Browsing by Subject "Hispanic American artists--California--San Francisco--20th century"
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Item The heart of the mission: Latino art and identity in San Francisco(2005) Cordova, Cary; Hoelscher, Steven D.; Fishkin, Shelley FisherIn this dissertation, I investigate the changing art and identities of Latino artists in twentieth-century San Francisco. Drawing on oral histories, visual culture, and archival research, I demonstrate how cultural geography and social movements have cultivated and complicated new art forms. I also show the tandem evolution of a Latino arts movement with the politics of a global Left. In chapter one, I juxtapose the cultivation of a Latin nightlife in North Beach in the post-World War II period with the physical displacement of Latinos from the area then known as the Latin Quarter. In chapter two, I argue for the importance of a 1950s Beat, or bohemian, culture in stimulating the creative interests of many Latinos in San Francisco, in spite of their marginalized position as participants. Chapter three traces the beginnings of a Latino arts enclave in San Francisco’s Mission District and the initial institutions and ad hoc groups that facilitated its growth. In chapter four, I use the experience of three Chicano artists – Yolanda Lopez, Rupert Garcia, and Juan Fuentes – to contextualize the significance of the 1968 Third World Strike in shaping their political consciousness and their art. Chapter five elaborates on the gender divisions permeating neighborhood arts activism through a study of two community murals, “Homage to Siquieros,” and “Latinoamerica,” each crafted by a team of male and female muralists, respectively. I conclude with chapter six, a study of Día de los Muertos and how its traditional expressions of mourning became more politically oriented with the impact of AIDS and the civil wars in Central America. The subsequent commodification of Día de los Muertos and the rising property values of the Mission District bring this work full circle back to a discussion of consumption, avantgarde politics, and physical and cultural displacement.