Chicano Art Guide: Xicanisma
Defining Xicanisma
The term Xicanisma also known as Chicana Feminism was coined by Ana Castillo in her book Massacre of the Dreamers and defined as, "a sociopolitical movement in the United States that analyzes the historical, cultural, spiritual, educational, and economic intersections of Mexican-American women that identify as Chicana." The writings by prominent scholars like Ana Castillo, Gloria Anzaldua, and Martha Cotera have prompted artists to take a critical lens toward the Chicano Art Movement in terms of its relationship to women. This in turn had an impact on the art created by women associated or influenced by the Chicano Art Movement.
Books in the Collection
- ¡Chicana Power! byCall Number: E184.M5 B55 2011ISBN: 0292726902Publication Date: 2011The first book-length study of women's involvement in the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s and 1970s. Chicana Power! tells the powerful story of the emergence of Chicana feminism within student and community-based organizations throughout southern California and the Southwest. As Chicanos engaged in widespread protest in their struggle for social justice, civil rights, and self-determination, women in el movimiento became increasingly militant about the gap between the rhetoric of equality and the organizational culture that suppressed women's leadership and subjected women to chauvinism, discrimination, and sexual harassment.
- Chicana Art byCall Number: NX512.3.M4 P47 2007ISBN: 9780822338529Publication Date: 2007This is the first book primarily focused on Chicana visual arts. Creating an invaluable archive, Laura E. Perez examines the work of more than forty Chicana artists across a variety of media including painting, printmaking, sculpture, performance, photography, film and video, comics, sound recording, interactive CD-ROM, altars and other installation forms, and fiction, poetry, and plays.
Relevant Articles
Videos
Feminist Theory/WRITINGS
- Massacre of the Dreamers byISBN: 9780826353597Publication Date: 2014-12-01This new edition of an immensely influential book gives voice to Mexic Amerindian women silenced for hundreds of years by the dual censorship of being female and indigenous. Castillo replaced the term "Chicana feminism" with "Xicanisma" to include mestiza women on both sides of the border. In history, myth, interviews, and ethnography Castillo revisits her reflections on Chicana activism, spiritual practices, sexual attitudes, artistic ideology, labor struggles, and education-related battles.
- Borderlands byCall Number: PS3551.N95 B6 1999ISBN: 1879960575Publication Date: 1999-05-01Second edition of Gloria Anzaldúa's major work, with a new critical introduction by Chicano Studies scholar and new reflections by Anzaldúa.
- This Bridge Called My Back byCall Number: PS509.F44 T5 2015ISBN: 9781438454399Publication Date: 2015-03-01Updated and expanded edition of the foundational text of women of color feminism.
A Few Relevant Chicana Artists
Tamalada, 1990, color lithograph, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Carmen Lomas Garza.
Mujer de Mucha Enagua: Pa' Ti Xicana, 1999, screenprint, Yreina D. Cervantes.
Viva la Mujer (Long Live the Woman) , 2017, screenprint 40 x 28 inches, by Melanie Cervantes and Jesus Barraza.
Asco, Gronk, Willie F. Herrón III, Patssi Valdez, Harry Gamboa, Jr., À La Mode, 1976, printed 2010, chromogenic print, Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Patssi Valdez, pictured here, was a member of the collective ASCO and painter.