Arte Latine/Latinx Art Teacher Resources

Teacher Guides

Teacher Guides are free, downloadable PDFs.

Arte y Cultura Latino: La tradición artística del Sudoeste / Latino Art & Culture: Artistic Tradition in the Southwest

Media - 1995.50.59 - SAAM-1995.50.59_1 - 12619

¿Cuáles son las influencias históricas en el desarrollo de las tradiciones artísticas del sudoeste?

Esta porción del módulo de Arte y Cultura Latino explica cómo la tradición de los santos reflejo de los valores culturales del pasado y presente.

Tema y grado primarios: Artes visuales 5–12

Tema y grado secundarios: Historia –12 de los Estados Unidos.

Componentes: contexto histórico, imágenes y descripciones de la imagen, mapa de pueblos y ciudades en el Sudoeste, biografías del artistas, sugerencias de las actividades de los estudiantes.

Estándares: Artes visuals K–12.6 que hacen conexiones entre los artes visuales y otro disciplinas; K–12.4 que entiende los artes visuales en lo referente a historia y las culturas; K–12.3 que elige y que evalúa una gama de tema.

La historia de los Estados Unidos Era 1 reunión de tres mundos (principios a 1620); Era 2 Colonización y establecimiento (1585-1763).

What are the historical influences on the development of artistic traditions in the Southwest US?

This portion of the Latino Art & Culture module explains how the santo tradition reflects past and present cultural values.

Primary Subject and Grade: Visual Arts 5–12

Secondary Subject and Grade: U.S. History 5–12.

Components: Historical Context, Images and Descriptions, Map of Pueblos and Towns in the Southwest, Artist Bios, Student Activity Suggestions.

Standards: Visual Arts K–12.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines; K–12.4 Understanding the Visual Arts in Relation to History and Cultures; K–12.3 Choosing and Evaluating a Range of Subject Matter.

U.S. History Era 1 Three Worlds Meet (Beginnings to 1620); Era 2 Colonization and Settlement (1585-1763).

Arte y Cultura Latino: El cruce de culturas y la mezcla de influencias / Latino Art & Culture: Mixing Cultures and Blending Influences

¿Cuáles son las fuentes históricas, sociales, y culturales que informan al trabajo de las artistas latinoamericano?

Esta porción del módulo de Arte y Cultura Latino describe raíces culturales del Latino de una mezcla rica de fuentes europeas, indígenas, y africanas.

Media - 1991.61 - SAAM-1991.61_8 - 118889 — Larry Fuente, *Game Fish*, 1988, fiberglass, black auto-body type epoxy resin, polyurethane resin, plywood, plastic found objects including beads, buttons, poker chips, badminton birdies, ping pong balls, rhinestones, coins, dice, plastic figurines, combs, miniature pinball games

Tema y grado primarios: Artes visuales 5–12

Tema y grado secundarios: Historia –12 de los Estados Unidos.

Componentes: contexto histórico, imágenes y descripciones de la imagen, biografías del artistas, sugerencias de las actividades de los estudiantes.

La historia de los Estados Unidos Era 1 reunión de tres mundos (principios a 1620); Era 2 Colonización y establecimiento (1585-1763).

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What are the historical, social, and cultural sources that inform the work of Latino artists?

This portion of the Latino Art & Culture module describes Latino cultural roots from a rich mixture of European, indigenous, and African sources.

Primary Subject and Grade: Visual Arts 5–12

Secondary Subject and Grade: U.S. History 5–12.

Components: Historical Context, Images and Descriptions, Artist Bios, Student Activity Suggestions.

U.S. History Era 1 Three Worlds Meet (Beginnings to 1620); Era 2 Colonization and Settlement (1585-1763).

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Arte y Cultura Latino: La nueva vida en los Estados Unidos / Latino Art & Culture: Making a New Life in the United States

¿Cuáles son los factores históricos que influyen sobre las modalidades de migración e inmigracón a los Estados Unidos de la población de origen latinoamericano?

