The Department of Art, Art History and Design at the University of Nevada, Reno hosted Rocio Aranda-Alvarado as a featured speaker for their Visiting Artists and Scholars Lecture Series this spring.
Rocio Aranda-Alvarado works as an art historian and curator in New York City, specializing in U.S. Latinx art and the Latin-American diaspora. She and colleague Deborah Cullen-Morales collaborated to curate a selection of key texts and art pieces highlighting Latinx voices in the United States from the 1960s to present day.
Aranda-Alvarado opened her presentation by addressing the frequency of the word “Latinx” as opposed to a gender-specific alternative. “Latinx” is a gender-neutral and non-binary substitute for “Latino” or “Latina” describing people of Latin-American heritage. It has been adopted in more recent years by scholars and the media to include queer and trans individuals within the community.
Throughout her verbal presentation, Aranda-Alvarado played a slideshow of selected pieces dating from the early 1900s to the present included in her book. The art pieces were mainly contemporary, conveyed through different mediums.
The consistent message through the art beyond the cultural connection was the collective struggle of Latinx people integrating into traditional American society while celebrating their heritage.
Some notable pieces reflect on the Latinx experience in different eras and areas in the United States.
Vincent Valdez created a series of oil paintings titled “The City,” featuring scenes of San Antonio, Texas in 1977. The installment Aranda-Alvarado presented was “The City II,” a depiction of a number of KKK members staring at the viewer. The KKK is most known for violently targeting African Americans, but their reach can extends to others including Mexican Americans, immigrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, Jews and Catholics.
Valdez explained that his art does not highlight a specific area or city in the United States, but rather, a general perspective focusing on systemic racism. In a statement for Blanton Museum of Art, he continued, saying “This could be any city in America. These individuals could be any Americans. There is a false sense that these threats were, or are, contained at the peripheries of society and in small rural communities…This is the most frightening aspect of it all.”
Five years earlier, an east Los Angeles Chicano (commonly refers to US-born people of Mexican origin) art group, Asco, photographed urban spots in the community, often incorporating graffiti or wall art as part of their signature. One of their more famous photos captures a member of Asco, Patssi Valdez, posing in front of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
Two other Asco members, Willie F. Herron III, Gronk and Harry Gamboa Jr. spraypainted their names on the wall in front of the LACMA to protest the museum director who rejected their proposal to host an exhibit. The director said Chicanos create graffiti, not art.
Asco’s art collective protests injustice against the Chicano community and the Vietnam War, two intense conversations circulating at the time.
On the East Coast, Puerto Rican artist Papo Colo presented his art in photograph form similarly, acting as his own subject. The work is titled “Superman 51” and illustrates Colo dragging a collection of 51 wood pieces behind him down the newly constructed Manhattan West Side Highway.
Now populated with constant congestion, the highway in the photo is barren, save for Colo and his woodwork. The photo responds to Puerto Rico’s failure to attain statehood in the U.S. Congress. The 51 pieces of wood represent the states with the inclusion of Puerto Rico: a dream highlighting the decision power of a simple majority under a democracy.
Transitioning into the 1980s, a central artist of feminist Chicana art in California took the stage. Amalia Mesa-Bains is most known for her large-scale installations of home altars and ofrendas, but she also creates multi-media work.
Her interactive exhibits focus on honoring women and celebrating their lives through ancient indigenous Mesoamerican tributes and practices. “An Ofrenda for Dolores del Rio” from 1984 is featured in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and is formed with various mixed materials commonly recognized in a traditional ofrenda.
Ofrendas honor departed souls, and rather than focusing on the individual’s death or life, they celebrate the transformation they take between life and the “after.” These altars are set up around Day of the Dead, and include key elements like water, wind, fire and earth, as well as more personal symbols like photos and favorite items. They are decorated with marigold flowers, believed to guide the souls to their altars.
Amalia Mesa-Bains’ art reminds viewers to recognize Chicana prevalence and importance through displays of homage. Her approach to art and culture led to her coining a term, “Domesticana,” to describe her adaptations of feminist and multicultural themes.
Rocio Aranda-Alvarado’s volume, “A Handbook of Latinx Art,” contains a multitude of art portraying similar themes from differing perspectives. She explains their significance with the inclusion of artists’ reflections and commentary.
The art selection in the book documents the diverse and overlooked experiences of the Latinx community across the United States. It provides perspective into the challenges traditional American societal structures create for ethnic groups and presents an opportunity to learn about varying forms of expression.
Latinx groups make up 20% of the U.S. population, yet are still excluded from mainstream art spaces. Latinx art provides vital social commentary about social and political subjects, bridging the two in visual form. The voices present in Latinx art offer a key piece of the history of the United States, and welcoming artists into art spaces is the first step to understanding the American story.