenez for a public sculpture to be placed in Tiguex Park in Old Town Albuquerque, New Mexico. Originally approved by the Albuquerque Arts Board, the proposed [...]

This document is a handwritten excerpt from the journal of Carlos Almaraz in which he discusses what he sees as the problem of “art for art’s sake” and the ways in which this kind of artistic outlook prevents certain sectors of society from [...]

This document is a short handwritten entry from the journal of Carlos Almaraz. He begins with a discussion of how his art should be a product of daily practice. He then comments that his aim is to achieve a sense of poetry in his work but at a visual [...]

This document is a handwritten letter from the journal of Carlos Almaraz to William Wilson, a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times. He was responding to an exhibition review by Wilson, titled “30 Works from the Grass Roots.” In it, the author [...]

This document is a handwritten entry from the journal of Carlos Almaraz that begins with a discussion of his uneasiness about the idea of Conceptual art and disconnection from the everyday life of most people. He also recounts doubts regarding his [...]

This handwritten journal excerpt from Carlos Almaraz has a compilation of notes on his thoughts about the potential Marxism of Andy Warhol’s artistic practice. He suggests that Warhol’s work displays Marxist tendencies in its seriality, which [...]

This document is a proposal for a symposium on the state of Chicano/Latino art practices and education in California. According to the anonymous author, the conference would be organized around panels of visual artists, musicians, and various other [...]

In this document, Margarita Nieto details the influence of the School of Mexican Painting on the artistic production in the United States during the twenty-year period preceding World War II. She argues that contact between the two countries during [...]

This document is a brief unpublished autobiographical statement by artist Carlos Almaraz. In it he discusses the early years of his life, from his birth in Mexico City and subsequent moves to Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, where he attended high [...]