CSUN professor paints her way through male-dominated art industry

By Christopher Ho for the CSUN Sundial

Growing up as a self-identified Chicana, Yreina Cervantez had little inclination that her childhood circumstances would eventually lead her into the Chicana/o movement and her position in the Chicana/o studies department at California State University, Northridge.

“Art is a powerful tool for transformation,” said Cervantez who immersed herself in the growing arts community. She said the collective spirit at Self Help Graphics was very dynamic and became a creative hotbed for artists during beginning of civil rights in the Chicana/o Movement.

It can be hard to find one’s identity in a male dominated movement, that is why she values her close solidarity with fellow female chicana artists, said Cervantez. These friendships also help to influence her work.

“Women have not been very visible in today’s art,” she said. “And if they have, they are portrayed very stereotypical. These pieces talk about the dignities of women and their strengths, while reclaiming a sense of empowerment and agency.”

That being said, Cervantez certainly wants to make clear that, the symbolism in her art is not a reaction but a thoughtful response.

Cervantez spent six years at Self Help Graphics, a non-profit in LA that supports community art. Self Help was more than just a company; it provided a platform for artists to support Chicana/o art, especially when there was little support in 1979, according to Cervantez.

Cervantez is a community worker and a painter in academia. Her work is currently being exhibited at the Fowler Museum in UCLA as a special show entitled “Mapping Another LA: The Chicano Art Movement.”

The exhibit began Oct.16 and continues until Feb. 26. “Mapping Another LA” is part of a larger project “Pacific Standard Time” that showcases Californian art from 1940s to 1980s. Cervantez’s work also has a reoccurring appearance at the Latino Museum located in the heart of downtown L.A.

When asked about showcasing her work, Cervantez offered humble gratification. Displaying one’s work is the goal as a working artist, Cervantez said.

“My work has been shown for over 30 years, but it’s always gratifying, definitely a sense of affirmation,” she said.

Cervantez is a third-generation Mexican who spent her childhood in the American Midwest and Mount Palomar in mostly rural areas culturally polarized. When her family moved to Orange County, the conservative attitude, according to Cervantez, influenced her to become part of the Chicana/o movement.

She credits her mother as an original inspiration of her painting career, as she was creative and artistic even though her mother was not necessarily an artist. Nonetheless her mother’s inspiration was absorbed by osmosis, helping propel a natural talent in Cervantez whether it was painting or drawing.

Cervantez paints in all mediums, but fine tuned her watercolor skills during her upbringing. “In high school, my art started to develop and so did my consciousness,” she said.

With her heart and skills in art, she went to college and received her undergraduate degree in the medium.

“I wanted to put my education to use; my education is not just in academia but also in the community,” said Cervantez.

Her first job as a resident artist involved working with local youth under the Social and Public Arts Resource Center in the murals department. To Cervantez it was a form of social justice, a way to serve the community through art.

Although the arts may sometimes be seen as a spontaneous event, the Chicana artist infuses research into her thoughtful responses during her creative process.

“Meso-American mythology inspires a lot of my work, by drawing from the past to apply to the contemporary,” she said.

Cervantez said she envisions her pieces a certain way, being an organic process though unanticipated things can happen. She enjoys the twist and turns “because the creative process is a combination of intellectual and visceral responses,” she said.

Art is not just a personal experience that resonates individually, but an opportunity to inspire change, which is why Cervantez decided to teach at a college level. It is a perfect opportunity to impact younger students at a more meaningful comprehensive and influential way, Cervantez said.

Cervantez said there is a lot of activism now in today’s younger generations, especially during the social unrest. And she feels responsible in teaching students a comprehensive and informed look at activism through Chicana/o art. Even if that means taking on the continual challenge between balancing painting and teaching.

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Art and Activism

Muralist guest speaker at UT-Pan American highlights cultural understanding

As a teenager California in the 1960s and 1970s, Yreina D. Cervantez found her voice as an artist as the streets of Los Angeles were filled with the voices of activists and protesters from around the world.

