Visual Art Networks
The creation and experience of visual art can unify communities through the symbols of identity and illustrate shared values. However, creatives who represent minority groups or push back at ideas entrenched in society are often censored, either explicitly or implicitly, by erasure and lack of funding. The works of visual art in this collection were created by and for particular communities. Raul Valdez’s Tradicón Oral mural affirmed Chicano and Mexican-American histories, View Magazine allowed artists to subvert wartime censorship, and All-Negro Comics created a space for black cartoonists to illustrate compelling stories about black characters. Unlike the artworks that line museum and gallery spaces, these works were designed to speak to a small circle of people at the time in which they were created, not to be preserved as “fine art.” These items, found in archives across the University of Texas at Austin including the Harry Ransom Center, Benson Latin American Collection, and Briscoe Center for American History attest to the presence and value of community art networks as ways of strengthening and asserting shared identity.
Tradición Oral (Oral Tradition) Mural by Raul Valdez:
This mural uses symbols of Mexican-American identity and activism to affirm a Chicano history in Austin, Texas.
The title, "Tradición Oral," refers to a rich oral history that extends beyond written language. This idea is illustrated by the mural's central image: an elderly woman speaking to a younger generation. Inside her speech bubble is a banner that reads, "Mi Raza Primero" (My People First). This slogan, which was connected to Chicano anti-Vietnam War activism, and was used by the Chicano movement generally, perticularly by the Brown Berets and La Raza Unida. It epitomized "a popular desire to shift Chicana/o political concerns away from extra-ethnic and transnational matters and toward local community issues" (Gonzales Sae-Saue 16).
One of the figures depicted in the mural, a young boy, wears a T-shirt that reads "Tierra O," and has an illustration of Emiliano Zapata, a hero of the Mexican Revolution. This design references the iconic "Tierra O Muerte" posters that circulated in New Mexico in 1967, the year La Alianza, a land rights organization led by Reies López Tijerina, conducted a raid to free imprisoned members and reclaim land (Tierra o Muerte).
On the far right of the mural, an eagle grabs a snake from a cactus. This image echoes the central emblem of the Mexican Flag, which itself is an illusion to the mythological founding of the Aztec capital city Tenotichlan. In the story, the god Huitzilopochtli appeared to the Aztecs and told them to settle where they saw an eagle holding a snake while perched on a cactus . The motif has appeared on flags since 1810, when priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla first led a revolt against the Spanish colonial government (Hartvigsen 3).
The mural is part of a visual art network within a particular community. It was created for a particular audience, the local Chicano/a/x community that would have understood the visual references to Aztec and Mexican-American Identity in connection with contemporary protest movements. The artist, Raul Valdez, conceives of his murals as political in that they simply represent his culture's historic and continued presence despite police harassment and attempts to force Mexican-American residents out (The Politics of Murals).
The murals are also about community building. Part of Valdez's practice is reaching out to the residents of communities where he is painting to ask what they would like to see in a mural. Valdez's murals are "integrated into the community," and the show "what the community requested and wants" (The Politics of Murals). He also involves the community in the creation of the murals, soliciting community members to paint, draw, make tacos and assist with carpentry (DiMaria).
The mural was destroyed by the City of Austin's graffiti abatement program.
Americana Fantastica issue of View magazine, ser. II 1943:
View magazine was a little magazine published from 1940-1947 by Charles Henri Ford and Parker Tyler. Its contributors consist of a pool of avant-garde and surrealist artists and thinkers who were incredibly influential during their lifetimes such as George Platt Lynes, Gertrude Stein, Pavel Tchewlitchew, Max Ernst, Lionel Abel...etc. Further, given that the magazine spanned during the most devastating war in history, much of the cast of View were European refugees residing in New York. View provided an outlet for a displaced community of artists and thinkers who would have otherwise been silenced due to the censorship of the period; while rather small and intimate, the publication built a network of creatives and intellectuals to freely express themselves in spite of the war.
All-Negro Comics: Hep Chicks on Parade
All-Negro Comics- All-Negro Comics (1947) was organized by black creatives and made for the consumption of the local black community in Philadelphia. The artists of this item recognized visual art as a medium by which they could dismantle negative stigmations of black representation. Orrin C. Evans and other creators of this comic book utilize visual drawings and colorful vibrancy to counteract negative stigmatations of black represenation. As showcased in the images, the comic stategically incorporates bright hues of yellow, red, and orange to attract readers and exemplify the vibrant, action filled content that lie within the book. Though the visuals within All-Negro Comics don't necessarily constitute the bracket of "fine art", the attention to detail and ranging depiction of different afro-figures attribute to the undeniable beauty of the black life, art, and literature.