Amalia Mesa-Bains: Geography and identity (interview)
Created Date
2020
Description
Amalia Mesa-Bains (b.1943), curator, author, visual artist, and educator, participated in the 1982 Califas: Chicano Art and Culture in California conference. Mesa-Bains discusses how geography influences people's identity and memories. She uses her piece "Private Landscapes and Public Territories" as an example which developed through examining her family's migratory history and the geography and plant life that surrounds them. Open captions in English and open subtitles in Spanish.
Eduardo Carrillo (1937-1997) was considered a pioneer as a Chicano artist in the early 1960s. He was a prominent muralist, painter, and professor of art at University of California, Santa Cruz who inspired generations of newly arrived Latino/a/x students. In 1982, Carrillo spearheaded an initiative to take stock of the influence of the Chicano Movement. His effort resulted in the pioneering "Califas: Chicano Art and Culture in California" conference at UCSC which brought together Chicano/a/x artists, historians, leading thinkers and social instigators to take stock of the influence of El Movimiento. Almost forty years later, Museo Eduardo Carrillo's Califas Legacy Project brought together Carmen León, Ralph D'Oliveira, Guillermo (Yermo) Aranda, and Amalia Mesa-Bains and other influential Monterey Bay Crescent Chicano/a/x artists to share their art, reflect on their lives in Califas, and fill in a missing piece of American art history.
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