“Chapter 3: Phantoms in Urban Exile: Critical Soundings f - PowerPoint Presentation

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“Chapter 3: Phantoms in Urban Exile: Critical Soundings from Los Angeles’ Expressway Generation” in Barrio Logos: Space And Place in Urban Chicano Literature and Culture by Raúl Homero Villa

Riley Stauffer

Learning Presentation

AMCS 115-Race and Representation Slide2

Introduction to Chapter 3Features writers and artists that were immersed in the urban expansion of Los Angeles, particularly during the construction of the freeway systemHarry GamboaHelena Maria

Viramontes

Los Illegals (Willie

Herrón)Gil CuadrosLuis AlfaroGloria AlvarezSlide3

The Importance of Chicano Authors’ and Artists’ Work“Compelling barriological expressions” (11)Allows us to take on a critical perspective of the city we live in Context and environment is essential to our understanding of a place and group of peopleSlide4

Similarities and Commonalities Within the Featured Works Repetition of certain terms (such as phantoms, death, ghosts, shadows, etc.) to symbolize the social death of Chicano culture and spacesUse of unique and different personal experiences to highlight different understandings of the barrio:Patriarchal structure within barriosHeteronormative

Chicano ideals

Effect of the youth gang culture on the barrioSlide5

Harry GamboaBorn in 1951 in East Los AngelesChicano essayist, photographer, director, and performance artistHas taught at various institutions, including Cal State Northridge and UCLA“Phantoms in Urban Exile”

Gamboa

on the freeway: “asphalt

coating of billions of

square feet

is the icing on

the

multiple social layers of a

dysfunctional

environment”

(115)Slide6

Biography of Helena Maria ViramontesNative of East Los AngelesBorn in 1954Short-story writer1978-Los Angeles Latino Writer’s Association

1989-Founded the California Latina Writer’s and Filmmaker’s Organization

Professor of English at Cornell UniversitySlide7

Themes of Viramontes’ WorkInformed by her childhood experience in East Los AngelesStrong females as the main characterHer stories “narrate socially gendered experiences of women within the

masculinist

context of their own Latino communities” (115)

Slide8

“Neighbors” by Helena Maria ViramontesAura Rodriguez represents:Degeneration of the barrio and it’s inhabitants

Police brutality against Chicanos

Generational disconnect and lack of intergenerational communication

Patriarchy within Chicano cultureSegregation and containment of Chicanos within barrios

Don

Fierro

represents:

Chicano resistance to the erasure of personal and collective Chicano community history by urban development

Warning against the complete destruction and death of Chicano history and cultureSlide9

Los IllegalsCome from the Eastside of Los AngelesFormed in 1980 as a part of the LA punk rock sceneBandmates:Willie Herrón

, main

lyiacist

and keyboard playerJesús Velo, bass playerBill Reyes, drummerManuel and Antonio Valdez, guitaristsChose the band’s name as a way to negate the negative connotations associated with “illegal aliens” 1983 album, Internal Exiles

Mocked and called “wetbacks” and “

Pochos

” at concerts Slide10

Los Illegals’ MessageCounter-expression to mainstream media They wanted to provide “a palatable and relevant statement against this regressive public

discourse”

(134

) concerning Chicanos and barriosCondemn urban development because of the displacement of Chicanos that it is causing, particularly the construction of the freeway. “Rip out our houses / Just to build a freeway” –We Don’t Need a Tan, 1981“El Lay” became a Raza Anthem song and helped catapult them to success in Europe and Japan

http://

www.youtube.com

/

watch?v

=TKlfFeaw0b4&feature=

player_embedded

#!Slide11

Willie Herrón of Los Illegals Principal lyricist, vocalist, and keyboard player of Los Illegals

Used his personal experience to shed light on the effect gang violence was having on barrio youth

His brother was nearly killed when he was stabbed by gang members in 1972

Painted “The Wall That Cracked Open”, a famous mural, in the alley where his brother’s assault occurred

Contributed an integrated word and text image to the Eastside cultural journal

Regeneration

Speaks out on the limited life opportunities and inability to leave the barrio that cause Chicano youth to join gangsSlide12

Biography of Gil Cuadros1962-Born in Los Angeles Studied at East LA College and then Pasadena Community CollegeWriterWrites about his experiences as a queer Chicano infected with Aids

1994-Published

City of God

, a collection of short stories and poems that examine ethnicity, sexuality, and AIDS in Los Angeles during his lifetime1996-Died at age 34Slide13

“My Aztlan: White Palace” by Gil CuadrosCuadros’ experience growing up in Aztlan, the “

mythical Chicano homeland encompassing the greater US southwest” (140)

Experiences

deterritorialization in two ways:Family lost their home due to freeway constructionHis family and Chicano community didn’t accept him because of his homosexuality“his family home, his

Raza

microcommunity

and personal

Aztlan

, is a severely compromised utopia.” (140

)Slide14

Biography of Luis Alfaro

Born in Los Angeles in 1963

Raised in the Pico-Union district of downtown LA

Poet, playwright, performance artist, and social activistWon many prizes, including the MacArthur Genius Foundation Fellowship award in 1997 and the 1998 National

Hispanic Playwriting Competition

Now teaches throughout LA, including at USC’s School of

Theatre and at the California Institute of the ArtsSlide15

Luis Alfaro’s WorkCenters around his experience as a homosexual Chicano maleReflects on his double displacement:Both the white gay community and the straight Chicano community wouldn’t embrace himIn Orphan of Aztlan, he explains that he feels like “a native of no land” (142)

http

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

EWsD3ZBdYV0Slide16

Luis Alfaro’s Commentary on Representation Urbanistic power has a representational, or aesthetic, dimension because the architecture of the city is a constant visual reminder of the “powers that surpass them and that are external to local social life and its character…a power transcending the life of the

citizens…”

(147)Slide17

Biography of Gloria AlvarezBorn in 1955 in Guadalajara, Mexico and moved to South Central Los Angeles in

1958

Poet

Published several collections of her poetryPoetry has been featured in various anthologies and periodicalsHas taught as UC Berkeley, Cal State LA, Cal State Northridge, and the CaliforniaInstitute of the Arts Slide18

“Contrastes/Contrasts”: Bunker Hill

Bunker Hill is a high-end residential suburb

By the end of WWI, the houses are sub-divided and rented out as a result of increased urban growth

and the streetcar systemDue to freeway construction after WWII, Bunker Hill was home solely to poor Chicanos

In 1995, a massive slum-clearance project displaced the Chicanos that had been living at Bunker Hill

Bunker Hill Redevelopment Project filled the land with plazas and skyscrapers until the 1990’sSlide19

“Contrastes/Contrasts” by Gloria Alvarez“The downward spiral of life changes for many South Central and East Los Angeles residents was inversely reflected in the skyward spires of trophy-building construction. This spectacular corporate growth helped fuel the equally dramatic expansion of the homeless population in the skid-row badlands…For thousands of Blacks and Chicanos who lost their factory jobs, the struggle to keep a home became a desperate scramble that many would lose.” (149)

Uses figurative language like “living hallucinations” and “pained souls” in her poem, which represents the social death of Chicano culture when they are removed from their geographical space Slide20

Questions for Class DiscussionDid the work of any particular featured artist or author stick out to you in particular?How did this chapter change how you view Los Angeles? What similarities did you see between this chapter and other texts we’ve covered, such as Blues People and Borderlands/La

Frontera

?