Esta porción del módulo de Arte y Cultura Latino describe cómo se han adaptado los latinos a su Nuevo entorno, desde la perspective de los artistas mexicano-americanos, puertorriqueños y cubano-americanos.

Media - 1994.74 - SAAM-1994.74_1 - 83173 — Jesse Treviño, *Mis Hermanos*, 1976, acrylic on canvas

Tema y grado primarios: Artes visuales 5–12

Tema y grado secundarios: Historia –12 de los Estados Unidos.

Componentes: contexto histórico, imágenes y descripciones de la imagen, biografías del artistas, sugerencias de las actividades de los estudiantes.

La historia de los Estados Unidos Era 8 La Gran Depresión y la Segunda Guerra Mundial (1929-1945) Era 9 Estados Unidos de la posguerra (1945 a las comienzos de los años 70) Era 10 Estados Unidos contemporáneos (1968 al presente).

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How can artwork teach us about Latino culture in the United States?

This portion of the Latino Art and Culture module takes a close look at the art and culture of Puerto Rican-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Cuban Americans.

Primary Subject and Grade: U.S. History 5–12; Visual Arts 5–12

Components: Artist Bios, Detailed Image Descriptions, Student Activity Suggestions

Standards: U.S. History Era 8 The Great Depression and World War II; Era 9 Post-War United States (1945–early 1970s); Era 10 Contemporary United States (1968–present).

Visual Arts K–12.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines; K–12.4 Understanding the Visual Arts in Relation to History and Cultures; K–12.3 Choosing and Evaluating a Range of Subject Matter.

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¿Cuáles son las fuentes históricas y culturales que informan al contenido social de la obra de los artistas latinos?

Esta porción del módulo de Arte y Cultura Latino examina el movimiento chicano en los Estados Unidos.

Media - 1992.95 - SAAM-1992.95_1 - 87966 — Emanuel Martinez, *Farm Workers' Altar*, 1967, acrylic on mahogany and plywood

Tema y grado primarios: Artes visuales 5–12

Tema y grado secundarios: Historia –12 de los Estados Unidos.

Componentes: contexto histórico, imágenes y descripciones de la imagen, biografías del artistas, sugerencias de las actividades de los estudiantes.

La historia de los Estados Unidos Era 9 Estados Unidos de la posguerra (1945 a las comienzos de los años 70).

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What are the historical and cultural sources that inform social content in Latino artworks?

This portion of the Latino Art & Culture module examines the Chicano movement in the US.

Primary Subject and Grade: Visual Arts 5–12

Secondary Subject and Grade: U.S. History 5–12.

Components: Historical Context, Images and Descriptions, Artist Bios, Student Activity Suggestions.

U.S. History Era 9 Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s).

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Public Sculpture: Vaquero

What was the Mexican contribution to the cowboy heritage?

This lesson explains stereotypes and the difference between real and mythical cowboys.

Media - 1990.44 - 1990.44_1a.jpg - 10977 — Luis Jiménez, *Vaquero*, modeled 1980/cast 1990, acrylic urethane, fiberglass, steel armature

Primary Subject and Grade: Visual Arts 5–12, U.S. History 5–12.

Components: Historical Context, Images and Descriptions, Student Activity Suggestions, Bibliography, Glossary, Artist Biography.

U.S. History Era 4 Expansion and Reform (1800–1861).

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Videos

Through the Barbed Wire: Domingo Ulloa’s Braceros

Domingo Ulloa's Braceros depicts of a group of guest workers brought to the United States from Mexico to fill in agricultural labor shortages caused by World War II and encourages viewers to think about the conditions in which the men lived and worked.

Art in Times of Crisis: Luis Cruz Azaceta’s Shifting States: Iraq

SAAM Curator E. Carmen Ramos explains how artist Luis Cruz Azaceta responded to the series of uprisings across the Middle East in the early 2010s collectively referred to as the Arab Spring.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art

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Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge. The exhibition is drawn entirely from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s pioneering collection of Latino art. It explores how Latino artists shaped the artistic movements of their day and recalibrated key themes in American art and culture.

