Chicana/o Mural Creativities and Acts of Peace from the Streets: Based on the Voices of Los Angeles Chicana/o Artists

Abstract

This article examines the process of developing Chicana/o bilingual-bicultural creative works and acts of peace mediated by Los Angeles Chicana/o mural artists. “Chicana/o” is a political term associated with the Chicano Movement of the late-1960s. It used to be a despised word that referred to Mexican migrants before the Movement, but in the late 1960s, some Mexican-Americans proudly identified themselves as “Chicana/os.” They painted various murals in their barrios, using Mexican cultural figures, Chicano leaders’ images, and local history images in order to establish their grassroots culture. This became known as the Chicano Mural Movement.

This paper depicts Chicano murals as agencies that mediate peaceful relationships with others. The characteristics of agencies can be summarized into the following five perspectives.

First, Chicano mural was an important communication medium through which to share their desires, histories, and criticisms of the United States’ white supremacy. Second, Chicano mural was sometimes used as a space through which to achieve self-salvation from internal violence such as gang conflicts and drug abuse in East Los Angeles, California, so creating murals also helped Chicana/os rebuild positive relationships with others. Third, making Chicano murals encouraged collaboration and collective barrio education such as cross-border exchanges with Mexican artists. Fourth, Chicana/o researchers and artists comically developed the barrio “have-not” worldview, named Rasquachismo, which mediated between high art and Chicana/o grass-root efforts. Fifth, after the Chicano Mural Movement, a second-generation artist emerged who had a high consciousness for site-specific sense regarding Chicano mural culture in Los Angeles. She developed her independent “in-between” style, drawing lines for Chicano nationalism.

These Chicana/o creativities can be seen as agencies from the bottom to mediate peaceful relationships with others. Although the Chicano Mural Movement sometimes was perceived as having closed or aggressive natures in the process of development, those agencies still are possible avenues for peace in Los Anegeles’ diverse culture.