STANDARDS

Core Art Standards: VA1, VA8, VA10

CCSS: R1, R2, W4

Looking to the Past and Future

How do these contemporary artists help the Chicano movement endure?

Melanie Cervantes (b. 1977), Rooted, 2023. Screen-print. Dignidad Rebelde. ©2023 Melanie Cervantes.

How does Cervantes use color in this composition?

During the 1960s and ’70s, Mexican Americans organized to fight for civil rights. This wave of activism became known as the Chicano movement. Chicano artists have played a crucial role in defining Mexican American identity on their own terms and combating stereotypes.

Many Chicano artists were—and continue to be—inspired by ancient Mexican Indigenous art and history. They also echo more recent Mexican artists, like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. The contemporary Chicano artists featured here continue to promote themes of the Chicano movement.

Signs and Symbols

Melanie Cervantes (ser-VAHN-tes) is inspired by her community in the San Francisco Bay Area and its desire for change. Cervantes is co-founder of Dignidad Rebelde, a graphic arts collaborative. Ancient Mesoamerican imagery and current social movements often inform her work.

In the 2023 screenprint Rooted, above, Cervantes combines multiple visual ideas, dividing the composition into brightly colored bands. The nine-layer print has a stylized quality that echoes the graphic protest art of the Chicano movement. The image features patterns and symbols that suggest ancient Mesoamerica. The creatures near the top might remind you of snakes, perhaps referring to the Maya and Aztec feathered serpent gods. How does Cervantes visually combine these ideas to create a unified and distinct style?

Sonia Romero, Barbershop, 2024. Acrylic, oil, and block printing on wood panel. ©2024 Sonia Romero.

How does Romero point to the past and present?

All in the Details

Los Angeles-based artist Sonia Romero has deep roots in the art community, and she brings that tradition into works like her 2024 painting Barbershop, above, and her 2015 work Wings of the Dead, on the cover.

Each detail in her work has meaning. In Barbershop, she points to current fashion trends with the figure’s popular haircut. The repeated floral motif in the background is a bougainvillea, which is often used as a symbol for Hispanic/Latine culture. It is native to South America but is common in Southern California as well.

Wings of the Dead also includes Chicano symbols. The monarch butterfly represents migration, and the skull symbolizes Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, a Mexican holiday honoring the dead every November. How does Romero use symbols to convey ideas about cultural identity?

John Valadez (b. 1951), Welcome to Long Beach, 2011. Acrylic paint, metal. Image courtesy of the artist.

What story does Valadez tell about Long Beach in this mural?

Nod to the Past

John Valadez (vah-lah-DES) has been making paintings of Chicano life in Southern California for 45 years. His 2011 Welcome to Long Beach, above, is a 60-foot-tall mural depicting a nostalgic scene from the 1957 Miss Universe pageant.

A crowd watches the pageant. Overhead, pelicans fly in front of Rainbow Pier, which was demolished in the 1960s. Valadez depicts the “Spruce Goose,” a wooden World War II-era seaplane that made its first and only flight in Long Beach.

Using historical photos and his own memories, Valadez hoped to capture the feeling of a day at the beach. “I remember the sounds and smells,” he says, “. . . the popcorn and the coconut oil.” 

The mural was commissioned to help bring a cultural vibrance to Long Beach’s downtown area. “As I get older, I really want to try to have people connect,” explains Valadez.

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