by Ricardo Romo

The seventies are remembered as a monumental decade for most Americans. In the early years of the decade President Richard Nixon’s resignation and the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade dominated the news. Earth Day, Godfather movies, and disco music fascinated young people. The advent of the computer revolution marked a major change in society.​

For Latinos, the decade included significant events as cities across the Southwest experienced school walkouts, and California farmworkers won important union and legislative policy victories. Talented youth introduced Chicano poetry, plays, and film, and universities developed Chicano Studies classes and programs. 
 
Chicano artists who grew up during the seventies witnessed great transformations as they saw for the first time a flowering of their own artistic cultural creations. Jacinto Guevara of San Antonio emerged as one of the fortunate individuals who rode the early waves of this artistic movement. His story provides some important insights into one of the most significant eras of Chicano artistic creativity.
 
From an early age Jacinto Guevara discovered that art represented an important means of communicating. Guevara came of age artistically during the early 1970s while attending Belmont High School in East Los Angeles. At the time, few Latinos went to museums but most grew up surrounded by commercial art, usually in the form of billboards and posters. Significantly the early expressions of Arte de La Raza appeared in public art. ​

Chicano art originated with the mural movement in California. Art historians place the birth of Chicano art between 1968-1973. Guevara was a teenager when Chicano artists painted a mural at the headquarters of Cesar Chavez’ United Farm Workers Union in Del Rey, California. Some of the earliest Chicano murals originated in the heart of East Los Angeles, in close proximity to Guevara’s home.
 
When Joe and John Gonzalez decided to convert an abandoned meat market into an art gallery, they recruited two future Chicano art stars, David Botello and their brother-in-law Ignacio Gomez, to paint what UCLA art historians have identified as the first public Chicano mural in East Los Angeles. Muralism became the most prominent creative development of Chicano art.
 
Guevara enrolled at California State University Northridge [CSUN] in 1975, a time when colleges throughout Southern California were reaching out to East Los Angeles students. Guevara had seldom gone to the San Fernando Valley, home of the Northridge campus, but he liked CSUN’s Chicano Studies Program which was in its sixth year. He majored in Ethnic Studies and took classes with famed Chicano historian Dr. Rudy Acuña. Guevara loved music and joined the mariachi band headed by Professor Beto Ruiz. Guevara became a frequent art and cartoon contributor to El Popo, the Chicano student newspaper founded in 1970. 

In 2016 Lewis Fisher published Saving San Antonio: The Preservation of a Heritage. It told a story of the San Antonio Conservation Society’s organized efforts to save historical houses from destruction. Guevara is also “saving San Antonio” through his paintings. His work captures the essence of the city, areas where not all the houses and buildings are spectacular, but they contain meaning and beauty for their owners. Guevara’s structural portraits, such as that of the 1880s building, “Liberty Bar,” which became a hangout for many Chicano artists, capture a heritage that makes San Antonio unique. ​

Ricardo Romo is an author, educator, and Latino Art connoisseur. He has degrees from the University of Texas at Austin (BA) and UCLA (PhD).

​This essay is the first in a three-part series in which the author, who has consulted in the founding of universities in the U.S. (mostly in Aztlán), Japan, Mexico, Europe, and Africa, argues for higher education to re-think and re-structure the old way of teaching, learning and administrating by post-secondary institutions. He recommends the use of evolving means of instruction, made highly feasible and necessary by the onslaught of a world pandemic: evolving technology by which young people can be taught anywhere in the world and new ideas in organizing the “enterprise,” a broad term for any complexity of disparate parts whether in the building of a passenger jet or in the sharing of knowledge. The driving principle, he says, must be the student and as a child born of Chicano activist parents, he insists that Mexican American and Latino youth must be given full measure of attention and opportunity. The traditional university is on the way out and learning wherever one lives will be the new model.

​It’s curious how Chicano art causes me to experience new revelations about an endless variety of topics of social inquiry. Take this painting by a Chicana artist who early on contracted the Covid-19 virus and during lockdown painted a series of portrayals of her lungs, both capturing her illness and sick lungs in one artwork and her lungs cleared of the virus.
 
The artist continued to paint during her illness and says it helped her heal to do so. 