"My work is really about the reclamation of identity and transformation," she said. "… reclaiming one's history and understanding one's history and therefore understanding your identity, transforming and transcending."

Now a professor of Chicana and Chicano art at California State University, Northridge, Cervantez's collection of painting, drawings, prints and mural work reflect 30 years of community art and activism. Raised in California, she entered young adulthood during the Chicano Rights Movement, the Civil Rights Movement and the resistance to the Vietnam War.

"I was very young and I [came] into my political conscience at that historical movement, and so it really formed a lot of my experiences," she said. "Through my education I was able to go to the university and be exposed to a lot of different ideas."

While still an undergrad at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Cervantez traveled to Nicaragua to show her support for refugees affected by the country's civil war in the 1980s painted a mural to there with other students and supporters. After graduating, she became active in community art as a teacher and noted mural painter with the grassroots non-profits Self Help Graphics and the Social and Public Art Resources Center, which provide free art classes in East LA and promote mural preservation.

"Most of my life has been dedicated to issues that are related to community and to creating positive change in communities," Cervantez said, mentioning a program in which she taught art to young women and mothers involved in gangs. "That was rewarding because there were women who didn't necessarily have access to opportunities but who were very intelligent, very creative. Sometimes it's just the access to education or opportunity that really creates circumstances."

While Cervantez said that her style and artistic approach have changed over three decades, her work is connected by the common thread of Chicana and Native American spirituality, feminism and the blending of the personal and political. She cites the incorporation of alto historia as an important part of her self-portraiture, a concept coined by Valley writer Gloria Zanzaldua as the practice of Chicana artists including elements that represent their communities into their self-portraits.

"The Chicana and Chicano Movement didn't happen in a vacuum, and neither does Chicana and Chicano art," she said. "It was all a process of being inspired by the Chicano Movement, my education and my experiences that formed my consciousness, and also working in the community with the Latino community and Central America community as well."

Her work "Mujer de Mucha Enagua, Pa' Ti Xicana" showcases Cervantez's use of symbolism, feminism, and indigenous influences. The title translates to "woman with a lot of petty coat," a saying in Mexico that inspired to create the screen-print depicting a Mexican revolutionary woman Zapatista, Mexican poet Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz and cotemporary poet Rosario Castellano.

"I thought that was really beautiful because … we don't really have anything that comparable to, excuse me for being blunt, but you have things like, ‘He's got a lot of balls,'" she explained. "Una mujer de mucha enagua, a woman with a lot of petty coat is comparable to the idea of a person with a lot of strength, a person that is empowered, and I thought that that was a beautiful metaphor, and that piece is dealing with history…"

Cervantez will be on campus to discuss her work as part of FESTIBA in a March 28 lecture in the library. Her "Selected Works in Paper" exhibition will be on display through April 30.

"[It's] an opportunity to have discourse on Chicana and Chicano art and aesthetic because we don't really have that opportunity many times…," she said. "Until things really change significantly for communities of color, particularly Latino and especially immigrant communities, there are always issues to address in the work."

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Photographer Harry Gamboa's Passion and Activism

By Brian De Los Santos, CSUN

Professor Harry Gamboa Jr.’s said he is often inspired by everyday people in ordinary scenarios for his artwork. Photo Credit: Herber Lovato / Assistant Photo Editor

Professor Harry Gamboa Jr.’s first masterpiece involved a couple cans of spray paint and a wall at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art which served as his canvas.

In 1972, Gamboa and two other members of his art entourage,Asco (Spanish for nauseated), had asked a museum curator at LACMA why Chicano art was nonexistent in the museum and he told them Latinos did not partake in art but rather in gangs.

The art group responded by tagging their names on the right corner of the museum around 4 a.m., making the building itself a work of art produced by Chicanos.

The black and red graffiti had brief physical existence of about seven hours.

“It was a way to play the term he had used,” he said.

The piece, now know as Spray Paint LACMA, is one of many that have contributed to Gamboa’s reputation as an artist and voice for the underdog.

