Ester Hernandez is a Chicana artist, best known for her works of Chicana women. Ester’s goal is to recreate women’s lives to produce positive images of women’s lifestyle and to create icons. Her piece, Frida y Yo, contains the iconic painter Frida Kahlo. Frida, after being in multiple accidents causing long-term pain and suffering, began painting, mostly self-portraits, to portray her reality and glorify the pain. Similar to how Hernandez's goals are a juxtaposition to Frida’s artwork, the art piece Frida y Yo creates a juxtaposition between life and suffering and death and fortune. The use of calaveras is a direct reference to Dia de Los Muertos, a Mexican holiday celebrating the dead. Frida’s artwork has always been about her reality,
and some of her artwork has included very detailed reflections of pain and suffering. The piece consists of two women, aside from sitting on a watermelon both women have mask near their faces. Frida’s character is half skeleton while the arm holding onto Hernandez is still covered in flesh. Frida’s character in the painting mirrors those who experience pain and suffering in their lives but smile and wear a mask. While Hernandez's character is still human, she is holding an hourglass and wears a skeleton mask as if she is waiting for death. She is not afraid of the pain and suffering that comes with living instead, she shares Frida’s strength and calmly waits for her time to come. One piece of the artwork that draws attention to itself is the watermelon the women sit on. Not only does the inner white rind, dark green outer rind and red inside create a direct connection to the Mexican flag and the Chicano’s farm-working hardships but it contrasts the death theme created by the women. Fruit represents prosperity, the ability to grow from nothing, and life, literally feeding lives to survive. The watermelon, believed to symbolize love and welfare, juxtaposes the death theme created by the women. Chicanos conjunct Dia de Los Muertos and watermelon to signify life and love even beyond death. The stems and leaves in the background suggest that the watermelon is still intact to its roots signifying that the watermelon can still grow.
Selena, “Le Reina de Tejano”, was born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson. She was the youngest of three children of Abraham Quintanilla Jr. and Marcela, his wife. At a young age, Abraham had a strong passion for music that he still has. During the 1950s and 1960s, him and his friends made a group called “Los Dinos” and played at nightclubs and restaurants. Even though his passion for music, he gave it up when he got married and earned a job at Dow Chemical as a shipping clerk.
This had symbolized Frida wanting to be freedom from all that she had suffered from mentally and physically. This painting had only been finished eight days before Friday died of health problems. Which in fact her husband Diego Rivera had died from health problems too, and he had also painted a watermelon portrait. This is connected with the poem Wedding Portrait, because the relationship between Frida and Diego are being relived through the speaker in the poem. In the poem the husband talks about how his wife is having problems with her health and how he wonders what it feels like for her. Also he tries to do his best on making her happy, by massaging her feet and would sit on the porch with
It took eight months to complete this mural and was created for the LA. Bicentennial at the time was then not shown. It was given a temporary display at the 1990 LA festival. This mural contains 51 scenes depicting a chronological history of Los Angeles emphasizes the experience of marginalized groups. It captures the city of the original native inhabitants through the 50th century, including her younger sister image. Artist Barbara Carrasco based the mural’s main figure, of her sister Frances. ("LA History" 2017) The figure represents a mythical queen of Los Angeles, this queen was inspired by one of the city’s first names. El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles de la Porciuncula. The mural L.A. History: A Mexican Perspective depicts images from the Incarceration of Japanese American during the WII to the zoot suit riots, all unfolding of the Reina’s strands of hair. LA Reina carries our history of Mexican-American on her strands of hair, our failures and our triumphs. La Reina is not ashamed of the truth of our history, she is well aware of
Known as the “Queen of Tejano” and the “Mexican Madonna”, Selena Quintanilla-Perez was the adored Latin singer who sadly did not get to live to see all of the success of her career. One of her most famous quotes is, “We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever but to create something that will (PhilosIblog, 2014).” That is just what Selena did and she made sure that her legacy would live on for years. Selena surely left a her mark in this world with the help of her family, in her short lived 23 years. Selena was an amazing singer, she even made it very far in a genre of music that was dominated by men. Selena Quintanilla-Perez is an influential person because of her loving personality, her music career, her determination to succeed in a genre that was only men, and her success with her music that will never stop playing even if she is not here.
Selena Quintanilla, the madonna of Tejano music. Such an empowering person; she was beloved by many. Her tragic death caused an immense outrage and pained many. Yolanda Saldivar, her killer made a huge mistake that day. Nothing can justify her shooting Selena. Her actions were driven by hatred towards the Quintanilla family, greed, and caused an immense outbreak of mourning. Although some may say that her actions were justified because of her being fired, that is not a good enough reason to shoot someone. Here are my explanations as to why Yolanda saldivar did not have a valid reason to end Selena Quintanilla’s life.
Frida Kahlo is known for the most influential Latin American female artist. She is also known as a rebellious feminist. Kahlo was inspired to paint after her near-death bus incident when she was 17. After this horrendous incident that scarred her for life, she went under 35 different operations. These operations caused her extreme pain and she was no longer able to have kids. Kahlo’s art includes self portraits of her emotions, pain, and representations of her life. Frida Kahlo was an original individual, not only in her artwork but also in her
In the 1960s, a wave of Cuban immigrants moved into the United States to escape their ruthless dictator, Fidel Castro. Aleida Rodriguez and her siblings were some of those immigrants. In her reflection, she looks at photographs of her childhood while she reflects upon the impact of emigration within her family during the sixties. In the excerpt from “my Mother in Two Photographs, Among Other Things,” author Aleida Rodriguez reveals the cultural rifts caused by relocation.
