Arts & International Affairs: Vol. 4, No. 3, Spring 2020 | Page 19

ARTS & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
and visual texts and creators by not just seeking new points of view for the intellectual
mixture�which might simply be a case study�but being realizing that artists and
community leaders have something to give that transforms, and at times improves the
theories here. Indeed, especially with post-Marxist aesthetic theories, which are in part
based on non-academic thought�e.g. film, literature, art, etc.�there is a debt to others
outside of academia.
Murals that Fight Racism
Art about the border fights racism in a few different ways. It sometimes directly depicts
racist incidents at the border. It may also refer to land loss, which is an assault on communities
of Mexican ancestry; their practices of land use were seen as unsophisticated
by whites (Sunseri 1973). In a less obvious challenge to racism, the actual acts of racism
may not be directly referenced; rather border art may affirm the relevance of Mexican-American
culture by using pre-Columbian and Mexican symbolism. This is anti-racist
because prior to the 1960s, art, monuments, and naming affirmed white culture and
history only. As Latorre (2008:13) explains this occurred through complex cultural appropriation:
“The resurgence of Indigenist thought and aesthetics allowed Chicana/os
to build a nation without government sponsorship and on the fringes of the mainstream
establishment. But, ultimately, the use of Mexican Indigenism signified for Chicana/os
the reclaiming of a culture and a history traditionally commodified by Western powers
of colonization.” Since border art fights racism in both obvious and not so obvious ways,
research about borders should not only focus on depictions of obvious racism.
San Diego’s Chicano Park enacts anti-racism. The actions there fight racial oppression
of Chicana/os. The imagery in the murals affirms the culture of a group of people who
have been consistently treated as inferior by whites in the United States. The fact that
the murals and the park are embedded in fighting racial oppression and affirming Mexican-American
culture is not a matter of interpretation or an accidental coincidence
caused by random juxtaposition. The muralists’ intent is clearly explained:
It is the history of the Chicano Mexicano people struggling to reclaim
our heritage and our right to self-determination. The Park is where our
history is enshrined in monumental murals. It is where we keep making
history as we fight to preserve and defend a small piece of Aztlán known
as Chicano Park in Barrio Logan, San Diego.
(Anguiano N.D.)
Aztlán, the mythical homeland of Chicana/os in what is now the U.S. Southwest, has
been a consistent theme in the Chicana/o movement since 1965 as a territorial unifying
principle of Chicana/o identity. Chicano Park fights racism by preserving this. However,
the Chicano Park’s founders intended to change the actual land in Logan Heights, San
Diego, to realize Aztlán. This differs from nostalgia or fantasy.
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