In this document Shifra Goldman and Tomás Ybarra-Frausto outline an extensive model for the study of a social history of Chicano art, beginning with a consideration of the cultural theories of Ernesto Galarza and anthropologists Americo Paredes and José E. Limon. The authors develop detailed historical and social definitions of the terms “Chicano” and “art history,” and discuss the relationship of each to Chicano cultural identity. They argue that in order to arrive at a definition of Chicano art, it has been necessary to redefine contemporary art history and criticism, a task that artists have taken upon themselves in manifestos and discussions, as have writers and a small number of interested art historians and critics. Goldman and Ybarra-Frausto present as part of their theoretical outline a chronology tracing the development of Chicano art and culture, reaching as far back as the Spanish conquest and the early history of Mexican independence in order to establish a framework for the modern period, which is the focus of their study. They devote significant consideration to the events and conditions that characterized the period between 1910–1965, which they refer to as the Mexican-American period, followed by a lengthy discussion of contemporary Chicano political and artistic movements, their ideologies, concerns, ambitions, and achievements. Topics covered include the relationship of Chicanos to the wider Civil Rights Movement that took place in the U.S. in the 1960s, the Cuban Revolution, the farm workers’ and anti-Vietnam War movements, neo-Indigenism, Chicana feminism, the presence of Chicanos in Hollywood, and Chicanos’ involvement in architecture.

Shifra M. Goldman (1926–2011) was a prolific art historian and scholar who wrote extensively about Mexican, Latino, and Chicano art. Tomás Ybarra-Frausto is a scholar and cultural critic who has provided leadership in the area of Chicano art scholarship since the 1970s and who has influenced subsequent generations of scholars. This joint essay serves as the introduction to an annotated bibliography on Chicano art that they compiled together and that was published in 1985 by the University of California at Berkeley Chicano Studies Library. It is still the only comprehensive bibliography of Chicano art with an extraordinary number of primary documents and publications—many of them self-published—for the key early period of Chicano art (1965–1981). The essay provides an extensive, in-depth analysis of the cultural and social roots of Chicano art for the purpose of approaching a more holistic understanding of its position and resonances within a broader history of modern art. The essay also provides important information regarding artists from the Mexican American period, a neglected area of art historical research.