Chicana/o Art

Instructor: Josh T Franco

Class: MWF 1.10 2.10
Office Hours: W 11 -1, Commons Caf (Fine Arts Bldg)

Outline_________________________________________

This course is open to all students and does not assume prior knowledge of Chicano/a
realities, experiences, languages, ways of being, i.e., what is called Chicanisma. Also, no
knowledge of Spanish or Cal is assumed, and where they are encountered, they will be
translated by me. Atypical of Art History/Historiography courses, the course exists in a
tension between historiographical analysis and engagement with primary texts/pieces. The
most succinct example I can offer is to consider how Laura E. Prez, author of Chicana Art:
The Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities conceives of her work: This book itself is an
installation piece, an ofrenda [offering]. I do not consider it a textbook in [a strictly historical
or historiographic] way. She also agrees that as a Chicana, the artists discussed in the book
are her collaborators more than they are artists she writes about. Undoubtedly, the
bookaccording to its internal organization, formatting, publishing process, etc.could
easily be called an Art Historical text, but then, why the authors protest against this? As the
germ of an alternative historiographical approach, we will explore the theoretical sources
from whence this understanding originates: in Mexica-Aztec cosmology, the Nahuatl
language that carries it, and how these have been taken up and transformed by U.S. Women
of Color, especially Chicanas, and Chicana/o artists. First however, a background of the
development of Chicana/o typologies (from the 1960s to now, and both inside and
outside Chicanisma) will take up the first half of the course, before venturing into the more
contemporary praxes.
The course is also organized around an imposed, self-consciously reductive, but
hopefully useful shift. Under the larger umbrella of a transition from performativity to
performance, we will also attempt to trace other shifts in Chicano/a art practices, receptions,
documentations, participants, and political implications. I provide here a chart that may
make some sense now, and will hopefully be much more useful as the course unfolds:
Performativity (1969-1987)

Performance (1987-Now)

Aluristas El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan

Delivered at First National Chicano
Liberation Youth Conference,
March 1969

Gloria Anzalduas Borderlands/La Frontera:

The New Mestiza published (1987)

Lived experience in the streets,

i.e., the Pachuco

Lived experience on the stage, i.e., Xicana

Lesbian performance art scene

Homophobic, Masculinist (Machismo),

Heteronormative

Woman of Color, Queer, and Decolonial

gender practices

Nationalist

Border-dwelling

Resistant and creative

Resistant and creative

As hinted at, we will be negotiating the immense amount of available materials by focusing
on the performance arts and the language of performance/performativity as taken up by
Chicana/os, though other media will be discussed.

Instructor: Josh T Franco

Class: MWF 1.10 2.10
Office Hours: W 11 -1, Commons Caf (Fine Arts Bldg)

Syllabus_____________________________________
Jan 25

Introductions. What is Ch(X)icano/a/@?

Essence and Authenticity: Chicanismo
as Subcultural Formation

Jan 27

Alurista. El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan. Delivered at First National

Chicano Liberation Youth Conference, March 1969.

Jan 29

No Class

Feb 1

Elam, Harry Justin. An initiation into the Rituals of Social Protest

Theater. In Taking it to the Streets: the Social Protest Theater of Luis
Valdez and Amiri Baraka. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
2001. pp. 1-17.

Teatro Campesino: Resistance and

World-Making Onstage and Off
Feb 3

Valdez, Luis. Notes on Chicano Theatre. In Luis Valdez Early

Works: Actos, Bernabe and Pensamiento Serpentino. Culture and Society. San
Juan Bautista, CA: Arte Publico Press, 1994 (first edition: 1974), pp.
6-10. Also read plays: Quinta Temporada and Los Vendidos, 28-52.

Feb 5

Elam, Harry Justin. Rehearsing the Revolution Onstage: The Social

Performance Text and the Performance Space. In Taking it to the
Streets: the Social Protest Theater of Luis Valdez and Amiri Baraka. Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001. pp. 73-97.

Additional Reading:
Burciaga, Jos Antonio. The First Chicano Actor Hired by Luis
Valdez. In Drink Cultura: Chicanismo. Santa Barbara: Joshua Odell
Editions, 1993. pp.134-141.

