Resources for Learning More about Social Movements and Culture

Chapter 4. Revolutionary Walls: Chicano/a Murals, Chicano/a Movements

Books and Articles

Anzaldúa, Gloria, ed. Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Cara: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Women of Color. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Foundation Books, 1990. Excellent collection of woman-of-color creative theorizing in the spirit of Anzaldúa and Moraga’s classic This Bridge Called My Back.

Arredondo, Gabriela, et al., eds. Chicana Feminisms: A Critical Reader. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003. Excellent collection. Most directly relevant isthe essay by Maylei Blackwell on Chicanas in the Chicano movement and Ana Nieto-Gomez’s response.

Chabram-Dernersesian, Angie. “I Throw Punches for My Race but I Don’t Want to Be a Man: Writing Us—Chica-Nos (Girl, Us) Chicanas—into the Movement Script.” In Cultural Studies, ed. Lawrence Grossberg. New York: Routledge, 1992, 81–96. Classic essay that includes reflection on Chicana murals as political theory.

Chavez, Ernesto. “¡Mi Raza Primero!” (My People First!): Nationalism, Identity, and Insurgency in the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles, 1966–1978. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. First major study of the Los Angeles Brown Berets and their movement context.

Cockcroft, Eva, and Holly Barnet-Sanchez, eds. Signs from the Heart: California Chicano Murals. Venice, CA: Social and Public Art Resource Center, 1990. Four excellent, richly illustrated essays on the mural movement in the context of the Chicano/a movement culture.

García, Alma M., and Mario T. Garcia, eds. Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings. New York: Routledge, 1997. Traces the evolution of Chicana feminism from the early movement days to the 1990s.

García, Ignacio. Chicanismo: The Forging of a Militant Ethos among Mexican Americans. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997. Brief overview study that gives short shrift to Chicanas but offers useful explanations of major ideologies in el movimiento.

———. United We Win: The Rise and Fall of La Raza Unida Party. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989. Full-length study of the major attempt of the southwest branch of the movement to enter the electoral arena with a third party.

Gaspar de Alba, Alicia. Chicano Art inside/outside the Master’s House: Cultural Politics and the CARA Exhibition. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998. Brilliant interpretative study of the major Chicano art exhibit of the 1990s, analyzing the history of race, class, gender, and sexuality dynamics in the history of the Chicano/a movement as embodied in the art works.

———, ed. Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture and Chicana/o Sexualities. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2003. Excellent collection on Chicano/a sexual and gender politics in “rasquache aesthetics” in such often-dismissed art genres as painting on velvet; includes discussion of this aesthetic’s impact on the Chicano/a movement.

Goldman, Shifra M. Dimensions of the Americas: Art and Social Change in Latin America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. Important study comparing and showing links between the politics of U.S. and Latin American murals and other visual arts.

Gonzales, Rodolfo “Corky.” In Message to Aztlán: Selected Writings. Houston: Arte Público Press, 2001. Major writings of Denver’s most well known Chicano activist.

Griswold del Castillo, Richard, Teresa McKenna, and Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano, eds. Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965–1985. Los Angeles: Wight Art Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles, 1991. Rich contextualization of the first major exhibit centering on the Chicano/a movement as an artistic force.

Gutiérrez, David G. Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Identity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. Historical study that places el movimiento into the context of long-range struggles by Americans of Mexican descent.

Martinez, Elizabeth (Bettita). “De Colores” Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century. Boston: South End Press, 1998. Excellent activist-focused work on the future of Chicano/a activism in relation to wider movements.

Muñoz, Carlos. Youth, Identity, Power: The Chicano Movement. New York: Verso, 1989. Influential early overview of the Chicano/a movement.

Navarro, Armando. Mexican American Youth Organization: Avant-Garde of the Chicano Movement in Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995. Full-length study of MAYO, the major Chicano/a youth group in Texas and parts of the Southwest.

Perez, Emma. The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999. Brilliant reconceptualization of Chicano/a history that places Chicanas at the center of the movement and the wider arc of history.

Rosales, F. Arturo. ¡Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1996. General history to accompany the documentary film series of the same name.

Tijerina, Reies López, and Jose Angel Gutierrez. They Called Me “King Tiger”: My Struggle for the Land and Our Rights. Houston: Arte Público Press, 2000. The story of the Hispano land grant movement straight from the tiger’s mouth.

Vigil, Ernesto. The Crusade for Justice: Chicano Militancy and the Government’s War on Dissent. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999. Comprehensive study of Colorado’s most influential Chicano/a movement organization.

Villa, Raúl Homero. Barrio Logos: Space and Place in Urban Chicano Literature and Culture. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000. Brilliant reinterpretation of Chicano/a culture, including the role of murals as claims on public space.

Multimedia

Art of Resistance. 1994. Directed by Susana Ortiz. Documentary film on the relations between Chicano/a art and the Chicano/a movement.

Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965–1985; Artist Round-Table Discussion. 1990. Video dialogue among artists from this pivotal exhibition.

¡Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. 1996. Four-episode documentary, including archival footage and interviews with many key activists and art activists.

Websites

Archivos Virtuales. Online archive of papers and interviews with dozens of Latino/a and Latin American artists.

Brown Berets. Historical site on this key Chicano/a organization, including interviews with former leaders.

Centro Cultural de la Raza. A major legacy of the Chicano/a art movement in San Diego.

Cesar Chavez Center for Interdisciplinary Instruction. A major resource from the UCLA Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies.

Chicano Art: A Resource Guide. Excellent source on all aspects of Latino/a arts, from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Chicano Movement. An extensive bibliography to go beyond the works cited here.

Culture Clash. Exhibit site for one of the great Chicano/a political theatre troupes.

Galería de la Raza. San Francisco’s main institutional contribution to the legacy of Latino/a movement art.

The Great Wall Resource Portal. Video tour of the entire Great Wall mural, Los Angeles, from SPARC.

History of Chicano Park, San Diego, California. Includes a virtual tour and images of murals in this key site of Chicano/a and mural movement struggle.

Latina/o Art Community. Includes online exhibits and links to various artists and art organizations.

Making Face/Making Soul: A Chicana Feminist Homepage. Excellent source linking poetry and other creative work to feminist struggle.

SPARC: The Social and Public Art Resource Center. The most important single source on murals and the mural movement.

El Teatro Campesino. Includes a sample script from the movimiento era and photographs.

Viva Cesar E. Chavez. The best of many sites on Chavez, from San Francisco State University.

Young Lords Party: 13 Point Program and Platform. Puerto Rican gang morphed into a movement group similar to the Brown Berets and the Black Panthers.

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