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A New Chicano World
The civil rights era was also a social movement that ushered in new ways of being in the world. To rename yourself Chicano was a bold act of reinvention that asserted an identity grounded in hybrid notions of Mexican, indigenous, and U.S. culture and history. Rejecting the "melting pot" idea that immigrant and nonwhite groups should assimilate into U.S. culture, Chicanos asserted the value of Mexican American life. Graphic artists capitalized on the print medium's potential for mass distribution and social influence to project these revolutionary ideas not only in the communities where they lived and worked, but across the United States and globally. The meaning of the term Chicano, however, was never static. Chicana and LGBTQ+ artists pushed back against patriarchal and heteronormative tendencies. Chicanx graphics became a powerful example that inspired other artists to use printmaking to explore bicultural currents in U.S. American life. |