The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture in downtown Riverside celebrated its fourth anniversary with the opening of a new exhibition. We The People: Chicano Art in the U.S.A. features more than 100 works drawn from Cheech Marin's personal collection alongside pieces loaned by other collectors.
The exhibition's curators say We The People explores themes of immigration, border politics and identity that continue to shape Latino communities.
SEGMENT:
ANTHONY VICTORIA: The We The People exhibition features acrylic, oil and mixed media pieces. Benito Huerta — the exhibition's lead curator — says the art is a timeless reflection of the Latino experience in America.
He pointed to a piece from the 1990s called the Arrest of the Paleteros, which shows LAPD drawing guns on ice cream vendors and children. But Huerta says that's the point…
BENITO HUERTA: "There's a Diego Rivera quote that says all art is political. What that means to me is that what you're seeing is the artist has an idea and is trying to convince you of that idea."
VICTORIA: Huerta says the exhibition's art pieces can be put into three categories. He says some of the art inspires, others provoke and some are political.
HUERTA: "This is one of the things I like about art, is that after we, the artists, are gone, that work will still be here, still commenting on what's going on."
VICTORIA: One thought-provoking piece is Mojado No.1 by Israel Alejandro Garcia. Garcia's mixed-media installation features items he picked up during his 1,500 mile journey across the US-Mexico border...like jugs of water and shoes left behind by migrants who bravely crossed the border.
Garcia lives in Kansas City, but migrated to the US from Michoacan, Mexico at six years old. He considers Mojado No. 1 a self portrait.
ISRAEL ALEJANDRO GARCIA-GARCIA: "I've always had tough narratives within my work. I'm always kind of dealing with the immigrant experience, and not only the happy, but also kind of the tragedies within the history of our people and our community, and the diaspora between communities, and how we're treated here in the U.S."
VICTORIA: Garcia says his piece is named Mojado No. 1 because it's a negative term he wants to reclaim. The term is derogatory towards migrants — particularly those from Latin America — who had to cross the Rio Grande to get to the U.S.
GARCIA-GARCIA: "I think we take ownership, and I wanted to take ownership being proud of being Mojado and understanding what that means, that it ultimately does identify as the hard work that we actually put into our struggle."
VICTORIA: Cheech Marin, the famous comedian and museum's namesake, found Garcia's work so compelling that he purchased it. Cheech says it's now a permanent fixture at his museum.
MARIN: "It chronicles in real time everything that's going on, crossing the border and I was okay. I want to go and get this…It's spectacular."
VICTORIA: And Marin says it's his life mission to make sure institutions like the Cheech preserve Latino stories for generations to come. The We The People: Chicanos in the USA exhibition runs through May 23, 2027.