In this special seven-episode series, E. Carmen Ramos, SAAM Curator of Latinx Art, highlights key works from the exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art. Featured works include the following:

Humanscape 62 by Melesio Casas
Blanco y Verde by Carmen Herrera
Nocturnal (Horizon Line) by Teresita Fernández
Granite Weaving by Jesús Moroles
Death of Rubén Salazar by Frank Romero
Maria's Great Expedition by Christina Fernandez
Two untitled photographs by Sophie Rivera

Hiram Maristany on Photographing His East Harlem Community

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Hiram Maristany’s street photographs of New York City's El Barrio in the 1960s and early 1970s are an ode to his beloved neighborhood.

HIRAM MARISTANY: Hi, my name is Hiram Maristany. I'm a photographer from New York, El Barrio to be specific. I'm here at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Photography is part history, part documentation, and more importantly, it was more cultural identity.

Growing up in East Harlem in that era, and I'm talking the early to mid-60s, it was a very tough reality. There were enormous amounts of violence. There was also a lack of space. It's no accident that a lot of the images are of 111th Street. That's the street that I was born and raised on.

We young men were always finding a way to play. One of the safe places that we had as a haven was rooftops. Rooftops gave us a different perspective that we were not victims. "Night View" is to me very significant because it tries to show what I think is beautiful in our community. It has three elements: it has a sky, a mid-view, and then it has a play street. It shows people moving around in this urban environment, and we're not confined by our poverty.

"Casa Evita," which is this huge building that is not a high view, but it's a higher view looking down on this building. What I was most pleased with is that the elements of that photograph is very much the way East Harlem looked. At the bottom of that image you'll see the way we used to buy clothes. Poor people didn't have the luxury of going in and sitting down and trying on a pair of shoes. You point to the shoes, and you put them on on the street. My family's in that; one of my nieces is standing on it.

A lot of my work reflects dual realities and, to a certain extent, contradictory realities. In that image you have both movement and stillness simultaneously. When you look at the image you see the spray and you see some of the joy of being in a hydrant in a community that's 98 degrees and heat is everywhere and this incredible spray of coolness. Anyone who is from East Harlem, anyone who sees that, they know immediately what's going on. I lived at 64 East 111th Street on the ground floor. When I looked out of my window, I saw that hydrant every day of my life.

Lechón is the roasting of a pig that has a lot of traditional values in Puerto Rico. It speaks to the gathering of people that are going to be celebrating. It's a kind of a thing that speaks to the way East Harlem used to be. It was very, very poor, but we were not defined by our poverty. In my way, I think that I tried to respond to attempting to level the playing field and to show the beauty in the community. East Harlem is a beautiful place, because of what the people were doing within that space.

There are people that I know that when they come here and they see this, they will feel included in the history of America. That's something that so many people take for granted. Truly, my work is a reflection of a love affair that I've had with my community. One day hopefully I will give some inspiration to some young people or an evolving artist to know their community, to preserve their community, and not allow someone else to do it for them. We have to take responsibility and title to our own history.

Hiram Maristany’s street photographs of New York City's El Barrio in the 1960s and early 1970s are an ode to his beloved neighborhood.

Perla de Leon on South Bronx Spirit

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Perla de Leon’s poignant photographs of the South Bronx in New York place into sharp relief the physical devastation of the neighborhood and the lives of the people who called it home. The artist discusses her 1980 series "South Bronx Spirit," which capture the life, laughter, and resiliency of the community in which de Leon was teaching at the time.

PERLA DE LEON: My name is Perla de Leon, and I'm a New York City photographer. I am here at the Smithsonian American Art Museum talking about my photography series called, "South Bronx Spirit."

I've always lived in Manhattan. I grew up in Harlem. We did not have the fires that the Bronx and the Lower East Side and some areas of Brooklyn had. I knew it could be an area that had had some difficulty, but I had no idea that it had completely burned down the way it did.

