Miembros Newsletter: March 2022

From the Director

Chicano/a Art, Movimiento y Más en Austen, Tejas 1960s to 1980s – A Legacy – Un Legado

It is with great pride that Mexic-Arte Museum opens the legacy exhibition, Chicano/a Art, Moviemient y Más

Prominent visual artists in the exhibition include Tito Aguirre, M.A. Ambray Gonzales, Alicia Arredondo, Alicia Barraza, Santa Barraza, Sam Coronado, Nancy de los Santos, Nora González Dodson, Carolina Flores, Rey Gaytan, Carmen Lomas Garza, Mary Jane Garza, Marsha Gomez, Luis Guerra, Juan Pablo Gutierrez, Luis Gutierrez, Luis Guerra, Bruce Harnett, Bill Leissner, Pedro Meyer, Sylvia Orozco, Janis Palma, Amado Peña, Yolanda Petrocelli, Alan Pogue, Pio Pulido, Manuel “Chaca” Ramirez, Pedro Rodriguez, Vicente “Chente” Rodriguez, Marta Sanchez, José Treviño, Modesta Treviño, and Raul Valdez. A mural by the next generation Master Muralist Amado Castillo IV and Amado Castillo III, with student assistants, is painted on the 5th Street Mero Muro wall.

Using artworks from the collection and artwork on loan, the exhibit reflects ongoing struggles, experiences and aspirations of the Chicano Movimiento, and Civil Rights Movement, in Central Texas that asserted these artists’ ethnic identity and articulated the need for social justice. The exhibit highlights important cultural events such as the Conferencia Plástica Chicana, an international conference Sept. 1979 in Austin, organized by Mujeres Artistas del Suroeste and held at L.U.ch.A, the League of United Chicano Artists. With the current climate in mind, the Black Lives Matter and other justice movements, historical moments of the past are bridged with today’s struggles dealing with racial, gender, and human rights inequalities. Artworks and ephemera in the Museum’s permanent collection documents these struggles and experiences. In addition, an online exhibition will feature the works, humanities scholars’ lectures, and tours that will take place throughout the run of the exhibition. It will be a refreshing perspective on the legacy and impact of the Movement, and expand our understanding of what it meant to be an activist, and a Chicano/a artist at that time. This project is in part funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities area of interest, A More Perfect Union: Exploring America’s Story and Commemorating its 250th Anniversary.

The exhibit also coincides with the 50^th Anniversary of The University of Texas Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) “Movidas” conference, the planned centerpiece of the fiftieth anniversary celebration that also pays homage to a history of diverse activism.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I wholeheartedly thank all the artists and collectors, my friends of many years, for their participation, dedication and contribution to el Movimiento, making today a better place for all the community. Mexic-Arte Museum also thanks the generous sponsors of the exhibition, the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Humanities Texas, Texas Commission on the Arts and the City of Austin Cultural Arts Department.

A Warm Welcome to New Board Members!

Laurel Prats

As an Austin agent for close to 20 years, Laurel has gained a reputation for providing outstanding real estate services to home buyers, sellers, and investors. Growing up in a family of real estate developers and home builders, she has a unique insight into all aspects of the real estate market. She graduated from Tulane University with a B.A. in Economics, and was brought back into the business by her love of helping people find their dream home, and build their wealth through real estate. Outside of real estate, Laurel enjoys spending time with her husband and three children. Her hobbies include traveling, dining, the arts, and enjoying everything that Austin has to offer. She believes in the importance of giving back to Austin, a city that has given so much to her. Laurel has been involved with many local Austin charities including the Austin Children’s Shelter, Family Elder Care, the Mexic-Arte Museum and the Chick Mission. Her team is committed to donating a portion of every sale to a non-profit. Laurel served on the Mexic-Arte Museum Board of Directors from 2012– 2017 and served as Gala Chair for several years. We welcome Laurel back to the Board.

Courtney Santana

Courtney Santana is the CEO of The Survive2Thrive Foundation and the Managing Partner of SANCTUARY Platform LLC. Courtney has served as a lobbyist and on the policy task force for the Texas Council on Family Violence. She is also a member of the Travis County Family Supervisor’s Group. Courtney joined the law enforcement advisory board for The Biden Foundation and was appointed District 6 Commissioner to the Human Rights Commission for the City of Austin. She is a member of the City of Austin Reimagining Public Safety Task Force and the Equity Action Team. Courtney is a nationally-known speaker and the author of OFF KILTER: Getting “Right” After Abuse. Courtney has been featured in several magazines for her work as a vocalist, and as an advocate of domestic violence awareness. In March 2017, she received a proclamation from Austin Mayor Steve Adler, proclaiming March 3rd is Courtney Santana Day in Austin, Texas. Courtney has won many community service awards including the SXSW Dewey Winburne Community Service Award, the RecognizeGood Code Of Ethics Award, Austin INNO 50 on Fire Award, The Butler Spirit of Collaboration Award, and was nominated for the Texas Women In Business Award for a Nonprofit, and The Austin Woman Magazine’s Philanthropist of the Year. Courtney is also a talented singer and musician. We are thrilled to have Courtney join the Board!

