Essay on Chicano Art

With the advancements in technology today, the process of learning has become easier. Instead of just reading, one can look at video documentaries or web sites to acquire information they need or want. In my Latinos in the U.S. class, we have access to all types of information in our quest to learn about Mexican-American history. By reading Zaragosa Vargas= Problems in Mexican-American History, looking at the Chicano Park web site and viewing part one of the Chicano! video documentary, I have encountered a variety of representations of Mexican-American history. However they are not all of the same quality for the video and web site do not give as much information as the readings in Vargas= book or the class lectures

The Spanish conquistador’s arrival in the New World is certainly one of history’s most widely known events. The conquest of the resource-filled lands of America and the Caribbean set forth a new era for humanity, one driven by newly devised political, economic and social structures introduced to assure the submission of the native inhabitants of the discovered lands. Although the process of colonization served as the foundation for the New World’s subsequent modernization into what it is today, the forceful shift into European culture brought upon the natives a reign of terror. Therefore, further research into the Spaniards establishment in the New World, in a way, attests to a new perspective of human nature. Bartolome de Las Casas, author of A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, a chronicle of the atrocities that took place at the hands of Spaniards during the colonization process, reveals conquistadors as individuals who were, primarily, greed driven beings. His detailed account of the Spanish conquest exposes the atrocious truth behind the grandeur of the Spanish Empire from the late 15th century onward, one that can be said is directly entwined with the abuse and carnage of native Indians all for the sake of increasing their power through the acquisition of riches at stake of the colonies well-being.

In November of 1528, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca with a small contingent of three men find themselves stranded in what experts believe to be near present-day Galveston Island, Texas. Surviving in the New World for eight years traveling across what is now Texas and northern Mexico Cabeza de Vaca returned to Spain in 1537 where he wrote an account titled La Relación. Analyzing La Relación as a primary source for understanding American Indian life in the early 1500s provides a unique firsthand account of a people and culture just prior to the arrival of European influences which majorly altered, and frankly decimated, the societal and cultural landscape of the American Indians. Through an in-depth examination of the text Cabeza de Vaca describes

Overall this new work, is fun and captivating. The ability to bring the audience into the Chicano world and understand the struggle of its characters should be recognized. The choice of theatre space, costumes, and actors are three of the many elements that help it stand out.

Currently, on the New York Times’ Bestsellers list as well as the Publisher’s Weekly list, there are no Mexican American or Latinx writers represented. This simple fact amplifies the sour relationship between Latinx authors and the mainstream media. When we take a closer look at this unhealthy relationship, we find that the root of the problem can be found within the mainstream American publishing industry which often divides literature into genres of “ethnic” literature. This label leads other individuals to produce a particular idea of what Latino culture and literature entails which forms an unnecessary boundary between us and them, “them” referring of course to the American culture presented in the nation and mainstream media, while “us”

The Spanish Invasion of Mexico was not very subtle and affected the Indigenous Indian’s way of life in nearly every aspect. The Spanish used a standard operating procedure or treatment of the conquered people or nation. First, destroy any written form of history. Second, ban any form of religion and replace it with their’s. Fourth, take and procreate with their women against their will. Fifth, use them for labor for their benefit to increase the wealth of the crown first and foremost. The Spanish crown’s intent was to corner the silver and gold market. The Spanish military was to locate and confiscate any resource that could be turned into cash quickly. The cash would also help finance the war effort which was being fought on many different fronts at that time. The wars and lavish lifestyles of Spain kept them bankrupt, but they had no intentions of changing their spending habits. Instead, it was easier for them to take from others. They considered themselves the top of the food chain or superior to any people of a darker color and not born in Spain. We will examine some of the major changes caused by the three-hundred-year occupation of Mexico by the Spaniards and how these people adapted to the drastic changes in religion, their way of life and language.

Spanish conquistadors and by extension the Spanish Crown transformed indigenous peoples in Mesoamerican and the Andes into Spanish subjects as understood by the sixteenth century this work in writing will support this idea with evidence located in the literature.

In Borderlands/La Frontera, Mexican Feminist theorist Gloria Anzladua’s introduces an analytical framework for considering the relationship between minority faces, spaces, and languages as they compete, interact and inform America’s institutionalized whiteness. While her book specifically deals with the “minority faces” of Mexican immigrants, the epigraph suggests, racial minorities who interact with historically white spaces cross a “border” that is at once culturally and linguistically metaphoric, and physically literal. Thus, Anzaldua’s frame of the “border” suggests that minority experience is a product of cultural collision—or “choque”—that occurs as they enter into white spaces and are forced to mediate their lived experience with their new surroundings (Anzaldua, 28).

