Arte Américas

Gold and opportunities brought an invasion of European and Yankee adventurers who transformed the valley into their “Garden of the Sun.” Few Mexicans or natives survived this wild west period fraught with racism.  The Gold Rush. At the same time Mexico signed the Treaty, turning over all their Northern territories, gold was discovered in California, maybe […]

“WE DIDN’T CROSS THE BORDER, THE BORDER CROSSED US” After 300 years of colonization, Mexico became independent, inheriting Alta California. Weak from wars and colonization, they lost all northern territories to the advancing, aggressive United States. The large map created for the exhibit by Alvaro Solorio, summarizes these first two periods, including the native populations (in […]

El Camino Viejo Spain didn’t send expeditions into the Valley until 1772, to explore and capture natives for the missions. The Valley was home to native peoples, their numbers devastated by Europeans and their diseases. The Spaniards first entered the valley through EL CAMINO VIEJO (the old road). The Spanish had “discovered,” conquered, and colonized much of the […]

Like the Indigenous people of the territories we reside on, the people from Oaxaca have maintained Indigenous sovereignty for centuries. Indigenous sovereignty is the will to bring Oaxaqueños together in community. It is also the commitment to shape an Indigenous future on our own terms. In Oaxaca, this has often been through the mechanisms to […]

In California, the most spoken Oaxacan dialects are Mixteco, Zapotec, and Triqui. Of the indigenous Oaxacan population in California, over 50% speak Mixteco, 25% speak Zapoteco, and little less than 10% speak Triqui. Though these indigenous peoples are very closely related historically and geographically, all communities contain unique cultural traits and are distinct from one […]

Oaxacan Native societies have been passing down the scientific knowledge of agronomy for thousands of years. This science has allowed Oaxacans to domesticate, cultivate, and select the ingredients to prepare their world-renowned foods—modeling a system called food sovereignty. Food sovereignty is the right that people have to control their own local food systems and consume […]

The Chicano Movement was a civil rights movement in the late 1960s and 1970s. It denounced racial discrimination, inequalities, and working conditions Mexican-Americans suffered, amongst other claims. Chicano, a term originally used in the 1930s in a disrespectful way, was co-opted by groups of young Mexican-Americans to proclaim their pride in their ancestry. Chicano began […]

Portrait of the Artist as Virgin of Guadalupe,1978  Margaret F. Steward: Our Lady of Guadalupe,1978  Victoria F. Franco: Our Lady Of Guadalupe, 1978   Because I feel living, breathing women also deserve the respect and love lavished on Guadalupe, I have chosen to transform the image.  -Yolanda López  Yolanda López’s Guadalupe Series presents three small paintings full of vibrant colors. […]

Syncretism (term)— A combination of separate concepts into one new, unique idea. Cultural syncretism is when two or more distinct cultures blend together to create a new idea, practice, or philosophy, etc. In her research of the Virgen of Guadalupe, Yolanda López learned of the history and the syncretism of this iconic figure. In Nuestra Madre […]

Donceles Street (formerly known as Los Donceles Street) is one of the oldest in Mexico City. It is believed that its origins trace back to just three years after the Conquest in 1521. During this period, the Spanish dismantled the canal system that connected the grand Tenochtitlan and replaced it with cobblestone streets, creating a […]