Executive Director

Sylvia Orozco

Exhibits

Chicana/o Art, Movimiento y Más en Austen, Tejas 1960s to 1980s

Exhibition dates: April 8 – June 19, 2022

Join us for the Opening Reception

Chicano/a Art, Movimiento y Más 1960s to 1980s highlights Chicano and Chicana artists in Austin, Texas during “El Movimiento” (The Chicano Civil Rights Movement). This exhibition serves as a primer on the rich and understudied Chicano art movement in Austin, presenting a variety of mediums, themes, and artists. Artwork by prolific artists of the area paired with documentary ephemera creates context for those turbulent times. This exhibition highlights the challenges these artists faced as they learned about their history, dealt with systemic injustice, sought a unique Chicano/a art voice, and found or created a place for themselves.

The exhibition brings together revolutionary artwork with abstract, conceptual, and commercial art, showing the breadth of creativity that these artists achieved in this time in a variety of forms including visual art, music by the band Conjunto Aztlán and others, photography, dance, music, poetry, literature, film, and other forms.

Prominent visual artists in the exhibition include Tito Aguirre, M.A. Ambray Gonzales, Alicia Arredondo, Alicia Barraza, Santa Barraza, Sam Coronado, Nancy de los Santos, Nora González Dodson, Carolina Flores, Rey Gaytan, Carmen Lomas Garza, Mary Jane Garza, Marsha Gomez, Luis Guerra, Juan Pablo Gutierrez, Luis Gutierrez, Luis Guerra, Bruce Harnett, Bill Leissner, Pedro Meyer, Sylvia Orozco, Janis Palma, Amado Peña, Yolanda Petrocelli, Alan Pogue, Pio Pulido, Manuel “Chaca” Ramirez, Pedro Rodriguez, Vicente “Chente” Rodriguez, Marta Sanchez, José Treviño, Modesta Treviño, and Raul Valdez. A mural by the next generation Master Muralist Amado Castillo IV and Amado Castillo III, with student assistants, is painted on the 5th Street Mero Muro wall.

Selections from Chicano/a Art, Movimiento y Más en Austen, Tejas 1960s to 1980s

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The 1960s saw the beginning of a great push for socioeconomic and racial justice across the United States, Texas, and Austin. Protests took place demanding access to affordable housing, better working conditions, quality education, and later in the decade and into the 1970s, a push against higher-than-average draft rates of Mexican American and Black men into the Vietnam War. Multi-cultural alliances were seen in events like Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta helping the United Farm Works Union organize Mexican American and Filipino farmworkers.

These tumultuous times and events touched the heart of Texas as well. In and around Austin protests for farmworkers rights took place, KKK rallies occurred, police brutality went unchecked, the Texas Farm Workers marched in advocation of better labor rights for farmers, and the Brown Berets called upon Mexican Americans and the U.S. Government for a more just existence for Mexican Americans. Many Chicana and Chicano artists began to connect the lessons they were learning about the systemic oppression of Mexican Americans to the events that were happening around them.

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For some of these Austin artists a “Concientización” (Awakening of consciousness) took place while learning the history of oppression their people faced, gaining pride in their connections to indigenous and mestizo roots, or finding unity in the concept of “Aztlán” (the ancestral Aztec homeland). This awakening led to a reevaluation of their artwork. During this time The University of Texas art faculty focused on the popular art trend of “Universal” art; artwork that appealed to all people. These teachers made it clear that art should not be used as a political tool, but instead a more personal expression. For some of these young Chicano and Chicana artists, standing outside the fray with their artwork was not an option. Many of these artists created work for local Chicano newspapers and political causes, while also creating more traditional art projects to fulfill their assignments as students.

In and out of the university arena, anxiousness about systemic injustice spilled into the community and artists reacted by joining community protests and creating opportunities to learn and teach Chicano art and culture.  These efforts evolved into the creations of civic and cultural organizations pushing for greater equality. Some of these included LUChA (League of United Chicano Artists), MAS (Mujeres Artistas Del Suroeste), CASA (Chicano Art Student Association), MAYO (Mexican American Youth Organization), the Brown Berets, and the Raza Unida Party. A push for greater education equality led to the founding of the Center for Mexican American Studies at The University of Texas, a leader in Chicano education in universities. A push for creative independence would lead some of these people to begin their own organizations like La Peña Gallery and Mexic-Arte Museum in the mid-eighties.

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MX 21 – Resistance, Reaffirmation & Resilience – Gallery Guide

Mexic-Arte Museum’s MX 21 – Resistance, Reaffirmation & Resilience is now available as a gallery guide through the Museum’s Learn page, and the virtual exhibition is now available on CultureConnect. Exhibition–specific Gallery Guides may supplement a virtual tour or be used in the classroom as part of a post–tour activity.

