Chicano Murals In Los Angeles
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Murals are the quintessential public art embodying the spirit of the community in which they are created. They say this is who we are, this is what we think, this is where we come from, and this is what we want, reflecting most clearly any changes in the sociopolitical environment. Murals lay out a powerful visual image of the ideology of their creators or sponsors, be it the Church during the Renaissance, government funded projects, or individuals expressing opposition. In Mexico, after the Mexican Revolution of 1917, the government commissioned a vast number of mural projects to transmit its revisionist history of the country, and celebrate the empowerment of the underclass in their recent victory. Predominate themes were cultural reclamation, history, pre-conquest civilization, anti-colonialism, anti-bourgeoisie sentiment, celebration of the working class, and highlighting the beauty and struggle of life as a Mexican. This movement moved north, across the border into California as the artists moved and government funding was discontinued. As the sociopolitical environment was rapidly changing in California the emergence of mural work of the Chicano Movement was gaining power and recognition. Their distinct style stemmed from their Mexican predecessors as they delved into their cultural heritage to define what it meant to be Chicano. The rhetoric of visual imagery of the murals created during the 1960s – 1970s addressed the economic, educational, historical, political, religious, and social aspects of the Chicano Movement.
Chicano muralism has a long history, dating back prior to the great muralists of the Mexican Revolution in the 1920s, beginning in the late 8th century A.D. Murals are prevalent throughout Mexico geographically and historically. From its southern border with Guatemala, the first frescoes are found in the ancient Mayan city of Bonampak, located in the state of Chiapas. The frescoes date back to the year 790 A.D., realistically depicting spiritual rituals of the Mayan culture. Aztec murals are also found in Teotihuacan, dating from 650 – 750 B.C.
Pre-Columbian art had a tremendous influenced the great muralists who emerged from Mexico in the post-Porfiriato years of the Mexican Revolution and continued to be represented in murals of the Chicano Movement. Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros, were the three great Mexican muralists who emerged in Mexico during the 1920s. These three artists were heavily influenced by the artistic movements of the time – Cubism, Expressionism, and Futurism. They took from these and developed their own, unique genre of socially motivated realism. Although each artist has their own individual style, they collectively formed the basis for the modern mural language of social realism (Cockcroft 6). Themes of their work were dominated by the sociopolitical ideals of the revolution: glorifying Mexicos native and indigenous history, portraying Spanish and colonial exploitation, celebrating Mexicos natural beauty, celebrating the heroes of the revolution, and celebrating the struggles and lives of common men and women. The murals were easily understood by non-literate people and presented a populist view of history. When a new, more conservative government came into power, the three renowned artists moved to the United States.
Following in the footsteps of government sponsored murals, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his New Deal, commissioned murals during the Great Depression in an effort to provide jobs for artists and promulgate American ideals. Government funded murals denied the artists freedom of expression, especially in the political realm. What emerged in the Chicano Art Movement, was individual and collective sociopolitical ideology being freely expressed without the constraints of sponsor censorship. Unlike the previous mural movements, their art was unofficial and unfunded – an arm of struggle, a way of claiming urban space for their own proliferation of public discourse.
After the prolific tres grandes muralists of the 1920s and 1930s a hush fell over the Mexican American community. The creation of murals or any art, for that matter, was in rapid decline. Mexicans at this time were abandoning most of their earlier values, as they were increasingly drawn into the struggle of assimilation, Americanization, and modernization, at all costs. The Mexican community was entrenched in a repressive Anglo-dominated society. It was out of this oppression that the dawn of new revolution was taking shape and bringing with it a resurgence of Mexican art as it transformed to define the identity of Mexican Americans as Chicano.
The Chicano Movement began as a grassroots organization to unite and represent the farm workers of California, primarily composed of Mexican Americans, with the United Farm Workers (UFW) union spearheaded by Cesar Chavez and Delores Huerta. As the movement took shape it “developed into two overlapping directions, one emphasizing cultural identity and the other political action (Cockcroft 1).” Along with demonstrations, strikes, and marches associated with the political movement their came an explosion of cultural expression. It was also during this time that the term Chicano was more formally established as an identifier of ethnic pride rising up out of el movimiento, the Chicano Movement. The term evokes a strong sense of political association involving identification with the history of Mexico and la raza – the people. As the movement solidified, the voice of la raza surfaced in the rich visual imagery of murals.
The visual arts, especially murals, were an integral part of propagating the message of the Chicano Movement and soliciting solidarity amongst the Mexican American community. Artists were conveying through visual dialect the juxtaposition of assimilation and separatism that Mexican Americans were experiencing. One of the objectives was to maintain culture within and English speaking, Anglo dominated society, creating a distinct entity within a dominant culture. The city of Los Angles represents this ideal with a Mexican community as a city within a city.
Murals were an important means for artists to express themselves publicly. Murals were open air, free to the public, large in size, seen by many, realistic in style, representing populist themes. Diverging from the conventional art venues dominated by Anglos, Chicanos established themselves as a separate identity and removed themselves from the throngs of Americanization. Artists drew upon iconography from their indigenous roots to re-identify the Chicanos with their history, educate, and take pride in their diversity.
The revival of muralism came out of the peoples struggle against the status quo. The movement stemmed from the barrios and ghettos where