Documents of Latin American and Latino Art

In this document, Professor Amelia Malagamba explores how Afro-Mexican icons and symbols, as well as sociopolitical issues in the African-American community, have been transformed into what she terms “cultural capital.” A “cultural capital”as [...]

This document is an editorial within a newsletter published by El Colegio de la Frontera Norte [The School of the North Border]. It describes the work of the painter Malaquías Montoya and declares that he is responsible for the first mural painted [...]

This is a statement by Chicano artist Malaquías Montoya. he emphasizes the need to develop a socially engaged artistic practice that can serve as a tool for education and social change. It underscores the degree to which art has been fundamental in [...]

In this letter, San Francisco artist and muralist Graciela Carrillo challenges Malaquías Montoya’s essay, “A Critical Perspective in the State of Chicano Art,” on what she describes as its elitist, rhetorical style that made it hard to read, [...]

This brief document outlines the history of the Mexican American Liberation Art Front (MALAF). Written collectively by the member artists, it details the mission and goals of the group, linking its development as a critical mouthpiece of the [...]

This document is a handwritten letter in Spanish by Leo Tanguma and addressed to Malaquias Montoya. Tanguma informs Montoya of an art project he is planning to do in conjunction with the public school system in Denver, Colorado, to address the high [...]

Defining art as a combination of technology, formal expression, and ideology, this essay by art historian Shifra M. Goldman addresses the relationship of each element to Chicano art practices, ultimately proposing that resistance from dominant [...]

In this essay, artist and author Rupert Garcia focuses on two related modes of Chicano art: the mural and the poster. Garcia maintains that Chicano-Latino mural and poster art were both born out of the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. Both [...]

In this essay, Shifra M. Goldman discusses the Chicano poster movement by considering its historical background, followed by an examination of poster collectives and the work of individual Chicano poster artists, including Rupert Garcia, Malaquías [...]