Monday 4/13 Draft Questions - Emily Eckey

1. In El Mundo Feminino: Chicana Artists of the Movement: A Commentary on Development and Production, Amelia Mesa-Bains writes, “Their social critique provokes the viewer to see the benign and often domesticated versions of the feminine in new ways” (308). How do Ester Hernandez, Yolanda Lopez, and the many other Chicana artists restructure the feminine through social critique?
2. In Laura Pérez’s introduction to Chicana Art: The Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic of Altarities she discusses how art is nothing less than philosophy and cultural theory (Pérez 10) and Chicana artists’ literary, visual, and performance arts is an offering toward greater empowerment and social justice (Pérez 2). How can we nurture the Chicana arts as a site of spiritual, social, and cultural reflection?
3. In the documentary, La Ofrenda: Days of the Dead by Lourdes Portillo, Amalia Mesa-Bains analyses, “This sort of Western world that we live in doesn’t give people a lot of opportunity to deal publicly with death. It’s something you don’t talk a lot about. You get over it real quick” (34:00). How can this process of building an altar that involves time and remembrance every year, bind people together and make them stronger?