On today’s show, host Carlos Dávalos is joined by Tony Castañeda and two Chicano artists who will be in Madison in just a few weeks. Dewey Tafoya is an artist and screen printer who makes art echoing the urban landscapes, cultures, and communities of inner city Los Angeles. Malaquias Montoya is a major figure in the Chicano Art Movement, and professor emeritus of Chicano studies at the University of California Davis. His silk screen posters are notable for addressing social justice issues like immigration, the Zapatista movement, and Palestine. 
They talk about the intersection of art and social justice and how they draw inspiration from their neighborhoods and around the world. Montoya says the artist is aware of social justice issues everyday. He got his start as an artist during the protest movements of the 60s. Tafoya compares this time period to contemporary pro-Palestine protests, including the backlash against these protests. He says the issues of the past–like poverty and housing–are only amplified in the present.
Both Montoya and Tafoya share their experiences mentoring younger generations. And they comment on the reality that though younger artists still make silk screens, they are also making digital art. They advise younger artists to create alliances with other artists, even across borders. Dávalos asks these artists about the dialog between Chicano and Mexican artists and the interplay between art as an individual and collective process. 
Tafoya and Montoya will be in conversation at a panel organized by the Chicano and Latino Studies program at UW-Madison on March 13 at Van Vleck Hall from 6-8pm. 

Dewey Tafoya is an artist and screen printer. He is  influenced by the urban landscapes, cultures and communities of the barrios of Los Angeles (unceded Tongva territory). His work deconstructs cultural and historical contexts learned from American popular culture and history to then reconstruct them through his experiences as a Chicano growing up and living in Los Angeles. He is currently the Master Printer & Assistant Director of the Professional Printmaking Program at Self Help Graphics and Art.
Malaquias Montoya was born in New Mexico and raised in California’s San Joaquin Valley. His entire family had to work as farm laborers for survival. His art, including acrylic paintings, murals, washes, drawings, and silkscreen prints, was enormously influential during the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and remains so today. He is credited as one of the founders of the social serigraphy movement in the San Francisco Bay Area, and his work has been exhibited worldwide. After graduating form the University of California, Berkeley, he has lectured and taught at numerous colleges and Universities in his home state. He was a Professor at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California for twelve years, serving for five years as chair of the Ethnic Studies Department. During this period, he also directed the Taller de Artes Graficas in East Oakland. From 1989 to 2008, he was a professor at the University of California, Davis. Now a professor emeritus, he continues his artistic work, creating images of empowerment that speak to the disenfranchised.
Featured image of a print by José Guadalupe Posada via Wikimedia Commons.
Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post The Art of Protest appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Ver todos los episodios