At first, maybe they thought I was a newspaper person, then they thought maybe I was a cop. They weren't very comfortable with me until I just started to talk to them and explained that I was teaching down the block and that I was very concerned about what the community looked like and that I wanted to take pictures. Then they were really helpful.

One gentleman called "Pepe" noticed that my car had tires that were on their last threads and he said, "I'll get you some tires if you need some tires, because it's important that you tell people what's happening here." Then I was received really well. He was a very nice human-being and he showed me where he and his family used to live and introduced me to some friends. Then eventually brought me this little diary that belonged to a friend that he wanted to show me, someone who had written about the neighborhood.

When I first arrived on Charlotte Street, the infamous Charlotte Street, besides teaching at the little school up the hill, I was very aware, because it was still nice weather, of all this laughter and children giggling. It was like, ok, there's some life here, let's follow, let's go see where these children are.

I remember him walking down the block and kind of doing his moves. The minute he took that leap, I just quickly prayed that I would catch him, and I was very fortunate that I caught him just as he was in the air. I was always looking for moments like that where you are just capturing what someone is enjoying. He was by himself. It's not like he stopped me and said, "Watch, photograph me." He was into his own thing, and I said, "Ok, this boy is going to leap."

Everyone has captured the fires as they would happen. It was always in the news. It didn't interest me as much. You can see it, obviously, in the background and in the photographs, but I wanted to show more of the life that was there. I feel that my photographs capture the spirit of the kids. For me, it's just resilience.

Photographer Perla de Leon discusses her 1980 series South Bronx Spirit, which captures the life, laughter, and resiliency of the New York City community in which she was teaching at the time.

Ruben Ochoa on What if Walls Created Spaces?

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Ruben Ochoa deliberately tampers with the appearance of the I-10, a freeway that runs through East Los Angeles. He created a lenticular print that interlaces two different views of a freeway wall. As viewers walk past his photograph, the wall partially disappears, opening up a portal into an imaginary verdant landscape.

RUBEN OCHOA: Hello, my name is Ruben Ochoa. I'm here at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and we're standing here in front of my work, "What if Walls Created Spaces?"

The artwork that you see behind me is a photo lenticular documentation of a public intervention I did in Los Angeles, on the I-10 freeway, eastbound. I got funding from Creative Capital Foundation to wallpaper the freeway of L.A. I went around and photographed all the surrounding vegetation throughout the freeways of L.A. From 4x6 photos, I comprised a few and created a larger composite. The digital composite that I created through Photoshop was then printed digitally on wallpaper vinyl.

I had to find someone that was certified to wallpaper the freeway in L.A., which there's no one that wallpapers the freeway, so I had to find a contractor that was willing to do that. I had to take a course on how to shut down the shoulder of the freeway. We had to do it when cars were flying like 60 miles per hour, and we had these cones set up and we scaled the wall up and down with ladders.

There are so many freeways in that area, they actually call it the “malfunction junction.” When these freeways were put up, it would cause contention. It caused different areas, different barrios, different neighborhoods, and it dissected communities. This was done right in that area is what I was trying to capture.

When I was conceiving the work it was like, growing up in Southern California, you're always on the freeway, you're always driving, you're going from one neighborhood to another, but the freeways, you get to pass a lot of those areas, but as you investigate or you live in the area you start to understand why or how the built environment has disrupted several neighborhoods and communities. How it's like torn the social fabric in some areas.

The wallpaper was up for three months. For me, conceptually, it was like I wanted to document this intervention. I was like, how do I activate a photo on the wall? The lenticular was it.

What is a lenticular? The best way I describe it is, I don't know who eats Cracker Jacks anymore, but back in the days they had Cracker Jacks, and they used to give these little like holograms. When you look from one angle you see one part of the image, but as you walk back and forth you see the image transition.

I look at the work as an investigation. What if walls created spaces? Can walls create spaces? They do, you know, walls create spaces to allow people in, to not allow people in, keep people in and keep people out.

Ruben Ochoa’s lenticular print alters the appearance of the I-10 freeway that runs through East Los Angeles: As viewers walk past his photograph, the wall partially disappears, opening up a portal into an imaginary verdant landscape.

