As the lead singer of the Grammy Award–winning rock band Quetzal and a scholar of Chicana/o and Latina/o studies, Martha Gonzalez is uniquely positioned to articulate the ways in which creative expression can serve the dual roles of political commentary and community building. Drawing on postcolonial, Chicana, black feminist, and performance theories, Chican@ Artivistas explores the visual, musical, and performance art produced in East Los Angeles since the inception of NAFTA and the subsequent anti-immigration rhetoric of the 1990s.
Showcasing the social impact made by key artist-activists on their communities and on the mainstream art world and music industry, Gonzalez charts the evolution of a now-canonical body of work that took its inspiration from the Zapatista movement, particularly its masked indigenous participants, and that responded to efforts to impose systems of labor exploitation and social subjugation. Incorporating Gonzalez’s memories of the Mexican nationalist music of her childhood and her band’s journey to Chiapas, the book captures the mobilizing music, poetry, dance, and art that emerged in pre-gentrification corners of downtown Los Angeles and that went on to inspire flourishing networks of bold, innovative artivistas.
Martha Gonzalez is an associate professor in the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o Latina/o studies at Scripps/Claremont College, lead singer of the Grammy Award–winning rock band Quetzal, and contributor to Dancing Across Borders and Performing Motherhood.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Music Misunderstood
Chapter 2. Chican@ Artivistas: Resistance to Capital Market Systems and the Mind/Body Split
Chapter 3. The Popular Resource Center and Centro Regeneración in Highland Park
Chapter 4. The Big Frente Zapatista: Using Art as a Tool of Critical Dialogue
Chapter 5. Fandango Jarocho as a Decolonial Tool
Chapter 6. Los Guardianes de la Convivencia
Conclusion. Imaginaries: The Grammy and the Graduate Student
Notes
Discography
Bibliography
Index
What People are Saying About This
Luis Alvarez
This is a wonderful and important book. Chican@ Artivistas is a roadmap, both to the author's own journey as successful musician, activist, and scholar and to the intricacies of Chicanx culture and social movements since 1994.