This is an exhibition 7 years in the making that features a group of New Mexican artists who were among the earliest generation of Chicana and Chicano activists in the state. All 6 artists, 3 men and 3 women, were students at New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) in Las Vegas in the early 1970s when Chicano scholar Pedro Rodríguez was hired as the inaugural Director of Chicano Studies at NMHU. It was at NMHU that these young men and women became politically activated and proceeded to paint murals, produce art, and organize in New Mexico as part of the nascent Chicano civil rights movement that was unfolding nationally. The artworks on display capture a distinctly New Mexican Chicana and Chicano experience that has received little attention in Chicano art history.
Artists:
Ignacio Jaramillo
Juanita J. Lavadie
Francisco LeFebre
Noel Márquez
Roberta Márquez
Adelita M. Medina
Curators:
Ray Hernández-Durán, Ph.D. and Irene Vásquez, Ph.D.