Resurrected Histories: Voices from the Chicano Arts Collectives of Highland Park

Photographs Courtesy John Valadez

From the late 1960s to the early 1980s Highland Park in Northeast Los Angeles was home to the
influential Chicana/o artists collectives Mechicano and Concilio de Arte Popular, which included
among their members some of the most important Chicana/o artists of their time: Carlos Almaraz,
Frank Romero, Judithe Hernandez, Teddy Sandoval, Gilbert Magu Lujan, Leo Limon, Barbara
Carrasco, and John Valadez. In stark contrast to the upscale galleries of West Los Angeles, where an
individualistic conceptual art was taking root, Highland Park was becoming home to an art form that
emphasized the themes of community, cultural pride, and economic struggle inherited from the great
Mexican muralists of the previous generation. The work of these collectives on the East-side housing
projects of Ramona Gardens and Estrada Courts and in numerous public spaces and institutions across
the city ignited an explosion of Chicana/o muralism in L.A. in the 1970's, turning L.A. into the mural
capital of the country. Connected with the Chicana/o nationalist movement, these artists were working
toward the visibility of the Mexican American experience and the problems of justice and equality
faced by members of their community. In order to have maximum impact, the artists deliberately
located their collectives in Highland Park, a predominantly Latino/a neighborhood, so as to engage and
inform the people who stood to benefit the most. The work was not only a visual representation of the
cultural and political life of a silenced group, but, in its size and visibility, a defiant occupation of urban
space and an inexpensive form of mass communication as well. For a city and a school system devoid
of authentic information about its Mexican cultural past, these tactics were vital for creating a sense of
united cultural identity among a population that had been denied that right, and for communicating a
vision of what the American democracy could ideally be. The very production of the murals
envisioned and enacted democracy by involving the input of multiple authors and community
members. Moreover, since murals could not (easily) be moved to museums or added to personal art
collections, their very existence was always subject to wider public debate, public funding, and the
mood of society. In these ways, this work was a democratic and participatory art form like no other.
But these organizations were also made up of highly accomplished individual artists with their own
voices and styles, who nevertheless could not get represented or promoted by mainstream galleries.
Their stories raise a number of questions about how artists contend with balancing personal visions and
political obligations. Telling their stories exposes a tension between two different ideas of democracy
that is particularly resonant for artists from disenfranchised groups: on the one hand, the obligation to
work toward visibility and equality within society, and, on the other, the unencumbered right to their
own, unique expression. Having to deal with this tension can profoundly impair an artist's ability to
make money and gain wider audiences. Now fifty years later, the six surviving members of these
Highland Park collectives are in a critical place to look back and reflect upon what they had hoped to
achieve, what they feel they did or did not accomplish, and what were the benefits and sacrifices of
viewing themselves as cultural workers.

The Avenue 50 Studio, through funding by California Council for the Humanities and The James Irvine Foundation, is in the process of documenting this rich, yet unknown history. We have planned the completion of our video to coincide with an exhibit curated in our gallery by Professor Sybil Venegas of East Los Angeles College, and current Avenue 50 Studio Board Membe. Scheduled for January 2011, our exhibition will feature archival material regarding Mechicano Art Center and Concilio de Arte Popular.

Please meet our Project Team:

Abel Alejandre (Videographer) is an artist who has worked as a muralist and a videographer interested

in documenting the artistic process. In 2003 he put together a collaborative project called

“Convergence: Portable Labor and Convenience,” which included nineteen U.S. and Mexican artists on

the U.S. Mexican border. In collaboration with other videographers he documented all the artists

involved and put together a small documentary of the project. In early 2009, he started a project called

Atelier Visit, an online publication which presents short video interviews with artists on their process.

In the last two years he has interviewed and filmed twelve artists and edited and published eleven of

them via ateliervisit.com.

John Valadez (Consultant and Cultural Informant) is a Los Angeles painter and muralist. He

earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1976 from California State University, Long Beach. He was

one of the founding members of Concilio de Arte Popular in Highland Park. From the mid to late

1970's Valadez worked collectively on murals with young people in Northeast Los Angeles. He has

had several solo exhibitions of his work in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.

Sybil Venegas (Humanities Advisor) is an art historian, writer, educator, and independent curator. She

is a renowned scholar in the field of Chicana/o art history and is recognized as a seminal scholar in the

field of Chicana feminist art history. Her articles and curatorial essays have been published in

numerous catalogs and also appear on her website: www.chicanoart.org. Professor Venegas’ extensive

experience as a professor of Mexican and Chicana/o art history grounds her scholarly work in the

community. She is currently the chair of the Chicana/o Studies Department at East Los Angeles

College.

Sarah Meacham (Humanities Advisor) has a doctorate in linguistic anthropology from UCLA. Her

work has investigated the way people use language to construct self, community, and identity. She has

studied the tension between societal demands for the study of English and the maintenance of cultural

identity in Japan, and has made a video documentary about the estimation and exploitation of women's

labor in Japan. Most recently she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of

Education evaluating and documenting a large-scale reform initiative in the Boston Public Schools.

She is an expert in ethnographic methods including documentary film, fieldwork, open-ended

interviewing, and discourse analysis.

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We have partnered with KCET’s Departures regarding our Highland Park art history.  This partnership allowed us to share resources with KCET, as they provided the filming for our documentary while we conducted interviews with some of the important artists.  Our project team helped to contribute to KCET’s Departures segment entitled, “Painting the Walls,” which has nine topics for your enjoyment!

KCET’s Departures is an online interactive exploration of Los Angeles neighborhoods. Video clips, photos, and essays are available online for your enjoyment, education, and interest. Please visit http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/highland-park/painting-the-walls/

Please stay tuned as we complete our Resurrected Histories documentary.

Resurrected Histories is generously funded in part by the California Council for the Humanities and The James Irvine Foundation