Miembros Newsletter: June 2021

The current exhibition at Mexic-Arte Museum Mexico, the Border, and Beyond: Selections from the Juan Sandoval Collection is dedicated to Life and Experiences in the U.S ./ Mexico Borderlands; an important part of the exhibition that is organized according to five sections, each with a theme interpreted by selected artists. The fifth and last section The Culture Continues  / La Cultura Sigue speaks to the revolution and fluorescence of Mexican, Mexican American, and Latinx cultures. Because of and despite of their ongoing struggle for civil rights, Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and other Latinx people continue to progress and contribute to their respective culture in the U.S. / Mexico borderlands and beyond. 

To better understand the culture of the borderland, one must remember that the land was a part of Mexico for many years. The community continued to grow and develop; cultural traditions were maintained, as well as transformed. As time went on, ongoing migration reinforced the culture; first, many fled the harsh conditions under the dictatorship of President Porfirio Díaz, then in the early 1900s, numerous Mexicans migrated to the U.S. during the Mexican Revolution. Immigration continues today, and migrants from Mexico and Latin America revitalize communities in the U.S. and rejuvenate American society as other immigrants have done throughout history. The largest sub-group in the total Latinx population, and the fastest growing ethnic minority, Mexican Americans represent nearly 11% of America’s total population, and comprise the bulk of the population in many cities throughout the U.S. Southwest. In the 1960s, Mexican American/Chicanx activists organized the Chicano Movement (El Movimiento) to protest social injustice and discrimination suffered by the Mexican and Chicanx peoples. Inspired by Chicanidad (an awareness based on Chicanx identity), the Movement promoted cultural affirmation, political resistance, and self-determination in the struggle toward social freedom and equality. Chicanx art was greatly influenced by the Mexican Mural Movement and its ideology. Artists worked individually and in collectives to produce murals throughout the community. Themes in the murals included Chicanx history, women’s cultural history, the United Farm Workers (UFW), cholo and street culture, familial relations, and religious iconography. Overtime, Chicanx murals became diverse in content and style. In Texas, artists from Brownsville, Kingsville, and Laredo, helped to foster the emergence of Chicanx art throughout the borderlands. Artists exhibited in major cities like Austin, Dallas,  El Paso, Houston, San Antonio, and throughout the state’s Valle (Valley). Eventually, Chicanx art migrated from the U.S. Southwest to Northern and Eastern states, changing to reflect differences and similarities in these regions. Chicanx art today has expanded throughout the nation, and Latinx artists from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and many other Latin American cultures with roots in the U.S. contribute to the contemporary art scene.  Mexican and Mexican American experiences have heavily influenced popular culture. While English is the national language in the U.S., Spanish comes in at a close second, and is the dominant language in many cities. Mexican influenced cuisine has increasingly become part of the American menu. Visual arts, music, literature, dance, theatre, and film melded into mainstream culture. Catholicism and Christianity have merged with pre-Columbian traditions, creating new subsects of religious ideology. Immigration continues to inspire a creative outpouring in Mexican and Chicanx cultures at the border and in the American heartland. 

The Texas-Mexico border is a living metaphor for the Mexican and American cultures that live side by side, speaking Spanish and English and engaging in cultural and religious practices. Living in the border region, people have made their own “in between” culture, often leaving behind expressions of their ancestral culture, language, and religion in the synthesis of the new. The explosive growth of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the U.S. reveals their indomitable spirit. Selected artworks refer to the traditions and customs that continue to transform borderland culture and inspire its fluorescence.

A featured Chicana artist and illustrator in the current exhibition Mexico, the Border, and Beyond: Selections from the Juan Sandoval Collection, Carmen Lomas Garza created a series of artworks in which she visually shares memories of growing up in Kingsville, Texas. Here, she presents two women fighting in the center of this print. We have no idea why the two rivals are brawling in front of the El Rio bar. On either side of the two women, onlookers watch the fight. Looking through the port windows of the front door, a man and woman observe the combatants with curiosity. Symbolizing anger and treachery, a small black dog barks at the women, while a full moon floats in the dark sky. The artist stimulates our imagination, so that we can complete our own version of her story. A narrative artist, Carmen Lomas Garza is a skillful storyteller who specializes in relating to her Mexican American heritage.

Carmen Lomas Garza is an award winning artist-educator, who was born in Kingsville, Texas in 1948. She attended Texas A & I University (renamed Texas A & M University, Kingsville), Juárez-Lincoln/Antioch Graduate School, and San Francisco State University. The artist is known for her use of papel picado in large ofrendas. She describes her life as an artist: “At the age of thirteen, I decided to become a visual artist and pursue every opportunity to advance my knowledge of art in institutions of higher education. The Chicano Movement of the late 1960s inspired the dedication of my creativity to the depiction of special and everyday events in the lives of Mexican Americans based on my memories and experiences in South Texas. I saw the need to create images that would elicit recognition and appreciation among Mexican Americans, both adults and children, while at the same time serve as a source of education for others not familiar with our culture. It has been my objective since 1969 to make paintings, prints, installations for Day of the Dead, paper and metal cutouts that instill pride in our history and culture in American society.”