Voces del Pueblo: Artists of the Levantamiento Chicano in New Mexico

Long overdue art catalog for the New Mexican Chicano movement of the 1970s. Vibrant art by activist Chicanx creatives fills an enormous gap in the history of art from the movement that blossomed in the 1960s and 1970s.

The decade between 1970 and 1980 marks an important period in the Chicana and Chicano Movement in New Mexico known simply as the movimiento. Artists from all over the state played important roles in the movement by providing art, participating in political discourse, and organizing actions. However, while some activists and organizers, such as Dolores Huerta, are known and celebrated nationally, most of these artists have gone unrecognized. Not only have they been overlooked in the art history and discourse of New Mexico, they have also gone unrecognized in the discussion of Chicano art history nationally. Voces del Pueblo begins to repair this gap in the history of the Chicana and Chicano art movement. Printed in color and black and white, the book showcases nearly two hundred images, including work by six New Mexico artists as well as historical photos of the movement. Readers will also find interviews with each of these artists and contextualizing essays by the cocurators of the National Hispanic Cultural Center exhibit, Ray Hernández-Durán and Irene Vásquez, as well as scholars, such as Phillip B. (Felipe) Gonzales, Howard Griego, and Sonja Elena Gandert. The result is an incomparable look at art history in New Mexico and the importance of New Mexican artists in the Chicana and Chicano Movement.

Ray Hernández-Durán is a professor of art history and an associate chair in the Department of Art at the University of New Mexico. He is the author of The Academy of San Carlos and Mexican Art History: Politics, History, and Art in Nineteenth-Century Mexico.

Irene Vásquez is the chair of and a professor in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of New Mexico. She is a coauthor of Making Aztlán: Ideology and Culture of the Chicana and Chicano Movement, 1966-1977 (UNM P