He’s been described as a “pioneer for art in action” by performance artists like Maris Bustamante, while his colleagues describe him as a humble man with an immense influence.

His avant-garde skills have allowed him to touch multiple realms in the world of art. His work, with its political activist notion, has not ceased to deliver messages to the masses.

However, on the CSUN campus, Harry Gamboa Jr., a world-renowned Chicano artist, is known for a different role as teacher.

Although he currently teaches a remedial writing class, Gamboa has taught art, theater, cinema, photography and Chicana/o studies at various UC campuses, as well as the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia and Otis.

He has also lectured at Harvard University, UC Berkley, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Centro Cultural de España, Mexico City and several others.

But long before stepping into his role as a teacher and lecturer, Gamboa pursued his passion for art, activism and people.

The East LA native began his career as an artist in the early 1970s, when he was an editor for several magazines.

The experience from those publications developed his unique eye for design, something that he is known for.

The artist has explored a plethora of artistic platforms, from photography to murals, film and canvas.

Gamboa also tried his hand at writing, producing several poems, books and essays, which have been used as academic course readers, as well. Most of his pieces are politically inclined, translating an idea onto a medium of art.

Human rights and activism have played a major role in Gamboa’s life since the 1960s, when he stood as one of the students who fought for education reform when the Chicano movement was being developed and the “East LA Walkout” occurred.

As part of the movement, Gamboa delivered speeches, spoke with the media regarding the subject, involved other youth and mentored protestors. He was fully involved, hoping to alter an education system that did not favor minorities at the time.

Gamboa said in comparison to the 60s and the education protests today, back then “it was a life or death situation” because it was either being drafted or accepted into school.

“It was imminently to stop the war,” he said.

He also battled the military drafts with protests against the Vietnam War.

“I was very interested and always pointing out the inconsistencies of what was being told to us versus what was real,” Gamboa said.

He added that during the early 1970s, today’s communication technology was absent, therefore many people created “things that were not real.”

Gamboa’s solution was to tell stories through photographs, which became his craft and expression of choice.

“My focus early on (in art) was always about establishing rumors and myths,” he said. “In the end that is kind of what I still do.”

Gamboa went on to say that through his art he enjoys generating interest, creating excitement, presenting new ideas or images that have not been expressed before.

He said he draws inspiration from everyday people in everyday circumstances and transforms the ordinary scenario into an extraordinary work of art. For example, Gamboa said when he steps onto a bus, he documents his journey with writings or photographic scenes from the common people who crowd the seats.

“It’s the idea that I can photograph an individual who had previously been under the affects of negative stereotyping, then bring that image and transform the concept of whom this person represents,” Gamboa said. “Not only does it become art, but it also becomes something included in the (mainstream) dialogue, cancelling out the negative stereotypes.”

His passion for activism and human rights has not wavered over the years. Most recently, the artist has rallied for immigrant rights and education and has drawn artistic inspiration from the causes.

Gamboa’s most recent projects, Aztlangst, a photonovela (graphic novel), is aimed to interpret the story of oppressed groups such as those who are being affected by Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

“(The graphic novel is based on) people who are in hiding, who are operating on a different level of awareness because they are being hunted down,” Gamboa said.

He said that he is also in the process of completing Pix, a collection of his favorite photography work from the 1970s to recent years.

“I found it my calling in life to to minor events and to transform and give them a historic nature even though they might not be worthy of history,” Gamboa said. “(I want) to have fun trying to create change.”

Junior Natalia Baires, 21, psychology, a former student of Gamboa’s, described his impact on her life as both a “privilege and bizarre.”

“(I feel) privileged because he was a good professor and bizarre because he did so much to fight for Chicanos,” Baires said. “It is weird to know that this humble and ordinary looking man did all that plus more.”

Over the span of his 30 year career, his work has attained world-wide attention and has been exhibited in acclaimed museums like the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Guadalajara, Mexico, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Smithsonian Institution and the list goes on.