Camilo José Vergara on 65 East 125th Street, Harlem

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Camilo José Vergara captured, through photography, over 40 years of changes in the urban landscape of 65 East 125th Street in Harlem. Through these photographs, he tells the story of change, growth, and life in Harlem.

CAMILO JOSE VERGARA: I'm Camilo José Vergara. I'm here at the Smithsonian American Art Museum to speak about my work.

I was not trained as a photographer. I wanted to write poetry. Then my professor at Notre Dame said, "Hey, you aren't very good as a poet, but maybe you should try as a photographer. I can lend you money to buy a camera. They have a Pentax, a used Pentax, for sale at the camera shop in South Bend, Indiana." I got that and I began using it. First, I used black and white, but then I thought why not color?

I became interested in Harlem first of all because I lived very close to Harlem. It was a matter of three blocks or four blocks and I was in Harlem. Secondly, it's because it has a tremendous resonance because of all the people that are there and because of its presence, of what it meant in American culture, and certainly in African-American culture, and the world. I wanted to know the places that so many people were talking about and then follow them. I mean, what happens? It's always that sort of thing that interests me.

I was very impressed by the buildings and what they were because they were big, and they looked like they had seen better times. Those better times interested me, you know? You see signs of wealth, you see decoration, you see marble and different things. Then you see the reflection, you see a wild dog coming out of that marble stairs or something, and that looked to me as being extremely, you know, contrasting.

My interest in the architecture then was first to get the building as a whole before it disappeared. But then, of course, I went home and I said, "What's going to happen to that building tomorrow, or the day after, or the next week?" So get back on the subway, and get back to that place, and take the same picture. That's how this series developed.

I selected 65 East 125th Street because there is a Metro North Station that is a block away from there, and I used to take that train very often. I would walk by that little location, and it had such an uncanny presence. Like when I first saw it, and I said, "What is this building doing here?" It's like you're looking at a survivor, and I think you can go back to probably by now, there is nothing left of the original building. It was all demolished and then something else was built there.

I don't know if I'm going to be around to see what's going to be next, but it seems to me that this particular series has gotten enough attention that it's going to be followed so that 10 years from now, or 30 years from now, and maybe hopefully a hundred years from now, we'll know what's happening there. It'll become, it's sort of one of those rare cases when a somewhat ordinary place in a kind of ordinary neighborhood gains that kind of prominence.

Through a series of photographs taken at the same location over a span of forty years, Camilo José Vergara tells the story of change, growth, and life on 65 East 125th Street in Harlem.

Abelardo Morell on Camera Obscura Image of Manhattan View Looking West in Empty Room

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Photographer Abe Morell discusses his relationship to New York City, his use of camera obscura, and his work being part of SAAM’s collection.

ABE MORELL: Hi, I’m Abe Morell. I’m delighted to be here at the Smithsonian American Art Museum speaking about an old work of mine, an old friend who I haven’t seen in a while.

This photograph I made in 1996. I knew a guy whose brother owned a nice apartment on the East Side with a great view, so I contacted him. This was an amazing place. It had just been sold, so it was empty and perfect, like a studio. I wanted to in some ways own New York. The New York that was in some ways frightening to me and I was unable to make sense of it.

New York City is hugely important for me. I arrived in Miami with my parents and sister in 1962. Then my father got a job as a super in New York City on West 69th Street. So New York was frightening at first. I mean, I had seen all those movies when I was a kid of the New York scene and gangsters, but it was also a salvation in a city of ambition. Things were happening there, so it was very important. It was my next home as it turned out, and I still look at it as the place that really saved me.

Camera obscura is any space, it could be a room or a box, with a small opening looking out into the world. What happens in these dark interiors is that the image of the outside actually gets projected upside-down on the opposite wall. It just comes in—there is no technical invention with it—it just came with the creation of the world.

I wanted to make pictures where I would make a room into a camera obscura where the image would be projected on the opposite side and then make a picture of it. To me, that’s what distinguishes this work from anything before it. The way I made this picture was first of all to cover all the windows with black plastic to darken it. Then on one of the windows, I made a hole about 3/8 of an inch, the size of a dime, and this came in and it was kind of astonishing.