The Pachuco: Stylized Subversions

Feb 8

Montoya, Jose. El Louie. In In Formation: 20 Years of Joda. San

Francisco: Chusma House Publications, 1992. pp. 13-16.

Instructor: Josh T Franco

Class: MWF 1.10 2.10
Office Hours: W 11 -1, Commons Caf (Fine Arts Bldg)

Sanchez-Tranquilino, Marcos and John Tagg. The Pachucos

Flayed Hide: The Museum, Identity, and Buenas Garras. In Chicano
Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985. Los Angeles: University of
California, Wright Gallery, 1991. pp. 97-108.
Feb 10

Madrid-Barela, Arturo. In Search of the Authentic Pachuco: An

Interpretive Essay. In Aztlan, vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring 1973), 31-60.

Feb 12

raursalinas. Homenaje al Pachuco. In Un Trip Through the Mind Jail y

Otras Excursiones. Houston: Arte Pblico Press, 1999.
[ View raulrsalinas performing the poem at:
http://xicanopoetrydaily.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/homenaje-alpachuco/ ]
Additional Reading:
Griffith, Beatrice. Finger-Tip Coats are the Style. In American Me
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998. pp. 61-72.
Paz, Octavio. The Pachuco and Other Extremes. In The
Labyrinth of Solitude and the Other Mexico. New York: Grove Press Inc.,
1985, pp. 9-28.

Huelga! Strike!: Chicana Labor/Movimiento

Feb 15

No Class

Feb 17

Martinez, Elizabeth Betita. Introduction/Introduccin, The

Great Depression, Repatriation, Strike! and The Life of a
Farmworker Woman. In 500 Years of Chicana Womens History/500
Aos de la Mujer Chicana. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University
Press, 2008. pp. ix-xii, 67-80, and 113-24.
*View Emma Tenayuca video before class.

Feb 19

Moraga, Cherre L. Heroes and Saints. In Heroes and Saints and Other
Plays. Albuquerque: West End Press, 1994. pp. 85-149.
Lujn, Ida M. Challenging Tradition. In Speaking Chicana: Voice,
Power, and Identity. Eds. D. Leticia Galindo and Maria Dolores
Gonzales Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1999. pp. 98-105.

Instructor: Josh T Franco

Class: MWF 1.10 2.10
Office Hours: W 11 -1, Commons Caf (Fine Arts Bldg)

Chicano Poetics: The Rasquache Art

of Cal & Performing Language
Feb 22

Ybarra-Frausto, Tomas. Rasquachismo: A Chicano Sensibility. In

Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985. Los Angeles:
University of California, Wright Gallery, 1991. pp. 155-162.

Feb 24

Arteaga, Alfred. Introduction: Canto Primero and

Mestizaje/Difrasismo. In Chicano Poetics: Heterotexts and
Hybridities. pp. 1-20.

Feb 26

Galindo, D. Leticia. Cal and Taboo Language Use Among

Chicanas. In Speaking Chicana: Voice, Power, and Identity. Eds. D.
Leticia Galindo and Maria Dolores Gonzales Tucson: The University
of Arizona Press, 1999. pp. 175-193.
Additional Reading:
Arteaga, Alfred. An Other Tongue. In An Other Tongue: Nation and
Ethnicity in the Linguistic Borderlands, Ed. Alfred Arteaga. Durham:
Duke University Press, 1994. pp.9-34.
Gomez, Ernesto and Gilberto Cerda. Part 1: Synopsis. In The
Social Significance and Value Dimension of Current Mexican American
Dialectical Spanish: A Glossary for the Human Service Professions. San
Antonio: Worden School of Social Service, Our Lady of the Lake
University, 1976. pp. 1-12.

Chicanismo in Crisis, Part I: From Chicano

Art to Xican@ Becoming (The CARA
Exhibition)
Mar 1

Prologue and Preface: The CARA Exhibition. In

Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985. Los Angeles:
University of California, Wright Gallery, 1991. pp. 17-32.
Tezozomec.
Xicano
with
an
X.
View
http://www.soychicano.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39400

at:

Mar 3

Gaspar De Alba, Alicia. A Theoretical Introduction: Alter-Native

Ethnography, a lo rasquache. In Chicano Art Inside/Outside the Masters
House: Cultural Politics and the CARA Exhibition. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1998. pp.1-30.