Frida Kahlo nació el 6 de Julio 1907 en la ciudad de México. Ella les dijo a muchas personas que nació el 7 de Julio 1910 porque quiso parecer más joven a los otros. Aunque sus padres fueron judíos, Frida nació en México. Frida fue una artista surrealista y sus obras vió de sus emociones de la tristexa y la cólera de su vida. Ella le encantó decir los chistes, reír, y sonreír. Frida Kahlo llevó las ropas de la cultura tradicional de México porque pensó que las ropas fueran una forma del arte. Todo el mundo admiró mucho a Frida, a causa de sus obras y su actitud.
Frida Kahlo was an amazing woman whose many tragedies influenced her to put her stories into her paintings. She was born in July 6th 1907 to a Mexican Roman Catholic mother who was of Indian and Spanish decent and a German photographer father. Frida had three sisters, Mitilde and Adriana, who were older and Christina who was younger. She learned about Mexican history, art and architecture by looking at her father’s photography. When Frida was six she got polio and it was a long time before she would heal completely. After surviving polio, Frida’s right leg became weak and thin, so her father encouraged her to play sports to help her.
The idea of the alienated artist is very common in feminist works. Esperanza, the protagonist, is alienated from the rest of society in many ways. Her Latino neighborhood seems to be excluded from the rest of the world, while Esperanza is also separated from the other members of her community. Members of other cultures are afraid to enter the neighborhood because they believe it is dangerous. Esperanza seems to be the only one who refuses to just accept Mango Street, and she dreams of someday leaving it behind. She is considered an artist because she has an extremely creative imagination which creates a conflict with the type of liberal individuality she seeks. This creative "genius survives even under the most adverse conditions..." (Gagnier 137). To escape the pain of this division, Esperanza turns to writing. She says, "I put it down on paper and then the ghost does not ache so much" (Cisneros 110). Gagnier sees a "distinction of the writer who nonetheless sees herself as somehow different, separate..." (137).
This picture is interesting because the need to nurse a child was killing her inside little by little. eSpecially having a baby with Diego was one of her dreams that she couldn’t accomplish. Being successful in life and not be a hundred percent happy as women was causing her to be depressed. She tries to fulfill the need of having a child of her own by replacing that need of companion with pets and through documenting her life into portraits. The following picture it is another good example of her needs to bear children. She documented all aspects of her life, especially her pain, tragedy, and emotions. “Frida y la Cesarea” Frida and the Caesarean)
Born in 1910, Frida was a woman that was not about preserving young beauty. She loved to acquaint herself with Mexico, where she was born. Being a great painter, she loved to paint pictures of herself. A quote by her is as follows “I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best”. In other words, she can paint and feel free, because she knows herself well and can paint the
Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait (Figure 1), which I encountered by chance at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, left a significant impression on me. At the time, I did not know her right leg was crippled by polio; I was uninterested in her. I eventually learned of her fate while I was searching for artists with disabilities on the internet as I was preparing data on my Capstone, ‘An Art Gallery for the individuals with disabilities.’ I made my mind to change the subject of my Capstone into ‘Frida Kahlo,’ as I wanted to know more of her unique paintings and suffering-filled life. In this work, I will discuss the two categories of her artistic techniques and oeuvres. The former is classified into her suffering-filled life and ruthless love, whereas the
The artist I decided to chose was Ramon Ayala’s interpretation of ‘Tragos Amargos’, which means bitter shots of liquor. The composer of, “Tragos Amargos” is composed by two writers Freddie Martinez and Jesse Salcedo. I decided to chose this song in particular because I have heard many of my family members drink to this song. As I heard this song, a flash of memories popped up from the lyrics of the song. For me, I have been surrounded by this song more compared to the other songs in the list, so I decided to go with track 23. The way Ramon Ayala sings the song, he makes the song sound depressing. His vocal formation is deeper, he stresses the note of the lyrics making the song sound remorseful. In addition, the artist makes his voice sound remorseful because the tone of his singing style and with the combination of the lyrics together makes the overall sound become emotional. I also believe that because the artist is singing the song slowly the song also allows you to achieve the remorse the man is feeling. I believe Ramon Ayala only
The most eye-catching aspect of the piece would be the small portrait of Diego that lies upon her forehead. This is a straight-forward symbol that represents Kahlo’s love for her husband. Despite his repetitive pattern of infidelity, she still cannot remove him from her thoughts; he has become a permanent part of her mind, she has become an obsessive lover (Frida Kahlo Fans, 2016). In this piece, Kahlo is dressed as a traditional Tehuana, from her previous piece The Two Fridas (1939) it was observed that Kahlo struggled to be the woman Diego expected her to be. The fact that she has chosen to paint herself in traditional Mexican wear may be because she wants to attract Diego and lure him into fidelity (Frida Kahlo Fans, 2016). This constant desire to possess Diego is not only shown in her attire but is represented through the intertwining roots that spring from the bundle of flowers that form something close to a web. This symbolises that with her blossoming love she wishes to trap Diego in the web of monogamy, to root himself to her (Aaron, 2016). This was painted after the two remarried, her emotions would have been strong and fresh, the painting portrays her burdening desire to keep him tied to