I put the ladder in there. We used the ladder to hang plastic, but I put the ladder in there just to make it a little bit more interesting. In fact, maybe unconsciously I was referring to Fox Talbot, who was the British inventor of photography. He made the first photographs other than Daguerre. In one of his pictures, there is a ladder in it, so it’s a small joke to ten people, but it’s a reference to some of the earliest photographs where that ladder exists.

I feel rather proud that this picture is in here, especially being in the mix of so many people who are heroes of mine. It’s nice to also be represented as a Latino artist who is making work that is not just in a ghetto of Latino artists. I’d like to emphasis that. As much as I am a Cuban, I’m also a person with abstract ideas. Those are not mutually exclusive. It’s really important to represent everybody, even people who are supposed to be a certain ethnicity, showing a freedom to make work. That’s also part of being Cubano and Latin American and human.

Photographer Abe Morell discusses his relationship to New York City, his use of camera obscura, and his work being part of SAAM’s collection.

Manuel Acevedo on Altered Sites #7

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Manuel Acevedo reimagines the streets of his hometown of Newark, New Jersey, a city shaped by periods of unrest and urban renewal initiatives that tore down existing housing to erect massive housing projects.

MANUEL ACEVEDO: Hi, I'm Manuel Acevedo at the Smithsonian American Art Museum to talk about my work.

“Altered Sites” started in 1996. El Museo del Barrio was invited to do a collaboration with ICP for the first collaboration between the International Center of Photography and El Museo del Barrio. So basically, they asked me to propose a project. I said, "Hey, why don't we do this?

Why don't we think about what it would be like to create kind of revisions of El Barrio? Let's do a survey of the community. Let the young students photograph it and talk about what they'd like to see."

I introduced them to a drawing technique where we use the photograph as reference. We'd lay a piece of vellum over the photograph itself, so the image became kind of a ghost image. The idea was to create a drawing where you can alter the site without physically altering the photograph. They would use pencil to create these revisions of the community.

Two years later in 1998, I come across this lot. It was just kind of calling me. It was almost like a kind of a spiritual calling—like, "Photograph me, please." There was something about its barren state and something that felt very foreign, and I photographed it. I didn't know exactly how the structure should look. It was very intuitive. As I started to think about this tower, I also wanted it to be something that was kind of in this in-between stage of whether it was being constructed or being taken down, which is what I was experiencing with some of the architecture and some of the ruins in the city.

You'll notice that in most of my drawings, they seem to be very skeletal. I take advantage of the fact that also this kind of represents a state that Newark was in, kind of starting this Renaissance, the Newark Renaissance. What the Newark Renaissance represented to me was the possibility of building something but also never finishing it. I started to see multiple structures in the state of limbo. It was very easy to formally integrate these structures that they became questionable images of whether they were real or not.

The birds for me symbolized another world. I had also lost my father in '97 and when I made this piece, I had also started thinking about ways of communicating through birds to my father. I started to build this mythology around it. Every time I looked at a bird, I saw the possibility of that bird being a messenger as well.

The technique for “Rising” is a little different. “Rising “came out of one particular photograph that seems to be composited, but the tractor and the stolen car and the homes are all part of this image. What I did was superimpose the death mask of Pedro Albizu Campos, who was a revolutionary individual who fought for the independence of Puerto Rico, that I located through an institution in Ponce called El Museo de la Masacre. In the back room, there was a room that was dedicated to Albizu and there was his death mask. Interesting enough, when I spoke to the folks that were running the museum, I said, "I'm working on this project. Is it possible to photograph his death mask?" They invited me to come back the next day, and they took the glass off the showcase, and allowed me to photograph it. I superimposed his face into the landscape thinking about kind of Mount Rushmore, kind of the equivalent. Here's this hero who becomes an integral part of our mountain in this landscape in Aguada, Puerto Rico.