Mar 5

Nancy, Jean-Luc. Cut Throat Sun. In An Other Tongue: Nation and

Ethnicity in the Linguistic Borderlands, Ed. Alfred Arteaga. Durham:

Instructor: Josh T Franco

Class: MWF 1.10 2.10
Office Hours: W 11 -1, Commons Caf (Fine Arts Bldg)

Duke University Press, 1994. pp. 113-124.

Chicanismo in Crisis, Part II: Y las

Mujeres? And the Women?
(The CARA Exhibition Contd)
Mar 8

Gaspar De Alba, Alicia. Out of the House, the Halo, and the
Whores Mask: The Mirror of Malinchismo. In Chicano Art
Inside/Outside the Masters House: Cultural Politics and the CARA
Exhibition. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998. pp.119-57.

Mar 10

Mesa-Bains, Amalia. El Mundo Femenino: Chicana Artists of the

MovementA Commentary on Development and Production. In
Chicano Art Inside/Outside the Masters House: Cultural Politics and the
CARA Exhibition. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998. pp.131140.

Mar 12

Martinez, Elizabeth Betita. The Story of La Chicana Begins. In

500 Years of Chicana Womens History/500 Aos de la Mujer Chicana.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008. pp. 2-24.

Chicanismo in Crisis, Part III:

Gender & Queering Xicanism@
Mar 15

Anzalda, Gloria. Movimientos de rebelda y las culturas que

traicionan. In Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San
Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1987. pp. 37-46.

Mar 17

Arteaga, Alfreda. Tricks of Gender Xing. In Chicano Poetics: Heterotexts

and Hybridities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. pp. 44
66.

Mar 19

Ed. Herrera y Lozano, Lorenzo. Queer Codex: Rooted! Austin, TX:

Evelyn Street Press, 2008.

Exhibition and Inhabitation:

Xicana Embodiment
Mar 22

Prez, Laura E. Body, Dress. In Chicana Art: the Politics of Spiritual

and Aesthetic Altarities. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007. pp. 5090.

Mar 24

Salas, Elizabeth. Soldaderas in Aztlan. In Soldaderas in the Mexican

Military: Myth and History. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990. pp.

Instructor: Josh T Franco

Class: MWF 1.10 2.10
Office Hours: W 11 -1, Commons Caf (Fine Arts Bldg)

102-119.
Mar 26

Bolton, Andrew. The Mutant Body. In Superheroes: Fashion and

Fantasy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. pp. 128-139.
(Look at Diane Gamboa paper fashions)

Mar 27 Apr 5

No Class

Apr 6 End of Semester

Studio Critiques 2 - 3 students per week will bring a

progress update and some materials from their artwork or
research paper for consultation with the class.

Assignments, Midterm, & Final

- .5-1 page, informal written responses will be due each Friday.
- Midterm will take the form of an interview with the instructor in which key
concepts will be reviewed. Interviews to be scheduled the week of March 8.
- Final will have two options:
1) 8-10 page research paper; topic to be discussed individually with instructor.
Or
2) A non-written artwork and 4-5 page paper theorizing the piece and
using
concepts
from
the
course.

Instructor: Josh T Franco

Class: MWF 1.10 2.10
Office Hours: W 11 -1, Commons Caf (Fine Arts Bldg)

Bibliography_________________________________
Alurista. As our barrio turnswho the yoke b on? San Diego: Calaca Press, 2000.
______. El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan. Delivered at First National Chicano Liberation Youth
Conference, March 1969.
Anzalda, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books,
1987.
Arteaga, Alfred, Ed. An Other Tongue: Nation and Ethnicity in the Linguistic Borderlands. Durham:
Duke University Press, 1994.
Arteaga, Alfred. Chicano of Poetics: Heterotexts and Hybridities. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1997.
Bolton, Andrew. Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.
Burciaga, Jos Antonio. Drink Cultura: Chicanismo. Santa Barbara: Joshua Odell Editions,
1993.
Coltharp, Lurline. The Tongue of the Tirilones: A Lingusitic Study of a Criminal Argot. University,
Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1965.
Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985. Los Angeles: University of California,
Wright Gallery, 1991.
Cuba, Nan and Riley Robinson, Eds. Art at Our Doorstep: San Antonio Writers + Artists. San
Antonio, TX: Trinity University Press, 2008.
Desahogate! Growing up xicana/o. Vol. 1. No. 1. San Antonio, TX: In Tlilli, In Tlapalli Press,
2004.
Elam, Harry Justin. Taking it to the Streets: the Social Protest Theater of Luis Valdez and Amiri
Baraka. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001.
Galindo, D. Leticia. Speaking Chicana: Voice, Power, and Identity. Eds. D. Leticia Galindo and
Maria Dolores Gonzales Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1999.
Gaspar De Alba, Alicia. Chicano Art Inside/Outside the Masters House: Cultural Politics and the
CARA Exhibition. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.
Gaspar de Alba, Alicia. "From CARA to CACA: The Multiple Antinomies of Chicano/a Art
at the Turn of the New Century." Aztln: A Journal of Chicano Studies 26, no. 1: 205-31.