Latinos have been described by Goldman and Cannitzer as not wanting to "aspire to enter an already given [North] America but to participate in the construction of a new hegemony dependent upon their cultural practices and discourses" (16). Many of these artists today who have been influenced by the generations before and recognize the work that those generations did in opening the doors for the events that are unfolding today. Artists today deal with deconstructing notions of Latin America when many conceptions of them exist. Also, expanding the notion of what Latin America could be but also creating a wider open field of dialogue. They come with a very specific way of viewing the world with their own lens instead of one given to them by other cultures.

The fifteenth-century Inca civilisation was an imperial stratified society known for vastness of civilisation in both people and land, evidence suggests six million to thirty-two million people were assimilated into the empire. (Bodley 2011, 241) Amidst perspectives of Incan society dominated by hegemony and totalitarianism, I believe the benefits of the Incan reciprocity system, mit’a, meant citizens were generally happy to participate in the empire, despite its’ hierarchical nature, as long as their needs were met. The mit’a system’s benefits ensured participation and patriotism, resulting in growth and success of the empire. By utilising a holistic approach and cultural relativism, this essay will argue the benefits of the mit’a economic system, redistribution, protection and retention of ethnic identities allowed for specialisation and affluence in the Incan society.

Through the interpretations of presentations from classmates and the discussions that we’ve had in class, art in the Latin American society is one that can be showcased in several different ways. Art, culture, and identity like everywhere else, is shaped and influenced by society and the political histories that define the reality of that specific area. The connection between local traditions with outside cultural influences is contributory in the formation of social reality. When examining the elements of film, television, news, advertising, art and photography the combination of these aspects is what composes the social, political and cultural meaning in the creation of identity. In the Latin American culture art is seemingly bound to the

The era of Spanish Conquest often serves as an archetype for a clash of cultures and civilizations, sparking a myriad of intellectuals spanning the humanities to attempt to discern the most salient characteristics and processes that define the period. Historians Inga Clendinnen and George Lovell, both focus on the effect the landing of the conquistadors had on the indigenous Mayans, with their respective focuses standing in diametric opposition to one another. In “The Survival of the Yucatec Maya Culture,” Clendinnen stresses the importance of how Mayan tradition persisted through the traumas of conquest and the ruthless conversion campaign imposed by colonial leaders. Furthermore, she argues that despite the slaughters and disease that

The Spanish Empire, in an effort to increase its size and spread Catholicism, carried out many conquests overseas. In Bautista’s work “Still-Life with Grapes, Flowers, and Shells, 1628” reflects the “new delights” that the “new world” had to offer”. The arrangement of shells and exotic birds and flowers, is a combination of old and new: with a traditional style of painting depicting exciting and unexplored goods. This could possibly be a metaphor for the rather old and powerful Spanish empire, exploring into the unknown. The subtle uses of bright bold colours of peach and chartreuse, as well as warm earth tones are a clear reflection of the South American tropics, along with their exotic flora and fauna, and humid climate. It also creates moods of excitement in anticipation of what else there is to explore. The lusciousness of the brush strokes and use of highlights give the painting a new life, in the both things harsh like the foliage of the plants and soft like plumage of the birds. The sombre background and traditional table ground the contrasting arrangement and forms the basic structure of the piece. It also competes with the display, just like Spain and its conquest against other nations.

Corridos posses an upbeat and excitement provoking sensation, empowering the Latino community emotionally. They engage the listener to the extent that it places them in the corridista’s shoes. Although corridos provide different interpretations to different listeners due to their universal nature the “ambiguity and the use of metaphors, the core of the content is often only accessible” to the writer’s intended audience and becomes cloudy to specific audiences the corridistas do not want to include (Sanchez 43). Moreover, corridos eventually become

In “The Voices of Those who Spoke Up for the Victims”, Maximiliano Salinas explores Spanish imperialism and its impact on the natives, but most importantly, the manner in which the voices of prophets emerged in favor for the Indians. First, he frames the colonization of the America’s as cultural eradication. “The prophets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries insisted that what was happening in the Indies was less the construction or creation of a New World than the end of the indigenous world, a real end of the world, the destruction of the Indies” (Salinas 104). Once the Spanish penetrated the New World, diseases plagued the natives and killed thousands. The conquest, sometimes brutal and warlike, of these people added to the death count, and those who did survive were forced into a