​When I look at the sick lungs, the B/W drawing, I see a systemic design: everything in the human body is strategically linked to the lungs for the purpose of breathing as well as sustaining life in the body. In the field of sociology that would be referred to as “structural functionalism.” Enter an unknown and unexpected integer, the C-19 virus, and the lungs become sick, the immune system starts working on overdrive and searches for solutions but to no avail, at least not for now, and the future is not looking too bright at the moment.
 
This is the analogy to higher education, much like religion as Karl Marx observed, we as a global society have come to believe in higher education to such a degree that we forgot to design an antidote, a viable solution in case anything ever went wrong. As we in the Academy search for solutions to the problematics caused by the pandemic, we must come to the realization that in order to find a solution to developing an antidote, we must first search, define, and prioritize new values and beliefs to drive the research necessary to envision viable and sustainable solutions for how henceforth higher education will “get done.” We must turn all existing beliefs about higher education on their heads–in essence, the pandemic has done this for us.
 
Currently, the veil of objectivity has provided a paradigm for looking and believing in higher education such that we do not question the values and meaning of those values. We don’t question the bench work of professors and we don’t question decisions administrators with no experience in out-of-the-box thinking make, yet this is what we (people of color) need to watch closely as we take the hand coming in out of the fog and develop new ways of knowing higher education, new ways that provide solutions centered on serving ALL people in more equitable ways.
 
Face it, just look around. We are void of leadership with the type of skills necessary to address the issues the pandemic has caused in higher education that will lead to new meanings and values in higher education. There is no real paradigm in sight, nor are there leaders in higher education on the horizon with the insight necessary to lead us into the type of change necessary. We need a present-day Jorge Klor de Alba, former president of the University of Phoenix and The Apollo Group, maybe we can pull him out of retirement and pull him out of Brazil. Or, maybe we can locate an honorary Chicano like John Sperling, founder of the University of Phoenix, to provide us with a new paradigm for looking for solutions to the problematics that the pandemic has created for higher education.
 
It was not that long ago when John Sperling presented a vision about the future of higher education and it moved beyond the technology from the start. He had Latinos in mind. Sperling’s vision was to level the playing field and serve ALL people….little did he know that today his non-traditional university would end up serving educationally underrepresented people in a manner much better than traditional institutions of higher education (IHE).
 
Even after the U.S. Department of Education’s efforts to close down the university due to nothing more than political pressure from traditional large-scale IHEs, today the University of Phoenix should be moved to the front of the line for their paradigm for looking at and applying teaching and learning. Let’s just say that the pandemic is shedding new light on non-traditional ways. Briefly stated, the University of Phoenix is the best at what they do, namely online education, and they should be recognized for it. Plus, they serve people of color at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in respectable ways; this is due in part to the early leadership and vision of Klor de Alba.
 
Even as large-scale traditional systems of higher education (California State University and University of California) were suddenly forced into the arena with the real experts in online education (University of Phoenix), the traditionalists afford them no credence, no kudos, nada; this has now become the unspeakable truth. This is why our societal values must change, and they must change now in giving non-traditional IHEs the recognition they deserve.
​
We can start by no longer stigmatizing people of color who earn degrees at non-traditional colleges that are fully accredited and by-and-large produce more PhDs of color than all other IHEs combined.
 
The analogy to art, the image of sick lungs, for example, represents the stark reality that we can build systems, large-scale systems of institutions of higher education and they have the appearance of truth but the reality is that these systems are in many ways “sick” in a manner similar to institutional racism, by design, you might say. The point is that as societal values change, traditional IHEs will become obsolete at a faster pace. It should be noted that this can be exacerbated by further infusion of technology by administrators not fully aware of this possibility.
 
Beyond that is simply ignorance on the part of individuals who make decisions about technology and do not understand the impact their decision-making has on people of color, for example, on such concepts as access and equity. Moreover, traditional IHEs offer slow and/or never-changing degrees that poor students pay big bucks for, yet they are not taught how to leverage their degrees and navigate through the rest of their lives, unlike well-to-do White students. The following is a case in point.
 
I once attended graduation ceremonies at UCLA’s School of Business in honor of a friend’s son earning his bachelor’s degree. At the end of the ceremony, he stood with his best friend to take pictures. When we finished my friend (a starving Chicana artist) handed her son an envelope containing a crisp one hundred-dollar bill. She was so proud. In the same moment, her son’s best friend (a White male student) was handed an envelope by his father, a highly successful businessman who had earned a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree from UCLA–it contained a check for one million dollars. All at once, this caused a visceral response in me that was all too familiar: it reminded me more than ever of the GAP–the gap we are all too familiar with in American society.
 
