San Jose Stories

A Struggle for VOice by Julia E Curry Rodriguez

[LESS INFO]   1 VIEWS | ADDED 19:57:20 11/19/08
From "Low-Rider Tables" to "Raza Writers" : A grassroots campus struggle Does it seem like our communities must always be vigilant? San Jose State University and the City of San Jose made an agreement to join our libraries sometime in the nineties. We of the Chicano/Latino Faculty and Staff Association (CLFSA) were involved to insure that our Chicano Library Resource Center, our students, and our contributions to the university community would be integrated into the joint library. We won the right to have a corner of the building that honored the gains we have made for our community over the course of many decades. Little did we know we would now face a new battle regarding art and community representation. In 2001 we found out there was a proposal for the commissioned art for the new library where item Number 17 pertained to the Chicano/Latino community. We were thrilled that planning included art since we had so many murals and images that were part of our Chicano Library Resource Center. What was not so thrilling was that the proposal included a mock-up that purported to commemorate the low rider car culture of Latino youth and the Latino community as a whole. Some of our members were disturbed that they had not been consulted about what images. They did not feel lowriders represented their contributions in Santa Clara County, California, and San Jose. Moreover, we wondered how it was that the official document that had been approved by the Arts Council and the City Council had no comment on the mock up used to represent this commemorative art work about a living cultural group. The mock up draws on a cover from a local low rider magazine that depicts a young Latina next to a library table. Our group struggled with the idea that somehow all of these groups relied on what we considered stereotypes that needed to be challenged. What ensued was a struggle over definition and the use of city and university bureaucracy to challenge our interpretation of the process and the art. Interestingly, the Council saw us a menace to free speech. I remember being called "art nazi's" which I found rather perplexing. As a university community member, the free expression of ideas is paramount. As empowered community activists we saw ourselves not as spokespersons for our entire community, but rather as advocates for the preservation of our gains as a community on the campus and the city. The struggle over Number 17 was more about autonomy and self determination, than it was about qualifications about art. A struggle ensued and public meetings were held with the Arts Council and the commissioned project artist, Mel Chin. They organized a team of people to "defend" artistic integrity and we organized to have a voice in the process. We never intended to halt the proposal of "low rider tables" we wanted to voice our opinion about the stereotypic manner in which Chicanos/Latinos, really Chicanas were depicted in the mock up. We understood that it was not the actual art, that there was going to be a competition to which the community could respond. We wanted to have a say. The Arts Council brought in folks to challenge our position-not as community members, but rather as art critics and also as consumers of art. They brought in members of our own race/ethnic group from various parts of the Bay Area to argue with us that we did not have the right to determine aesthetic representation. We organized folks to counter that it was not the aesthetics we objected to, it was the lack of community process. After much heartache, rage, and disgust we came to an agreement. The critique of the mock up and the stereotypic representation was never acknowledged by the artist nor the council. We won on the basis of process--they forgot that the university was also a member of the community and that we had no opportunity for input. The compromise was to rethink the art piece while honoring Chin's artistic integrity. We went from Low Rider Tables, to Raza Tables which as an art piece was named Raza Writers. I am uncertain that in the end the artist, the Arts Council and even some of our colleagues ever understood that our struggle was about having a voice in the process.