Art for the People

"Words weren’t the only way that people communicate. We can communicate through visual images and through oral traditions as well." 

~ Katynka Martinez, Chicana/o Studies professor at San Francisco State University, Videoconference interview, 2021.

 A nonviolent form of protest, the murals and posters of the Chicano art movement worked to inspire and educate not only a Mexican-American audience but also all members of the community.

"The arts also play a major role in the Movement. As cultural pride blossomed, Chicano visual arts, music, literature, dance, theater, and other forms of expression also flourished, and a full-scale Chicano Art Movement emerged during the early years of the Movement. Chicanos expressed their cultural heritage through painting, drawing, sculpture, and lithography"

~ Jose E. Limon, Professor at Univeristy of Texas, "A Name of Their Own: Chicanos.", 2005.

"There wasn't one type of Chicano identity or one type of Chicano art. I think that has to do with the city that the artists were residing in [...] that influenced the type of art that was created there. If it’s an urban location. If it’s mainly Mexican-americans. The Chicano art still addressed a lot of the same themes of anti-colonialism and anti-Vietnam War, but the way it was represented or engaged in was a little bit different based on what the city that the artists were coming from was like or if it wasn’t a city."

- Katynka Matinez, Chicana/o Studies professor at San Francisco State University, Videoconference interview, 2021.

The artwork, especially posters and murals, became important parts of every region the movement spread to because the artwork represented the unique people and cultural life of the different communities.​​​​​​​

"Each one is very unique and different but it's a collaboration with that community. They collaborate with each other. They collaborate with the artist. The artist is listening and seeing what it is that they are wanting to have in their mural. It's really important. That's the kind of experience that our communities are wanting to have. It's kind of like a community building process you might say. It helps bring people together, it gives them a voice and it empowers the individual to express themselves more openly and freely with their neighbors, friends and families. They just find that very meaningful and transformative too because a lot of these times were working with young people, all age groups actually. These experiences made them feel very confident and empowered to become artists which they had never thought of before. Then they decide to develop their own individuality, go to art school or become leaders in our community."

- Susan Cervantes, founder and director of Precita Eyes Muralists, Telephone interview, 2021.

"I began to unfold a story that became the history of Guadalupe murals but it's unlayering, like peeling an onion, looking at one thing after the other in the story that is embedded in that place and in that land. I am always working with the memory of the land and the memory of the people and constructing the story out of who were the first people who came, what were the creatures that lived there first, and who came to live there, who came next, how did this place develop into the major agricultural region of the county and who in working that land now. So the story of Guadalupe is all in the murals based on the memory of the land."

- Judy Baca, Chicana artist, Videoconference interview, 2021

Early Chicanx art was in a way limited because artists were held to a certain standard, especially by Chicano leaders. Now, Chicanx art has become more subjective as artists still claim the Chicanx identity, but create art on their own terms and with their own creative expression.

"I dont think all Chicano art is art of protest. [...] We have to have a voice in terms of what we do. I don't see it all as necessarily protest art or activist art and not everyone necessarily sees themselves as Chicano." 

~ Juan Fuentes, Chicano artist, Telephone interview, 2021.