Dr. Denisse Sandoval, CSUN Chicana/o studies instructor, has known Gamboa for about 16 years and has been included in his art troupe since 2004. She also participated in photo shoots for Aztlagnst and other projects.

Sandoval said Gamboa’s gift is his unique view of the world.

“When you see that little tinkle in his eye, that’s little trouble maker in his life,” she said. “And that is what makes him a fabulous artist.”

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CSUN professor publishes women’s empowerment guide

By Angela Melero - The Daily Sundial

Chicana/o studies professor Diana Shakti Contreras is teaching college women a lesson in identity in her book titled “Meditations of a Warrior Goddess Diva.”

Contreras writes that all women possess within themselves the three traits mentioned in the title, yet they remain dormant.

She elaborates on the roles that all three concepts play in the female experience once they are realized and unleashed, using some of her own experiences as a reference. The result is a brave manuscript that takes readers on an insightful and sometimes uncomfortable ride into the female spirit.

Contreras writes, “A woman’s full potential comes when the three powers (warrior, goddess, diva) are put to use, in harmony with each other, and in sync with the laws and rhythms of the universe.”

The book has an appropriate target audience, as the content focuses on elements like identity and self reflection, which are often confronted in college years.

Contreras’ first published manuscript acts as a guide with designated journal sections that include questions and exercises for the reader.

Readers will find themselves in unfamiliar and somewhat awkward territory, writing letters to their parents and doing an internal body cleanse that requires consuming a tablespoon of olive oil every morning for a week.

The book, which is divided into three sections dedicated to the title’s concepts, challenges women to put aside their stiletto heels and designer bags and explore a more raw aspect of themselves.

Contreras’ warrior concept encourages the female reader to be more independent in words and actions.

Contreras defines a female warrior as a woman who “uses the power of her voice to defend herself and the people for whom she cares.”

The writer instructs the reader to live on their own for a year, and to take some time off from dating. She writes that often a woman’s “lovey-dovey” energy invested in a relationship can hinder self development.

Contreras also challenges readers to connect with their inner goddess by focusing on building and restoring positive relationships and loving their bodies.

She writes, “A goddess nurtures her body, understands and cares for it like a sacred temple; she is aware of her emotions, heals them when needed and enjoys life to the fullest.”

This includes tackling issues that are normally considered awkward and taboo, such as the act of forgiving your parents.

“It is crucial you learn to heal any wounds of negativity in your relationships with your parents, otherwise you will drag these feelings into your future relationship,” Contreras writes.

This portion of the book also confronts the topic of female body image, a common issue among women. The author discourages the unhealthy eating habits plaguing the country, repeatedly insisting that “we are using our bodies as a trashcan.”

Contreras urges readers to “embrace your body as a sacred temple, by simply respecting and treating it with love, and realizing that organs inside your body are working tirelessly to keep you alive.”

Contreras redefines the diva concept in the final section, encouraging readers to dismantle the common themes associated with the term.

These days, the concept of being a diva is often associated with self-absorbed celebrities taking part in excessive lifestyles and behavior.

“(Diva) is a force centered around women’s sexuality,” Contreras writes. “If only women knew the power of their sexuality, we would have a completely different world.”

This section is perhaps the most frank and compelling. The chapters instruct readers on how to pick the perfect mate, career path and lifestyle, and master the art of managing their finances.

It concludes with an exercise in which the reader devotes an entire day to channeling her true diva essence. In a fun twist, readers are encouraged to dress to impress and to maintain their diva walk.

Each chapter ends with journal questions and exercises that are meant to put the book’s concepts into practice. It also offers the reader reflection time to allow the information and concepts to sink in.

“Warrior Goddess Diva” is not one of those books breezed through on a long car ride or during a day at the beach. It’s not a book to retire to an empty space on the bookshelf.

The book’s concepts are meant to change the way a woman looks at her life and herself.

Contreras writes, “In the process, you are creating a healthier, stronger, and more beautiful you.”

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