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Anzaldua Border Arte. Nepantla , el lugar de la Frontera By: Ruben Ruiz. Introducing Border Art. Indigenous culture is being taught by whites in museums in their own version, upsets Anzaldua .
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AnzalduaBorder Arte Nepantla, el lugar de la Frontera By: Ruben Ruiz
Introducing Border Art • Indigenous culture is being taught by whites in museums in their own version, upsets Anzaldua. • Talk as if Aztec culture has been dead for hundreds of years when there are still 10,000 Aztecs living. • Many cultures meet at USA/Mex. border while artists constantly change images and “place” according to themselves. • “Portrait” is an example of cultural rebirth of Chicana struggling to free self from oppressive gender roles.
Three Mothers of Chicana/o Art • La Virgen Guadalupe, La Malinche, and La Llorona • Cultural figures that re-read in works and represent resistance to repression and assimilation. • Barraza and painting of La Malinche is an example of this. • Retablos: traditional popular miracle paintings on metal, introduced by the Spanish. • Artists connect everyday life with political, sacred, and aesthetics in art.
Culture of Border Art • Culture touches and influences another, passes metaphors and gods before dies. (Metaphors are gods) • New cultures adopt, modify, and enrich images passing them on relating them to prevailing culture and era. • Introduces the concept of “Nepantla” • Nahuatl for in between states, uncertain terrain when moving from place to place, social class, race, sex position, or present to new identity. • Jorge Luis Borge’s Aleph, one spot on earth the contains all people and places residing in peace and unison. • Border in constant nepantla.
Threats/Challenges & Resolutions • Threats • Appropriation by poplar culture, dominant art institutions, and economic depression. • Titles of “Chicana” or “border” artists are demeaning labels stripping legitimacy of the art. Signals inferiority to other artists. • Challenge and subvert imperialism of US and combat assimilation by US or Mexico but acknowledge both. • Supersedes pictorials, depicts soul of artist and soul of pueblo. • Autohistorias: who tells the story and what stories and histories are told. • Becoming dominant in art is not their goal, done for a purpose and a story.
Conclusion • The Border is a historical and metaphorical site where artists transform space, USA and Mexico into one. • Deals with shifting identities, border crossings, and hybridism. • “From earth we are born, to earth we shall return.” (pg. 184)
Discussion • Have you ever been to a border between two countries? What was it like? Do you feel that border arte is truly a representation of multiple cultures between the US and Mexico meshed into one unique culture? Explain. • What does it mean to you when Anzaldua says, “from earth we are born, and to earth we shall return”? Do you think life is a cycle and that earth “eats the dead”?