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CAPA
CHICANO ART:
RESISTANCE AND AFFIRMATION

"No other material has affected me like mesquite wood has. I've worked with other kinds of wood but...with mesquite...I know it as if it were a part of my mind, my spirit..."

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Photograph by Linda Schlecht Demek
José Luis Rivera, with his sculpture El Quebra-Cadenas (The Chain-Breaker)

José Luis Rivera

His art is a combination of nature and self

Lina: Where were you during the Movimento? What were you doing?
José: In the beginning, when I first heard about a Chicano campaign, I was in Kingsville attending Texas A & I and I went to a rally where we heard José Angel Gutierrez speak on top of a flat trailer bed in a property that had been rented so that he could talk to the people. I was very inspired by what he had to say about the student movement which back then was called MAYO (Mexican American Youth Organization) and about how he wanted Mexican Americans to be represented in the school systems. The students were having "walk-outs", demanding there be bilingual teachers and books in the libraries about our history and the contributions of Mexican Americans in Texas. After that rally, we got together to march down the streets of Kingsville. At that time, I had never known anyone who spoke of our rights as a raza.

Lina: What draws you so much to mesquite? Why not pine, or oak or some other kind of wood?
José: We grew up with mesquite. We played in the tree; we chewed the sap that came out of it. We ate its seed. We made our barbacoa with mesquite; we cooked outside with it. We would heat ourselves with it on cold nights and hang up our hammocks with it. Mesquite was all around us and part of our living environment. I always studied it. I'd look at it and my imagination would get lost seeing things in the trees. It was everywhere. Instead of painting or working with metal, the mesquite wood was free. But it's not only because it was free. It talked to me whenever I looked at it. My mind would become part of its shape and I'd feel content studying it. Lots of ideas would come to me. No other material has affected me like mesquite wood has. I've worked with other kinds of wood but...with mesquite...I know it as if it were a part of my mind, my spirit and my body when I'm creating my sculptures. My art is a combination of mesquite, nature, what I am and how I think.

Lina: Your sculptures emanate power and nobility. They're so expensive.
José: I was very affected by the love, the unity and moral support I saw amongst the Chicanos I knew in Oakland where I lived in the early seventies. I was teaching art in a Junior High School and was part of the struggle for civil rights, human rights which we as citizens all deserve. I felt the power of that love and have tried to express it in my art. Many of my subjects deal with the family and the new generation of young Chicanos yet to come.
-Lina del Roble Cronful

Lina: ¿Donde estabas durante el Movimiento? ¿Que estabas haciendo?
José: Al principio, cuando primero oí de una campaña Chicana, estaba en Kingsville yendo a Texas A & I y fuí a un rally que se hizo donde escuchamos a José Angel Gutierrez hablar arriba de un flat trailer bed, ahí en una propiedad que habían rentado para que se hablara al pueblo. Me inspiró mucho lo que estaba diciendo del movimiento estudiantil que hace tiempo se llamaba MAYO (Mexican American Youth Organization), y que quería representación histórica de los mexico-americanos en las escuelas. Los estudiantes estaban teniendo "walk-outs," demandando que tuvieran maestros bilingues y libros en las bibliotecas qüe representaran la historia y las contribuciones del mexicano americano en Tejas, que no lo había. Después de ese rally, nos juntamos para hacer una marcha por las calles de Kingsville. En ese entonces yo no había conocido a alguien que hablara de los derechos de nuestra raza.

Lina: Y tu arte José. ¿Que atracción tuvo para ti desde un principio el mesquite? ¿Por qué no el pino, el roble, u otra madera?
José: Crecimos con el mesquite. Jugábamos en el abrol; comíamos el chahuite que salía del arbol. Comíamos el mesquite...la semilla. Haciamos nuestra barbacoa con el mesquite, cocinabamos afuera. Lo usabamos para calentarnos en noches frias, para atar nuestras hamacas. El mesquite estaba alrededor de todo nuestro ambiente. Y yo siempre lo estudiaba, lo miraba y fantaseaba viendo cosas en los arboles. En vez de pintar o trabajar con metal, el arbol era gratis. Pero...no na' mas eso. Cuando lo veía, me hablaba. Mi mente se combinaba con la forma del mesquite y sentía muy a gusto viéndolo. Sacaba muchas ideas. Ningún otro material me ha afectado como el mesquite. Sí hay otros árboles que he usado pero el mesquite para mi es...lo conozco como si fuera mi cuerpo. mi raza. Lo saboreo, lo huelo, lo siento. Lo trato de absorber con mi mente y mis espíritu y mi cuerpo para hacer mis interpretaciones esculturales. Mi arte es la combinación del mesuite, la naturaleza, lo que yo soy y lo que pienso.

Lina: Tus esculturas poseen fuerza y nobleza. Son tan expresivas y bellas.
José: Para mi me afectó mucho el amor, el apoyo, la unidad que ví entre el pueblo Chicano en Oakland donde viví un tiempo a principios de los setentas trabajando como maestro de arte en una escuela Junior High. Cuando estábamos luchando por esos derechos civiles, derechos humanos como cuidadanos que todos debemos de tener, ese amor lo sentí y traté de expresarlo en el arte. Muchos de mis temas han sido dirigidos a la familia y la nueva generación de Chicanitos que viene.