By drawing on top of his photograph, Manuel Acevedo reimagines the streets of his hometown of Newark, New Jersey, a city shaped by periods of unrest and urban renewal initiatives that tore down existing housing to erect massive housing projects.

Lalo Alcaraz’s I Stand with Emma

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Join Claudia Zapata, curatorial assistant for Latinx art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum for a closer look. Learn how <em>I Stand with Emma,</em> an artwork that was created and distributed within the digital sphere, honors the traditions of Chicanx artists while also embracing new digital landscapes for printmaking and celebrating a new generation of activists, "guiding us towards a better tomorrow."

This video is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's ongoing series American Art Moments. Join a SAAM expert and go beyond the artwork label to discover the untold stories and rich connections represented in some of the museum's most iconic artworks.

Image: "L.A. Stands With Emma, Too"
February 19, 2018
Photograph by Robb Wilson
Robb Wilson Flickr
CC BY-SA 2.0

CLAUDIA ZAPATA: “I Stand with Emma” is a digital image created in 2018 by Los Angeles-based artist Lalo Alcaraz. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning. He’s most well-known for his syndicated cartoon strip “La Cucaracha.” Lalo Alcaraz has this history of reacting to major news events.

On February 14th, 2018, seventeen people were murdered at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. And then, on February 17th, Emma Gonzalez gives the impassioned “We Call BS” speech. The following day, Lalo Alcaraz shares the “I Stand with Emma” image to all of his social media platforms and his personal website, because he wanted to support the cause immediately. Originally, it did not exist in an object form, so Lalo Alcaraz created this using digital tablets and image editing software.

The Never Again movement is a student-led organization that was created by the survivors from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, and they’re really a large group of people. And I think he chose Emma Gonzales because she does have a very iconic look. You see her from afar because of her shaved head. She does stand out. Even though she has this very unique style, she is really more of a symbol of a youth movement.

There’s this connotation of Generation Z, or Gen Z, being very active, and that’s true, but there’s also a legacy of teenage activists going back to, for example, 1955, with Claudette Colvin. She was someone who was challenging the bus segregation laws. Or, in 1968, the east LA Chicano walkouts, or the blowouts, were part of this student movement for better education in the public schools.

Emma is a legacy of student activists, someone who knows that oppression is ageless. No matter what age you are, legislation can affect you, and you can also react and demand a change to that. And even within the “We Call BS” speech, Emma Gonzalez mentions high school classes; she calls herself a kid and other people who are survivors kids, so that’s why the hashtag is “#standwiththekids,” because it’s very much about showing her age, but also showing the maturity despite her age. So, usually you see hashtags affixed to captions, for example, on social media. What’s interesting about Lalo affixing this to the actual composition is that it really showcases creating a community or a digital allyship.

The red and black really reminded me of the United Farm Workers movement color palettes. It’s definitely this connotation with, like, labor activism. It’s meant to be very bold and striking and to catch your attention so that you can affix yourself to Emma Gonzalez and her advocacy when you’re wielding this poster in a protest.

“I Stand with Emma” is part of a legacy of portraiture that Chicano artists constantly come back to, because they’re often reclaiming the image of someone within their community, or oftentimes, someone they want to make sure is remembered, quite simply. So, Lalo Alcaraz is really interesting because he doesn’t put Emma’s full name, he just puts “I Stand with Emma.” And it reminds me, very similarly, of Barbara Carrasco’s “Dolores” screen print from 1999, where she just puts “Dolores” in hopes that this person should be renowned enough and remembered enough to where you know them by their first name. So, “I Stand with Emma” really thrust her into this historiography of changemakers.

What’s interesting is that instead of a man or a heteronormative family, a woman, a queer woman, is this symbol for change. It’s a young woman that’s going to guide us to a better tomorrow.

Artist Lalo Alcaraz created the striking digital portrait I Stand with Emma of Emma González after watching the high school senior advocate for stronger gun control in an impassioned speech days after surviving the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Learn how I Stand with Emma, an artwork that was created and distributed within the digital sphere, honors the traditions of Chicanx artists while also embracing new digital landscapes for printmaking.

