The Mexican American Experience, a radio program produced by the Longhorn Radio Network, includes interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns. Program summary: Pedro Rodríguez, a professor of art history, and Amado Peña, an artist, discuss the development of Chicano art: its influences and its characteristics. Chicano art developed in parallel with the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. Rodríguez explains that Chicano art has been heavily influenced by Mexican muralists and other Latin American artists and seeks to portray the realities of the Mexican American people. He has detected three tendencies within Chicano art: cultural-nationalist, assimiliationist and revolutionary, and he describes each. He also looks at how Mexican muralists and graffiti artists influenced Chicano art. Rodríguez then discusses the efforts of ethnic artists to bridge the gap between artists and their communities. Chicano artists have sought to do so through murals, showings in non-traditional venues, and mass production. Host Linda Fregoso then interviews Amado Peña, one of the most successful Chicano artists. He first talks about how he became an artist and how his work has changed over time. He explains that the context of his life influenced his thematic choices as he moved from overt political art to cultural documentation. Peña then discusses his recent emphasis on indigenous themes, and his recent career successes at the Smithsonian Institution and in galleries across Europe. He explains that he believes his background influences his identity as a Chicano artist, as it does other Chicano artists from throughout the United States. Keywords: Activism, Amado Peña, Art history, Chicano Art, Chicano Movement, Crystal City, Cultural Nationalism, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, Ethnic Identity, Galleries, Graffiti, Indigeneity, Lowrider, Mexican Muralists, Mexico, Migrants, Minimalism, Murals, National Museum of American Art, New Mexico, Op Art, Pachuco, Pedro Rodriguez, Political Art, Pop Art, Public Art, Revolutionary Art, Revolutionary Heroes, Silk-screening, Smithsonian Institution, Social Aesthetics, Social Realism, Socially Conscious Art, South Texas, Urban Life, Willie Herron, Zoot Suiter. Broadcast date: 1981-10-22.
Creator/Contributor:
Longhorn Radio Network (creator), Fregoso, Rosa Linda. (host), Peña, Amado Maurilio 1943- (interviewee), and Rodríguez, Pedro (interviewee)
Date Created/Date Issued:
10/19/1981
Owning Repository:
Benson Latin American Collection, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, The University of Texas at Austin