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Transcription: [00:34:12]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Of this, you know, what we're talking about today, is the fact that the image of the low rider, the image of the muralist, the image of the cholo, um, on the US-Mexico border, has not always been a positive one.
[00:34:27]
And, um, you know, the question that Dr. Valenzuela is asking-- you know, has to do-- he's asking, you know, briefly, the artist who addresses that notion that this sort of negative image that is put on these various groups from the outside and, you know, what the response would be both socially and, I guess you could say, in terms of the aesthetic expression.
[00:34:49]
{SPEAKER name="Unknown Speaker 1"}
How do you go about combatting that--
[00:34:51]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Yeah, how-- um, exactly how-- how they address it, how they go about, you know, reacting to responding to, combatting the negative imagery, that's put on them from the outside.
[00:35:03]
And Carlos, I think I'd like to, uh, you know, give the mic to you and let you try to address that.
[00:35:09]
{SPEAKER name="Carlos"}
Oh, uh--
[00:35:10]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
And you get to translate for yourself.
[00:35:12]
{SPEAKER name="Carlos"}
I get to translate for myself. Grease[[?]]. I have a task here.
[00:35:17]
Um-- what was-- uh, there was a question. Maybe I should respond to the question or maybe just start--
[00:35:23]
{SPEAKER name="Unknown Speaker 1"}
[[inaudible]]
[00:35:27]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
He was rephrasing the question.
[00:35:28]
{SPEAKER name="Carlos"}
Oh, I see. What was the question?
[00:35:30]
{SPEAKER name="Unknown Speaker 2"}
How do you go about, uh--
[00:35:32]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
How do you go about responding to the negative imagery?
[00:35:35]
{SPEAKER name="Carlos"}
The negative imagery of some of the, uh, maybe your cholismo, um, and how do we go about combatting it?
[00:35:43]
Well, uh, I think that it's mostly through education.
[00:35:47]
Um-- In order for you to get an idea of the reactions that the general society has on cholismo is basically what you probably-- what's equivalent to some of your-- I don't know in Washington what you have, but a lot of your gang, gang youth, and that imagery they portray.
[00:36:10]
Uh, you have to understand that, even though, uh, there's parallels, to a cholismo to the gang kids, say in urban cities, you have to also-- of course both of them have social economical reason for them, but your cholismo is also a form-- it started, the roots of it has began as a form of resistance.
[00:36:39]
Back in the 40's and 30's when your typical-- you're familiar with your zoot suits. You know, uh--
[00:36:45]
Basically, what a cholo is is basically a modern day zoot suiter.
[00:36:50]
Back then it was called a pachuco, or a titilon[[?]].
[00:36:54]
Um, but you have to understand that the reason this-- if you want call it a subculture, in a way, began, basically, began as a form of resistance; it's a form of identification.
[00:37:08]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Yeah, you're talking about identity really, you know.
[00:37:10]
{SPEAKER name="Carlos"}
Basically, we're talking about identity, and it, basically, it's really interrelates to the youth of today, too, that they don't fit the norm of modern or a mainstream society activity, and so they have to find their own form, and I think instead of attacking it, we need to, basically, redirect, uh, if their said negative images, just like for instances what the youth of what he represents of the Sociedad de la Esquinas [[??]], basically redirecting that energy, but by no means telling them to change their dress, because basically what you're doing is telling them, uh, not to have an identity.
[00:37:57]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Yeah, exactly. I think that's really the core of the issue, um, and, you know, this is a social question that goes, you know, goes back certainly, you know, to the very beginning of the history of muralism in Mexico, and then the way it was taken up during the 60's and 70's, in the Chicano Movement, you know, here in this country, and you know, I think as well in the Chic...