Instructor: Josh T Franco

Class: MWF 1.10 2.10
Office Hours: W 11 -1, Commons Caf (Fine Arts Bldg)

Gomez, Ernesto and Gilberto Cerda. The Social Significance and Value Dimension of Current
Mexican American Dialectical Spanish: A Glossary for the Human Service Professions. San Antonio:
Worden School of Social Service, Our Lady of the Lake University, 1976.
Griffith, Beatrice. American Me Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998.
Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1979.
Herrera y Lozano, Lorenzo, Ed. Queer Codex: Rooted! Austin, TX: Evelyn Street Press, 2008.
Latina Lesbians, Sinister Wisdom no. 74. Berkeley: Sinister Wisdom Inc., 2008.
Lima, Lzaro. The Latino Body: Crisis Identities in American Literary and Cultural Memory. New
York: New York University Press.
Lujn, Ida M. Speaking Chicana: Voice, Power, and Identity. Eds. D. Leticia Galindo and Maria
Dolores Gonzales Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1999.
Montoya, Jose. In Formation: 20 Years of Joda. San Francisco: Chusma House Publications,
1992.
Madrid-Barela, Arturo. In Search of the Authentic Pachuco: An Interpretive Essay. In
Aztlan, vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring 1973), 31-60.
Martinez, Elizabeth Betita. 500 Years of Chicana Womens History/500 Aos de la Mujer
Chicana. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008.
Mendoza, Louis G., Ed. Raulrsalinas and the Jail Machine: Selected Writings by Raul Salinas.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006.
Moraga, Cherre L. Heroes and Saints and Other Plays. Albuquerque: West End Press, 1994.
Noriega, Chon. The Orphans of Modernism. Aztln: A Journal of Chicano Studies 32,
no. 2.
Paz, Octavio. The Labyrinth of Solitude and the Other Mexico. New York: Grove Press Inc., 1985.
Prez, Emma. The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas Into History. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1999.
Prez, Laura E. Chicana Art: the Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities. Durham: Duke
Univeristy Press, 2007.
Polkinhorn, Harry, Alfredo Velasco, and Malcolm Lambert, Compilers. El Libro de Calo: The
Dictionary of Chicano Slang. Floricanto Press, 2005.

Instructor: Josh T Franco

Class: MWF 1.10 2.10
Office Hours: W 11 -1, Commons Caf (Fine Arts Bldg)

raursalinas. Un Trip Through the Mind Jail y Otras Excursiones. Houston: Arte Pblico Press,
1999.
________. Indio Trails: A Xicano Odyssey Through Indian Country, Poems By raulrsalinas (Autumn
Sun). San Antonio, TX: Wings Press, 2006.
Salas, Elizabeth. Soldaderas in the Mexican Military: Myth and History. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1990.
Tezozomec.
Xicano
with
an
X.
http://www.soychicano.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39400

View

at:

Valdez, Luis. Luis Valdez Early Works: Actos, Bernabe and Pensamiento Serpentino. Culture and
Society. San Juan Bautista, CA: Arte Publico Press, 1994 (first edition: 1974).

A Note on the Images

In Order of Appearance:
Cover: Yreina D. Cervantez, Danza Ocelotl, 1983.

Instructor: Josh T Franco

Class: MWF 1.10 2.10
Office Hours: W 11 -1, Commons Caf (Fine Arts Bldg)

Diane Gamboa, Altered States, 1999.

Photo: Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (South facing wall of theater), San Antonio, TX.