Chicanismo

Central among the outstanding artistic representatives of Chicanismo is JoséAntonio Burciaga, whose book Drink Cultura-C/S (1993) and murals Mythology of Maize and Last Supper of Chicano Heroes explore its core meanings.

Turistas 2002

By the end of the 1970s, "Chicanismo" referred to the driving conciencia/consciousness of the shared struggles for human and civil rights.

Turistas 2002

Although Burciaga’s never gives us a precise definition of "Chicanismo," his essay "The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes" details how and why in 1989 he painted a mural by that name on the east dining hall wall of Stern Hall’s Casa Zapata, the almost three decades-old Chicano-theme student residence at Stanford University, where he served as resident artist and fellow from 1985 until just before his death.

Turistas 2002

His essay strongly underscores how the mural is an excellent representation of the essence of Chicanismo.

Turistas 2002

Burciaga's response to these criticisms is exemplary of the Chicanismo methodology of incorporating the voices of oppressed people into the creative process.

Turistas 2002

"Xicanisma" is a contemporary extension of 20th Century Chicanismo that is ideologically rooted in the Chicana feminist "Mexic Amerindian" consciousness that rejects machismo, exclusionary ethnocentrism and nationalism while emphasizing our prehistoric tendencies toward interdependence and cooperation that transcends gender, class, race, and geographic boundaries (see Castillo 1994).

Turistas 2002

Out of this combined critique and celebration has evolved a contemporary Chicanismo with academic and artistic actions energized by the creative transculturation processes, and the renewed imagination of equality and democratic potential in our post-Y2K U.S.A.

Turistas 2002

First some concise descriptions of Burciaga's written and painted works and then some concluding thematic comments on the public presentation of Chicanismo (also known as Xicanism@).

Turistas 2002

And because she makes more of the politics of being "Mexican American," she gives keener insights into "Mexican American" suspicions and into Chicanismo.

A Special Supplement: The Chicanos Womack, John 1972

Chicanismo has left many in the movement cold, like those on the Southwest Council, who gladly call themselves Chicanos but reckon that a new alienation would ruin la raza.

A Special Supplement: The Chicanos Womack, John 1972