For many Latinos, earning a degree from UCLA’s School of Business is like a miracle. More than likely, they have been first-generation college students, maybe a Dreamer, and with parents who had never set foot on a college campus and were poor, like my parents. We were so poor that we used to pile through cow dung at the “hides” where my grandfather worked, a slaughter-house meat packing plant in National City (San Diego) in search of beans. Yeah, frijoles! A cow, even with its system of stomachs can’t digest beans, so we would pick them out, boil them up and have fresh frijoles borrachos.
 
This is but one example of why Latinos within the realm of the pandemic are not freaking out. We know how to survive, but it’s this type of thinking that needs further transformation. We also need to learn how to thrive in a world made of structures designed by people who rule our society. Navigating life in a White man’s world takes skill, know-how, persistence, and fortitude, ganas, as we say. This represents a huge gap. Having a mentor, whether it be a parent, uncle or friend, places a student at a huge advantage over “mentors” who have never set foot on a college/university campus.

​Now, take the colorful painting of the lungs by artist Alejandra Oseguera. They represent good health. Healthy lungs taking in air are bright and beautiful. They have the appearance of truth because they are the Truth–la verdad. De Colores!
 
Take a closer look. These lungs are not an illusion; they are not fake; they came from the heart and soul of a sincere and trusting Chicana artist. This is a beautiful self-reflection of an immune system that overcame a terrible and horrific virus. The beauty of the lungs at the same time represents the great fear the artist endured.
 
When Latinos graduate from college, it is a beautiful experience for many, but making their way through the university experience they often do not have the type of support that is supportive of their journey. My father, for example, was supportive because he kept saying, “mi’jo, you have to go to college,” even though he did not go to college.
 
The online teaching experience causes new realities for how to support educationally underserved students and we need to focus on addressing a “pedagogy of the oppressed,” a la Pablo Freire for online teaching and learning. Again, here, too, is an institutionalized insensitivity gap, a tragic overarching gap, between the ongoing rhetoric, almost all of it repetitive in various language constructs over the last 100 years, if not more, and the reality that our society is experiencing a widening gap between rhetoric and reality in American life and politics.
 
Now, at a time when the Covid-19 virus has caused a major cognitive shift in the manner in which we construct our reality in everyday life, would be an especially good time to look around in higher education and identify a diverse group of genuine bridge builders, because the more extreme the divide, the harder it will be to construct viable bridges so needed in times of crisis. An integral factor in the widening divisions within our communities of color and American society at large lies in the world of higher education.
 
The pandemic has exposed one of the most profound gaps in higher education, that between the rhetoric and reality of our educational enterprise, the aspirations of our system versus its current results (outcomes). Even as we weave hopeful narratives about the role of higher education in the world that is unfolding, we must acknowledge and, more importantly, attempt to bridge the gulf between where we are, and where we would like to be. This is important, because I believe that for better or for worse higher education played a role in bringing us to this place, and higher education must play a role in moving us forward.
 
My question is, does all of education have what it takes in ability, character, and dedication to meet the demands of this next and crucial phase of the development of all of education, including our colleges and universities, and at the same time remain mindful of educationally under-served communities? 
 
We have reached a point where talk will no longer do. Plans and various kinds of tinkering are all good in their place, but there comes a time when performance–genuine, solid, work-produced outcomes–is required and that time is now to focus on closing these gaps. As César Chávez would say, “Si se puede!”

Alejandra Oseguera has an extensive career providing academic, personal and career counseling services in schools of higher education throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives. She holds a Masters in Counselor Education and a Pupils Personnel Services Credential from San Jose State University. 
​
website: https://hijadelsolart.blogspot.com

Armando Arias is a professor and founding member in the division of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Global Studies at CSU Monterey Bay and a frequent contributor to this magazine in his column, Chicano Confidential. He is the author of Theorizing César Chávez New Ways of Knowing STEM, published recently by Somos en escrito Literary Foundation Press, Berkeley, 2020, in which he shares a critical analysis of STEM studies, portraying his views as César Chávez would have had he gone on to earn a doctorate in science. He has served as a start-up team member for more than a dozen new universities in the U.S. (mostly in Aztlán) and consulted on the founding of new universities in Japan, Mexico, Europe, and Africa.

Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Chicana painter Marta Sanchez has been inspired by traditional Mexican folkloric art expressions and contemporary issues. Her works on paper are mostly linocuts and monotypes, which follow the social and cultural traditions of Mexican and Chicano/a Art. Her paintings are mainly on tin or industrial corrugated metal. The materials, scale, and issues connect to present day concerns.
 
Marta has been working on a series of paintings of the San Antonio train yards near her childhood home. Through these paintings, she explores the role of trains in the Mexican migration through the Southern Pacific. Carpas, traveling circus and vaudeville troupes that performed throughout Mexico, are the inspiration for another series that has captivated Marta’s creative energies. Wings Press published a book on the collaborative suite of Carpa related serigraphs titled Transcendental Train Yards. The collaborative suite was created with Chicana poet and folklorist, Norma E. Cantú.
 
Her work is in the collections of The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, The McNay Art Museum, The Fine Art Museum of St. Petersburg, Florida, and The National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. Marta’s work is part of actor/director Cheech Marin’s extensive private collection of Chicano art. She participated in “Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge,” which traveled throughout the United States from 2001 to 2006, as well as Mr. Marin’s exhibition, “Chicanitas/size does not matter,” featuring small works from his collection. Marta’s public art commissions can be seen in the Philadelphia area at Simons Recreation Center, and The Children’s Hospital in Montgomery, Pennsylvania. The most recent sculptural works for the northern part of the City of Philadelphia is a series of 100 feet steel installations titled “Reclaiming Gurney Street. The piece was commissioned by the Hispanic Association of Contractors and Entrepreneurs to reclaim an opioid encampment to a public rails and trails project for the community.

Train yard in the daylight
3' x 4' oil and enamel on metal
​2002
www.artedemarta.com/home-2/trainyard-in-the-dayllight-copy/

Horizon
oil and enamel painting on aluminum, 3' x 9′
Collection of the University of Texas in San Antonio
http://www.artedemarta.com/home-2/trainyard-in-the-dayllight-copy/

Grandmother, grandson
oil on copper, 18″ x 24″
1999
www.artedemarta.com/home-2/sm-grandmotehr-grandson/

Carpas
mixed media on tin 6″ x 8″
http://www.artedemarta.com/paintings/img_0187/

Four parts of me
enamel, oil on copper, 18″ x 24″
​2004
www.artedemarta.com/home-2/smfour-pieces-of-me-07-copy/

Marta Sanchez earned an MFA in painting from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and a BFA in painting from the University of Texas at Austin. She taught at the Philadelphia Museum of Art for over seventeen years and now teaches at St. Joseph University. She is co-founder of the grassroots organization “Cascarones Por La Vida,” which assists families affected by HIV/AIDS. Her work is currently archived at the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin.

website: www.artedemarta.com

For more information on Transcendental Train yards, the suite and the book:
www.latinobookreview.com/norma-elia-cantu.html

Visit Wings Press to order a copy of Transcendental Train Yard, with art by Marta Sanchez and poetry by Norma E. Cantú: 
www.ipgbook.com/transcendental-train-yard-products-9780916727970.php?page_id=21.
 Also available on Amazon.
 
For a schedule of book signings and readings, please visit:
https://www.facebook.com/transcendentaltrainyard/

Learn more about The Philadelphia Art Alliance at:
https://philartalliance.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/sleepers-in-the-borderlands/ 

​“Guardia del barrio," stationed as a sentry at 1505 St. Emmanuel at Leeland, one of the main entry points from Houston proper into the east end.

​“Muertos Mural," at 111 N. Ennis, created for radio station KLVL, displays its popular show, "yo necesito trabajo," and symbols of the funeral home on which it’s painted.

​​“Segundo Barrio” is at 2900 Navigation Boulevard.

​Angel Quesada (#ARTKUNGFU) has been making massive artworks marking the streets of Houston, Texas, for over 25 years. Influenced by Mexican and other Latin American artists, Quesada revels in exploring the fine line that connects geometry, spirituality, and being able to see the human hand at work in a large scale context. He is a professional practitioner and teacher of Tai Chi Chuan who in 2003 ranked 6th nationally in the art of Tai Chi. Since the early 90’s, he has served as an artist, curator, exhibition designer and arts administrator throughout Texas. For more about Angel, click angelquesada.com.