Objects and narratives from Mexican roots artists: a Chicana experience

The purpose of this brief article is to discuss the context and the political tensions that existed when women artists with Mexican roots invented a political Chicano art engagé at Los Angeles. We study the creations of Judithe Hernandez and Patssi Valdez, two artists with Mexican roots, who have challenged the codes of the dominant, patriarchal, and white art world of the United States since 1970. As artists, they become a symbol of professional success for women in the arts. They developed personal art expressions and leg their own art vision of America, women, and community. They used streets, walls and displayed public performances. Nevertheless, the originality of this text relies on the analyses of some art pieces from their contemporary period. The text emphasizes the technical transformation of both legendary artists who gave up performance and mural art to develop personal and critical propositions about women condition (myths, femicide) and borders. This text uses methods of art history like image’s description and socio-anthropology methodologies like interviews to understand the singularity of these contemporary artworks