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Artist Rupert García discusses the rise of the Chicano movement and the political icons who became the inspiration behind his posters. By highlighting individuals engaged in the fight for social justice, García challenges who gets to be represented and examines the relationship he creates between aesthetics and politics. García’s prints were featured in the exhibition ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now.

Artist Rupert García discusses the rise of the Chicano movement and the political icons who became the inspiration behind his posters.

More Resources

Latinx Art Teaching Posters: Chicano Graphics

Media - 1995.50.32 - SAAM-1995.50.32_2-000001 - 138845 — Ester Hernández, *Sun Mad,* 1982, screenprint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, 1995.50.32, © 1982, Ester Hernández

Request a free set of bilingual (English and Spanish) teaching posters for your classroom.

Explore Chicano Graphics Teaching Posters

Changemakers Portraits

Media - 2020.22.7 - SAAM-2020.22.7_1 - 138868 — Barbara Carrasco, *Dolores*, 1999, screenprint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Frank K. Ribelin Endowment, 2020.22.7, © 1999, Barbara Carrasco

These portraits reveal how Chicanx artists and their collaborators highlight individuals, past and present, whose actions have shaped the course of history. This resource was created in conjunction with the exhibition ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now.

Explore Changemakers Portraits

¡Printing the Revolution! Visual Connections

Media - 2020.37.6 - SAAM-2020.37.6_1 - 138892 — Julio Salgado, *Quiero Mis Queerce*, 2014, screenprint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Lichtenberg Family Foundation, 2020.37.6, © 2020, Julio Salgado

Look at works from SAAM’s exhibition ¡Printing the Revolution! alongside related images and explore these connections more deeply with open-ended question prompts.

Explore Visual Connections

Sí se Puede!

Media - 1995.94 - SAAM-1995.94_1 - 81758 — Carmen Lomas Garza, *Camas para Sueños,* 1985, gouache on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool and the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program, 1995.94, © 1985, Carmen Lomas Garza

Look closely at Farm Workers’ Altar (1967) by Emanuel Martinez and Camas para Sueños (1985) by Carmen Lomas Garza within the context of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement and its legacy on the education resource The American Experience in the Classroom.

Explore Sí se puede

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Photographer Perla de Leon discusses her 1980 series South Bronx Spirit, which captures the life, laughter, and resiliency of the New York City community in which she was teaching at the time.

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Hiram Maristany’s street photographs of New York City's El Barrio in the 1960s and early 1970s are an ode to his beloved neighborhood.

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Arte Latine/​Latinx Art Teacher Resources

Discover how to integrate American art into your classroom

Arte y Cultura Latino: La tradición artística del Sudoeste / Latino Art & Culture: Artistic Tradition in the Southwest

Arte y Cultura Latino: El cruce de culturas y la mezcla de influencias / Latino Art & Culture: Mixing Cultures and Blending Influences

Arte y Cultura Latino: La nueva vida en los Estados Unidos / Latino Art & Culture: Making a New Life in the United States

Arte y Cultura Latino: La expresión de cuestiones de interés social / Latino Art & Culture: Expressions of Social Concern

Public Sculpture: Vaquero

Through the Barbed Wire: Domingo Ulloa’s Braceros

Art in Times of Crisis: Luis Cruz Azaceta’s Shifting States: Iraq

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art

Hiram Maristany on Photographing His East Harlem Community

Perla de Leon on South Bronx Spirit

Ruben Ochoa on What if Walls Created Spaces?

Camilo José Vergara on 65 East 125th Street, Harlem

Abelardo Morell on Camera Obscura Image of Manhattan View Looking West in Empty Room

Manuel Acevedo on Altered Sites #7

Lalo Alcaraz’s I Stand with Emma

Rupert García on His Posters for Social Change

Latinx Art Teaching Posters: Chicano Graphics

Changemakers Portraits

¡Printing the Revolution! Visual Connections

Sí se Puede!

Arte Latine/Latinx Art Teacher Resources