Breakfast Tacos, from the series Seven Days

Chuck Ramirez, Breakfast Tacos, from the series Seven Days, 2003, printed 2012, inkjet print, sheet and image: 48 x 60 in. (121.9 x 152.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2013.14, © 2003, Estate of Charles Ramirez

Artwork Details

Title: Breakfast Tacos, from the series Seven Days
Artist: Chuck Ramirez
Date: 2003, printed 2012
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: sheet and image: 48 x 60 in. (121.9 x 152.4 cm)
Copyright: © 2003, Estate of Charles Ramirez
Credit Line: Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums Description: inkjet print
Classifications: Photography
Photoprint
Highlights: Photography
Subjects: Still life — furniture — table
Still life — foodstuff — taco
Object Number: 2013.14
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2013.14

Artwork Description

Wilting flowers, glistening aluminum foil holding half-eaten breakfast tacos, cups of coffee, and two local and national beer standards – Lone Star (the “national” beer of Texas) and Miller Lite – all populate Ramirez’s contemporary still life. Ramirez magnified the stuff of everyday life to reveal the history often embedded in popular icons. The Lone Star flag transitioned from national flag (of the Republic of Texas) to beloved state symbol. Miller Beer’s German roots are now little known, yet Mexican-derived foods like tacos are marketed as coming from across the border, despite being staples of the American diet.

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, 2013

Flores marchitas, papel de aluminio reluciente que envuelve tacos para el desayuno a medio comer, tazas de café, y dos cervezas emblemáticas, una local y otra nacional —Lone Star (la “cerveza nacional” de Texas) y Miller Lite— pueblan la naturaleza muerta contemporánea de Ramirez. Ramirez monumentaliza lo cotidiano para revelar la historia detrás de los íconos populares. La bandera de una estrella pasó de ser una bandera nacional (de la República de Texas) a un amado símbolo estatal. Hoy en día son poco conocidas las raíces alemanas de la cerveza Miller; sin embargo, la comida de origen mexicano como los tacos se venden como si vinieran del otro lado de la frontera, a pesar de ser platos básicos de la dieta estadounidense.

Nuestra América: la presencia latina en el arte estadounidense, 2013

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This audio podcast series discusses artworks and themes in the exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In this episode, curator E. Carmen Ramos discusses Breakfast Tacos from the series Seven Days by Chuck Ramirez.

E. CARMEN RAMOS: I’m E. Carmen Ramos, Curator for Latino Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and I’m also the organizer of “Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art.” I wanted to talk about Chuck Ramirez’s “Breakfast Tacos.” It’s one of my favorite works in the exhibition, although pretty much all the works are my favorite. “Breakfast Tacos” is a large-scale, glossy photograph that depicts a tabletop after a breakfast meal has been consumed. Because it’s so large, it’s about 4 x 5 feet, the whole scene is magnified, allowing us to closely examine the daily life objects that we often overlook.

“Breakfast Tacos” has been called a contemporary still life, and I think it is, a very funny one at that. Still lives are a classic genre that depict flowers, fruits, vegetables, and other objects and is often associated with the transience of life or the passage of time. In part, because what it depicts doesn’t last forever and has a limited lifespan just like people. This was likely not a staged scene per se. I think the photograph was taken after an actual meal was eaten by Ramirez and his friends. Ramirez was known to take photographs of objects that we often dispose of. For example, he did a whole series of photographs that depicted torn-up piñatas that were taken after party-goers had taken a bat to the cardboard containers that hold candies and other sweets.

“Breakfast Tacos” is actually very funny. This is not your traditional breakfast. After all, who has beer for breakfast? Clearly someone who’s been partying the night before or trying to prevent a hangover, so the picture always makes me laugh.

When I first came across this photograph, I started thinking about and looking into some of the things that are portrayed here. There are some highly recognizable objects, particularly 2 name-brand beers; one is Lone Star Beer. When Anglos settled in Texas, this part of the Southwest was still Mexico. When Anglos wanted to secede from Mexico and create their own republic, they adopted the Lone Star flag as their rallying symbol and, eventually, national flag. Now, the Lone Star flag is the state flag of Texas and is a brand name of a local beer manufactured in the state. Lone Star Beer is referred to as the National Beer of Texas.

Before I researched this, I thought that Miller Beer was just one of many highly consumed beers in the United States. I didn’t know its history. Apparently, Miller Beer was founded by a German immigrant, Frederick Mueller, who anglicized his name to Miller and founded a brewery in Wisconsin, specializing in European-style beer. Their early paraphernalia, in which the beer was presented in a European-styled beer mug, shows how Miller did relish in a sort of continuing connection to European culture, or as they called it, “the land of their mothers.” Miller Brewing Company doesn’t market its beer that way anymore. We don’t associate Miller with German immigrants; it’s just an American beer.

Of course, the central subject in the scene are breakfast tacos that are beautifully cradled in glistening aluminum foil that sparkles in the morning sun. Of all the items portrayed here, the tacos are the most informal. They are not prepackaged food stuff like beer or margarine. Despite their informality, I think tacos are a staple food in many parts of Texas, Ramirez’s home state.

For me, the photograph sort of stages an encounter between various official and unofficial symbols of American popular culture, especially the popular culture we associate with Texas. It shows not only how Americans really live, right? How many people in Texas consume tacos – I often think of tacos as being to Texans what bagels are to New Yorkers; everybody eats them. I think the photograph also shows how daily life has a deep history embedded within it.

Exhibitions

Media - 2011.12 - SAAM-2011.12_1 - 77591

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art

October 25, 2013–March 2, 2014

Smithsonian American Art Museum

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.