Throughout 2021, Mexico observed and commemorated major events in history: the falling of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán, the invasion by Spain, and the Independence of Mexico. Mexic-Arte Museum presented an exhibition and programming in conjunction with Mexico’s 2021 events.

The exhibition MX 21 – Resistance, Reaffirmation & Resilience is divided into three sections: Resistance, Reaffirmation, and Resilience. Resistance refers to the Original Peoples resisting the Spanish invasion and occupation of Mexico, which was really not “conquered.” Reaffirmation speaks to affirming the unique history and cultural diversity of our shared heritage. Resilience represents the on-going evolution of Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and other Latinx peoples, despite and because of struggles to achieve liberty, social justice, and plurality. Invited artists respond to these themes to help the public better understand and appreciate how Mexico’s history has impacted and inspired our shared U.S.- Mexico cultural history in the Americas, as Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and Latinx peoples.

Participating artists include Luis Abreux, Santa Barraza, Cande Aguilar, Angel Cabrales, Tomas Filsinger, Eduardo Garcia, Tita Griesbach, Mari Hernandez, Michael Menchaca, Delilah Montoya, Juan Navarrete, Yelaine Rodriguez, Sergio Sanchez Santamaria, Andy Villarreal, “Kill Joy”, and artwork from the Mexic-Arte Museum Permanent Collection.

The goal is to participate in Mexico’s remembrance, and at the same time, reflect on history and current reality here in the U.S., reclaiming and reaffirming shared heritage and experiences through the work of contemporary artists.

Changarrito with Sandra de la Rosa

Support our March 2022 Changarrito Artist, Sandra de la Rosa! In the spirit of Changarrito, the pop-up mobile art gallery where artists can sell their work to the public, Changarrito with Sandra de la Rosa allows the artist to bring their work to you. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for updates on original work available for purchase as well as behind the scenes of the artist’s work, space, and creative process.

Changarrito Interview Listen to the Interview

Mexic-Arte Museum’s Changarrito Instagram Live event took place virtually with Artist Sandra de la Rosa on Tuesday, March 29 through the Museum’s Instagram account @mexic_arte, Isabel Servantez, Mexic-Arte Museum’s Curator Of Exhibitions and Director Of Programs, facilitated the virtual event with a series of questions directed at the artist including a Q&A.

About the Artist: 

Sandra de la Rosa is an artist born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico and raised in Houston, Texas. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Houston in 2015 and her Masters of Fine Arts in 2019 at the University of Florida. Sandra has exhibited her work in Texas and nationally in shows that emphasize the visibility of artists of color, immigrants, and border issues.

Artist Statement 

“As a Mexican immigrant, I experience a liminal space where I feel secured and exposed at the same time. This liminal experience manifests from the ambiguity and uncertainty of living in the United States as someone with a hybridized identity: Mexican, American, Texan, undocumented, DACA recipient, brown, other. My body of work represents experiences felt by immigrants, including myself. We are both surrounded and kept out by metaphorical walls that creates a liminal space felt internally. These spaces are related to legal and societal structures. The spaces we inhabit are a contradiction: we are both inside and outside. Gaston Bachelard describes the dialect of inside and outside as yes and no. In his book, The Poetics of Space, Bachelard states that the geometry created by the assignation of what is inside and what is outside is tinged with aggressivity because their formal opposition is incapable of being at ease. In my body of work, I am inviting the viewers to investigate the abstract landscapes and structures and show them through my visual language what I experience as an immigrant. I am here but also metaphorically kept out.”

Collections

Selections from the Permanent Collection

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This photograph is included in Chicano/a Art Movimiento y Más en Austen, Tejas 1960s to 1980s. This photograph was taken by Sylvia Orozco, a then student at The University of Texas at Austin. The photograph shows two members of the Brown Berets, a Chicano activist group formed in the late 60s, that advocated for social and economic rights for Mexican Americans. The man, Ernesto Fraga, holding the microphone is addressing a group of protestors, marching against police brutality. 

This protest included six hundred people marching in Austin, November 12, 1977, to demonstrate their support for the Torres family of Houston, the Rodriguez family of Dallas, and the other Chicano families that lost family members at the hands of the police. The rally passed through the streets of downtown Austin, ending at the Capitol building where speakers addressed the assembled crowd. This photograph depicts a powerful demonstration of the stand against police brutality and violence against people of color.

Orozco herself was part of the Raza Unida Party, a former Chicano political party formed in Texas in the 1970’s that fought to give the Mexican American community political representation. During that time many Chicano and Chicana artists were both documenting and participating in the Chicano civil rights movement.

Sylvia Orozco is the Executive Director and co-founder of Mexic-Arte Museum. Orozco was born in Mercedes, TX and grew up in Cuero, TX. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art and Painting from The University of Texas at Austin in 1978 and her Master of Arts at the Autonomous University of Mexico. Orozco returned to Austin with the idea of beginning an art center, and in 1984, she founded Mexic-Arte with fellow artists Sam Coronado and Pio Pulido at the Arts Warehouse, before moving to the Museum’s current location in 1988.