Rasquachismo is a concept in Chicana/o art defined by Tomas Ybarra-Frausto as making art out of whatever materials are available. Emerging as a “visceral response to lived reality among poor and working-class Mexicans and Mexican Americans, the ingenuity of rasquache derives from basic necessity; it reflects a sort of good taste of bad taste.” (Frausto, 1989, pgs. 155-56)
Rasquache: Chicana/o artists transformed rasquache into an overarching attitude expressed in much Chicana/o activist art making. RCAF, Montoya, and his colleagues used rasquache as a means by which to subvert “art world” rules; used scratch paper, napkins, newsprints, tortillas, discarded material for poster production, and improvised props and bilingual wordplays when performing the collective’s air force persona.