Ester Hernandez is a Chicana artist, best known for her works of Chicana women. Ester’s goal is to recreate women’s lives to produce positive images of women’s lifestyle and to create icons. Her piece, Frida y Yo, contains the iconic painter Frida Kahlo. Frida, after being in multiple accidents causing long-term pain and suffering, began painting, mostly self-portraits, to portray her reality and glorify the pain. Similar to how Hernandez's goals are a juxtaposition to Frida’s artwork, the art piece Frida y Yo creates a juxtaposition between life and suffering and death and fortune. The use of calaveras is a direct reference to Dia de Los Muertos, a Mexican holiday celebrating the dead. Frida’s artwork has always been about her reality,
Selena Quintanilla, the madonna of Tejano music. Such an empowering person; she was beloved by many. Her tragic death caused an immense outrage and pained many. Yolanda Saldivar, her killer made a huge mistake that day. Nothing can justify her shooting Selena. Her actions were driven by hatred towards the Quintanilla family, greed, and caused an immense outbreak of mourning. Although some may say that her actions were justified because of her being fired, that is not a good enough reason to shoot someone. Here are my explanations as to why Yolanda saldivar did not have a valid reason to end Selena Quintanilla’s life.
Known as the “Queen of Tejano” and the “Mexican Madonna”, Selena Quintanilla-Perez was the adored Latin singer who sadly did not get to live to see all of the success of her career. One of her most famous quotes is, “We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever but to create something that will (PhilosIblog, 2014).” That is just what Selena did and she made sure that her legacy would live on for years. Selena surely left a her mark in this world with the help of her family, in her short lived 23 years. Selena was an amazing singer, she even made it very far in a genre of music that was dominated by men. Selena Quintanilla-Perez is an influential person because of her loving personality, her music career, her determination to succeed in a genre that was only men, and her success with her music that will never stop playing even if she is not here.
Barbara Carrasco is an artist and muralist based in Los Angeles. Her works range from pen and ink drawings, to paintings, to posters and countless murals. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Barbara Carrasco is considered to be a renegade feminist. Her art is known for critiquing, dominant cultural stereotypes involving socioeconomic, race, gender and sexuality.(Revision history statistics "Barbara Carrasco" 2017)She is known for bringing awareness to the Chicano art movement and their sexist attitudes sometimes seen in Chicano art. Barbara Carrasco works in advocating to change treatment of women. I decided to do my research paper because I believe that there's a difference between how a Chicano depicts and paint images and how a Chicana depicts and paints images. As a Latina woman, learning about Barbara Carrasco
The popular revolutionary poem “I am Joaquin” by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales influenced many Chicana/os to embrace their heritage in the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. The poem created psychological work for the Chicano identity. Moreover, this poem developed and promoted social consciousness, commitment to activism, and cultural pride for many Chicanos. However, Gonzales primarily focuses on the identity and struggles of a Mexican-American male which excludes other narratives. Thus, the lack of inclusivity influenced me to recreate the popular poem, which centers on women from Central America who are rarely acknowledged in Chicano Studies. Therefore, our poem “I am Dolores” is focused on these three main themes: empowerment of women of color, resistance
This had symbolized Frida wanting to be freedom from all that she had suffered from mentally and physically. This painting had only been finished eight days before Friday died of health problems. Which in fact her husband Diego Rivera had died from health problems too, and he had also painted a watermelon portrait. This is connected with the poem Wedding Portrait, because the relationship between Frida and Diego are being relived through the speaker in the poem. In the poem the husband talks about how his wife is having problems with her health and how he wonders what it feels like for her. Also he tries to do his best on making her happy, by massaging her feet and would sit on the porch with
This picture is interesting because the need to nurse a child was killing her inside little by little. eSpecially having a baby with Diego was one of her dreams that she couldn’t accomplish. Being successful in life and not be a hundred percent happy as women was causing her to be depressed. She tries to fulfill the need of having a child of her own by replacing that need of companion with pets and through documenting her life into portraits. The following picture it is another good example of her needs to bear children. She documented all aspects of her life, especially her pain, tragedy, and emotions. “Frida y la Cesarea” Frida and the Caesarean)
Frida Kahlo is known for the most influential Latin American female artist. She is also known as a rebellious feminist. Kahlo was inspired to paint after her near-death bus incident when she was 17. After this horrendous incident that scarred her for life, she went under 35 different operations. These operations caused her extreme pain and she was no longer able to have kids. Kahlo’s art includes self portraits of her emotions, pain, and representations of her life. Frida Kahlo was an original individual, not only in her artwork but also in her
Fuentes, C. (1995). The Diary of Frida Kahlo An Intimate Self-Portrait. New York: A Times Mirror Company.
