Chican@ Artivistas: Music, Community, and Transborder Tactics in East Los Angeles

by Martha Gonzalez

As the lead singer of the Grammy Award-winning rock band Quetzal and a scholar of Chicana/o and Latina/o studies, Martha Gonzalez is uniquely positioned to articulate the ways in which creative expression can serve the dual roles of political commentary and community building. Drawing on postcolonial, Chicana, black feminist, and performance theories, Chican@ Artivistas explores the visual, musical, and performance art produced in East Los Angeles since the inception of NAFTA and the subsequent anti-immigration rhetoric of the 1990s.

Showcasing the social impact made by key artist-activists on their communities and on the mainstream art world and music industry, Gonzalez charts the evolution of a now-canonical body of work that took its inspiration from the Zapatista movement, particularly its masked indigenous participants, and that responded to efforts to impose systems of labor exploitation and social subjugation. Incorporating Gonzalez's memories of the Mexican nationalist music of her childhood and her band's journey to Chiapas, the book captures the mobilizing music, poetry, dance, and art that emerged in pre-gentrification corners of downtown Los Angeles and that went on to inspire flourishing networks of bold, innovative artivistas.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music

192 pages, Paperback

Published July 27, 2020

Reviews

[Sumaq · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great book. Dr. Gonzalez takes us from her upbringing as a daughter of a Mexican musician father to the chican@ movement in the 90s in Los Angeles to the important translocal work that she has done between the US & Mexico, Dr Gonzalez tells us a beautiful and powerful story of freedom, community and social change. She tells us about how art practices are critical to imagine and build the new worlds we so desperately need.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Assigned for a Chicano studies course.

Great story of family and achievement with an emphasis on the importance of music in creating social change and promoting community. An excellent story that many Chicanos will resonate with!