Yo Soy Indio (I Am Indian)
http://www.nativepeoples.com/article/articles/274/1/Yo-Soy-Indio-I-Am-Indian/Page1.html
By Site Editor
Published on 01/1/2008
We explore the sometimes difficult but culturally rich personal and
social territory found in the mixing of Spanish and Indian people in
the Americas, with a focus on the United States/Mexico borderlands. By
Ruben Hernandez (Yaqui/Latino). Illustrated with works by various
artists.
Site Editor
We explore the sometimes difficult but culturally rich personal and
social territory found in the mixing of Spanish and Indian people in
the Americas, with a focus on the United States/Mexico borderlands. By
Ruben Hernandez (Yaqui/Latino). Illustrated with works by various
artists. 2008 January/February Feature
Yo Soy Indio (I am Indian)
by Ruben Hernandez (Yaqui/Chicano)
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“Nepantla,” oil on canvas, 50" x 48", by Santa Barraza expresses the artist’s feelings of in-between-ness as both a Chicana and a Native American. As she puts it, “My artwork is about resistance, de-colonization, self-definition, self empowerment and survival..... I incorporate images such as the Guadalupana, Llorona, Adelita and Malinche as Chicana Mestiza feminine archetypes, warriors of womankind and humanity. The icons then become symbols of the embodiment of the mestizaje, the hybrid.”
Texas artist Santa Barraza (Karankawa/Chicana) paints bold, powerful images of Nepantla, a mythic “Land Between.” The term was first used by Nahuatl-speaking people of Mexico in the 16th century to describe their situation vis-à-vis the Spanish colonizers in their midst. Barraza’s Nepantla is the artist’s imaginary Third World that intertwines the historical, emotional and spiritual spheres of Mexico and Texas, living between contemporary reality and the ancient worlds of the Aztecs and Mayas. Barraza, who teaches fine art at Texas A&M University in Kingsville, says Nepantla could also represent the “in-between-ness” of Latinos like herself who are embracing their newfound Native American heritage and Indigenous ways.
She proudly identifies as a Chicana, but just as proudly has traced her heritage to the 1700s and a woman ancestor named Cuca Giza, a Karankawa Indian from the region that was once part of Mexico but is now known as south Texas.
Today, more Hispanics are redefining themselves, commingling their Latino and Native ethnicities on a palette, and painting a new self-portrait much different than that of their parents, says Barraza. This new portrait highlights its Indian aspects as much, or more than, its European (Spanish) bloodlines. “These people must regain what they have lost in the past,” says Barraza. “I think when they lost their land their existence became chaotic. They lost their spirit. It is a retaking back of their self-dignity and self-respect, spirit balancing their lives and becoming whole.”
A Look Back
The Latino culture is relatively young, counting about 500 years from the invasion of the Spanish of the Caribbean, Mexico (including the present southwestern United States) and Latin America as a whole. Historically, Latinos are the mixed-blood, or mestizo, children of the Hernán Cortézes (Spanish) and Malinches (female Indians), who met and interbred during the tumultuous Conquista of the 1600s and subsequent colonization of the Indigenous peoples in these lands.
The early mestizos were ashamed of their forced Hispanic-ness, because their new heritage was birthed in enslavement and rape. In the lands conquered by the Spanish, from Chile to Mexico, Indians were always at the bottom of the social and economic ladder. Until recent times, they’ve remained there, shunned by their follow countrymen of Spanish heritage, even when the vast majority of those people (especially so in Mexico) were and are of mixed heritage. For this reason, mestizos over time grew to hate their “Indian-ness,” and, if they could, they hid their Native ancestry. This dynamic played out even as they migrated to the United States...
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by Ruben Hernandez (Yaqui/Chicano)
BUY THIS ISSUE
“Nepantla,” oil on canvas, 50" x 48", by Santa Barraza expresses the artist’s feelings of in-between-ness as both a Chicana and a Native American. As she puts it, “My artwork is about resistance, de-colonization, self-definition, self empowerment and survival..... I incorporate images such as the Guadalupana, Llorona, Adelita and Malinche as Chicana Mestiza feminine archetypes, warriors of womankind and humanity. The icons then become symbols of the embodiment of the mestizaje, the hybrid.”
Texas artist Santa Barraza (Karankawa/Chicana) paints bold, powerful images of Nepantla, a mythic “Land Between.” The term was first used by Nahuatl-speaking people of Mexico in the 16th century to describe their situation vis-à-vis the Spanish colonizers in their midst. Barraza’s Nepantla is the artist’s imaginary Third World that intertwines the historical, emotional and spiritual spheres of Mexico and Texas, living between contemporary reality and the ancient worlds of the Aztecs and Mayas. Barraza, who teaches fine art at Texas A&M University in Kingsville, says Nepantla could also represent the “in-between-ness” of Latinos like herself who are embracing their newfound Native American heritage and Indigenous ways.
She proudly identifies as a Chicana, but just as proudly has traced her heritage to the 1700s and a woman ancestor named Cuca Giza, a Karankawa Indian from the region that was once part of Mexico but is now known as south Texas.
Today, more Hispanics are redefining themselves, commingling their Latino and Native ethnicities on a palette, and painting a new self-portrait much different than that of their parents, says Barraza. This new portrait highlights its Indian aspects as much, or more than, its European (Spanish) bloodlines. “These people must regain what they have lost in the past,” says Barraza. “I think when they lost their land their existence became chaotic. They lost their spirit. It is a retaking back of their self-dignity and self-respect, spirit balancing their lives and becoming whole.”
A Look Back
The Latino culture is relatively young, counting about 500 years from the invasion of the Spanish of the Caribbean, Mexico (including the present southwestern United States) and Latin America as a whole. Historically, Latinos are the mixed-blood, or mestizo, children of the Hernán Cortézes (Spanish) and Malinches (female Indians), who met and interbred during the tumultuous Conquista of the 1600s and subsequent colonization of the Indigenous peoples in these lands.
The early mestizos were ashamed of their forced Hispanic-ness, because their new heritage was birthed in enslavement and rape. In the lands conquered by the Spanish, from Chile to Mexico, Indians were always at the bottom of the social and economic ladder. Until recent times, they’ve remained there, shunned by their follow countrymen of Spanish heritage, even when the vast majority of those people (especially so in Mexico) were and are of mixed heritage. For this reason, mestizos over time grew to hate their “Indian-ness,” and, if they could, they hid their Native ancestry. This dynamic played out even as they migrated to the United States...
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