Born in 1910, Frida was a woman that was not about preserving young beauty. She loved to acquaint herself with Mexico, where she was born. Being a great painter, she loved to paint pictures of herself. A quote by her is as follows “I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best”. In other words, she can paint and feel free, because she knows herself well and can paint the
Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait (Figure 1), which I encountered by chance at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, left a significant impression on me. At the time, I did not know her right leg was crippled by polio; I was uninterested in her. I eventually learned of her fate while I was searching for artists with disabilities on the internet as I was preparing data on my Capstone, ‘An Art Gallery for the individuals with disabilities.’ I made my mind to change the subject of my Capstone into ‘Frida Kahlo,’ as I wanted to know more of her unique paintings and suffering-filled life. In this work, I will discuss the two categories of her artistic techniques and oeuvres. The former is classified into her suffering-filled life and ruthless love, whereas the
Selena, “Le Reina de Tejano”, was born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson. She was the youngest of three children of Abraham Quintanilla Jr. and Marcela, his wife. At a young age, Abraham had a strong passion for music that he still has. During the 1950s and 1960s, him and his friends made a group called “Los Dinos” and played at nightclubs and restaurants. Even though his passion for music, he gave it up when he got married and earned a job at Dow Chemical as a shipping clerk.
The artist I decided to chose was Ramon Ayala’s interpretation of ‘Tragos Amargos’, which means bitter shots of liquor. The composer of, “Tragos Amargos” is composed by two writers Freddie Martinez and Jesse Salcedo. I decided to chose this song in particular because I have heard many of my family members drink to this song. As I heard this song, a flash of memories popped up from the lyrics of the song. For me, I have been surrounded by this song more compared to the other songs in the list, so I decided to go with track 23. The way Ramon Ayala sings the song, he makes the song sound depressing. His vocal formation is deeper, he stresses the note of the lyrics making the song sound remorseful. In addition, the artist makes his voice sound remorseful because the tone of his singing style and with the combination of the lyrics together makes the overall sound become emotional. I also believe that because the artist is singing the song slowly the song also allows you to achieve the remorse the man is feeling. I believe Ramon Ayala only
In the 1960s, a wave of Cuban immigrants moved into the United States to escape their ruthless dictator, Fidel Castro. Aleida Rodriguez and her siblings were some of those immigrants. In her reflection, she looks at photographs of her childhood while she reflects upon the impact of emigration within her family during the sixties. In the excerpt from “my Mother in Two Photographs, Among Other Things,” author Aleida Rodriguez reveals the cultural rifts caused by relocation.
The idea of the alienated artist is very common in feminist works. Esperanza, the protagonist, is alienated from the rest of society in many ways. Her Latino neighborhood seems to be excluded from the rest of the world, while Esperanza is also separated from the other members of her community. Members of other cultures are afraid to enter the neighborhood because they believe it is dangerous. Esperanza seems to be the only one who refuses to just accept Mango Street, and she dreams of someday leaving it behind. She is considered an artist because she has an extremely creative imagination which creates a conflict with the type of liberal individuality she seeks. This creative "genius survives even under the most adverse conditions..." (Gagnier 137). To escape the pain of this division, Esperanza turns to writing. She says, "I put it down on paper and then the ghost does not ache so much" (Cisneros 110). Gagnier sees a "distinction of the writer who nonetheless sees herself as somehow different, separate..." (137).
The most eye-catching aspect of the piece would be the small portrait of Diego that lies upon her forehead. This is a straight-forward symbol that represents Kahlo’s love for her husband. Despite his repetitive pattern of infidelity, she still cannot remove him from her thoughts; he has become a permanent part of her mind, she has become an obsessive lover (Frida Kahlo Fans, 2016). In this piece, Kahlo is dressed as a traditional Tehuana, from her previous piece The Two Fridas (1939) it was observed that Kahlo struggled to be the woman Diego expected her to be. The fact that she has chosen to paint herself in traditional Mexican wear may be because she wants to attract Diego and lure him into fidelity (Frida Kahlo Fans, 2016). This constant desire to possess Diego is not only shown in her attire but is represented through the intertwining roots that spring from the bundle of flowers that form something close to a web. This symbolises that with her blossoming love she wishes to trap Diego in the web of monogamy, to root himself to her (Aaron, 2016). This was painted after the two remarried, her emotions would have been strong and fresh, the painting portrays her burdening desire to keep him tied to