In this document, artist David Avalos posits that the Chicano community has been marginalized, and exists “outside of the law”; it has, for the most part, been kept outside of the institutions of mainstream American society. He writes that this marginalization has its roots in the United States-Mexico War of the 1840s, in which the United States claimed land that previously belonged to Mexico, displacing and killing its inhabitants, and setting in motion a sense of forced exile and dislocation among generations of their descendants. Avalos argues that the media in the United States has dealt with this problem and attempted to counter the threat of social unrest by painting Chicanos as unruly and lawbreaking, focusing on the issue of law enforcement in relationship to the Chicano community rather than taking into account underlying social problems, such as lack of educational and career opportunities. He writes that a key way in which Chicanos have attempted to resist this treatment has been through the development of an image program that promotes a view of the Chicano community as self-reliant, proud, and resilient, articulated most effectively through the painting of public murals. Avalos ends his paper by outlining what he sees as the key criteria for an educational curriculum centered on Chicano art and culture.

San Diego artist and educator, David Avalos creates sculptures and installation art, along with public art and collaborative projects that question the role of art in contemporary—especially United States—society. In San Diego, he cofounded the Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo (BAW/TAF), a seminal bi-national artist collective established at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in 1985. BAW/TAF has been acknowledged for coining and formulating the artistic practice known as “border art.”

This paper was presented at the “Murals in Education” panel, which was part of a conference entitled “Chicano Art in the Future,” held at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego, California, on April 27, 1984.