Celebrating Chicana and Latine/x Art | Frida Kahlo, Yolanda López and Our Trip to The Cheech Museum

Hi Feelers! This week we are doing a DEEP DIVE on art. We visited the Cheech Museum where we learned about so many influential Chicano artists, like Yolanda López. And you can't talk about Latinx art without mentioning our girl Frida Kahlo.

Grab a snack and get cozy!

Listen to our Latina Enough playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4LjVKgiMGQ6rMyh3a3jxpS?si=b66c4346f70f4c4b

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Intro
• 3:40 Crystina's What's In Your Cup!?
• 6:48 Padres lore
• 10:57 What's In Danie's Cup!?
• 15:53 Why art!? Getting into Frida Kahlo
• 36:16 Yolanda Lopez: A Woman's Work is Never Done
• 56:52 Latinx or Latiné?
• 1:01:00 Hogar Dulce Hogar (Home Sweet Home): The Cheech Exhibit

Transcript

0:00

We are in a vortex. Absolutely. Everything's been weird. Energies have been off. People are being crazy. Just, it's heavy. It does feel like that. And I don't know, I'm an anxious bitch. So I'm always just like, am I just anxious? Or is it just the energy? Well, we both are, so don't ask me. Yeah. I've got a diagnosis.

Speaker: 0:19

Welcome to Empaths Anonymous, a space for dreamers, healers, and feelers, navigating the fine line between putting yourself first and holding space for others. If you struggle with balancing your needs while still supporting your tribe, then you're in the right place. Welcome to the support group.

0:40

Hi, everyone. Welcome to or welcome back to the Empath Anonymous Podcast. I'm Danie. I'm Crystina. And welcome back to another series of Hispanic Heritage Month. Hispanic Heritage Month. Can you do the ba da da? Ba da da! Ba da da. Elvis has left the building. Elvis was never in the building. No, but we do share the same birthday. They do. Did you know that about me? Is that why you like peanut butter? Do you like peanut butter banana flavored things? I actually do. So did he. But I don't, the whole sandwich thing? No. Peanut butter banana sandwich? Yeah, didn't he like it in a sandwich on like a Wonder Bread situation? Yeah, it was like peanut butter banana with chocolate. It was like some kind of like monkey situation. Oh, okay I will take a shake. I'll do give me like a protein peanut butter banana almond milk shake Okay, that's me. That's with almond milk. That would be good. Yeah creamy Okay, so we are In our third installment, welcome to the third week. Woo hoo. One more left. This week. However, we are discussing Latine art. We had a fun field trip. I love field trips. When there was a field trip at school, I was like, I'm going, I'm going on a field trip. I still remember most of my field trips. Really? Yeah, just side note. One of the ones I remember the most was because I got to take a train. Okay. I love trains. Listen. She does. She wants to take a cross country train trek. I do. And I'm like, girl, I don't know. I kind of want to just be on a beach. Yeah. I'll go by myself. Yeah. No I love to look out the window. Okay. So what I want to do is, Get to San Francisco somehow, take it, and then you stop in a couple of cities. It's like a whole thing, but you end up in DC, and then you just find your way back. So you could take the train back. You could take the train back. And you're like, you could walk back, you could forest dump it back. But no, it was so fun. It was a quick trip. It was San Juan Capistrano. It was a quick field trip on the Amtrak train. And I remember my dad is like a cool dad, so he got everybody Krispy Kreme donuts for the travel up. And it was, I think it's just California who has the standard that you have to do a missions project. Of like the California missions. Yeah. Everyone looks like that when I tell them that I'm not from California in around fourth or fifth grade, you have a big, huge project that you have to do and you have to make a replica of one of the California missions. It is a huge project and it's worth a lot of points. And so that was my fourth grade field trip that I remember all because I had to go on a train. It was awesome. However, that is not relevant to the story. We got to go to the Cheech Museum in Riverside and they have a couple of different exhibitions going on right now. But before we get into that and the tease of it all, what's in your cup sister? Today we have the same cup. Let's cheese again. Okay. Twins! It's a little more yellow than last time. Right. We went heavy on the pineapple. We did. Because there's no ice. So it's like you put more liquid because there's no ice to break it up. But it's pineapple juice with a lime mint Topo Chico and a coconut water for hydration. It's good y'all. It is really good. We're having an ice crisis in our house right now. Ice crisis of the Lamadrid household. I mean, look, it does not look appealing at all. I mean, it kind of looks like agua fresca. Yeah, they don't always come with ice because they're usually just kept cold. Not having ice is like a very big deal here it is because we're all drink people we are all drink people beverage girlies and guys. Yeah. So that is what is in my cup in my life cup. I am learning a lot of lessons right now, which is really good. So I'm also, like I've shared before. I'm in a Coaching cohort with I think six or seven other women and Maddie Murphy from cosmic Rx. And we are literally just breaking down everything in our chart. What's going on in astrology as a collective where, you know, right now we're like in the middle of two eclipses. So talking about that, how it affects us, but also setting ourselves up for the next year. this last four months of the year, kind of just really going through and setting us up for the astrology of 2025, breaking down our charts and what it means. And your rising sign, while it's also like your first impression to people, it also is how you show up in spaces like work, like projects, creative projects, communities. Of any kind of sort and I'm a Taurus rising And so I'm very much like grab the bull by the horns and just get shit done. Mm hmm Kind of person and I'm really wanting to invite a lot more flow into it because and I know this It's not like this is a new concept for me but a lot of things just aren't that serious and I think because I'm such an achiever My Taurus nature is to just Bulldoze and get to the destination and not really enjoy the journey to that destination and giving myself grace for like it's going to Take time or I don't know just all of the middle shit that I don't like because I don't have patience I'm just in a season of a lot of change. It just feels like everything in my life is a little bit up in the air and yeah, just embracing that and really opening myself up to allow more today. I also went to yoga, which I'm really glad that I had some time for that before. And it was all about letting go and patience. And I'm like, would you shut the hell up? Yeah. So when you, y'all, when you ask the universe for stuff. She will bring it to you in the most timely fashion. The most timely. But not always though. There are some things that I've been asking for for years. Hmm. Or themes that don't necessarily show up overnight. But timely in the way that's like. The time that it's supposed to happen. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just kind of reminding me to slow down and enjoy all of the Little things, which sounds so cliche, but yesterday we went to a Padre game and we took Danie's daughter and that was really special. You guys, we went twice in one week. We saw him twice in a seven day span. That's pretty lucky. Yeah, incredible side note. And we invited our mom to the fan girl life. It was just a girl's day. So it was me and Crystina and my mom and my daughter and we all went. For her very first Padres game. It was so fun. We did the whole kids fest first, and then we found seats in the park and it was awesome. So we got really, we really got to see the best part of the game. Oh, for sure. Then Tatis hit a home run and my daughter was so funny. She was like, when is Manny going to hit a home run? Cause Manny is her favorite. And then afterwards, we had taken our time, we used the restroom, we're walking out of the park and there is a very specific area of Petco park where the players. Exit and their vehicles and their vehicles or if they're going elsewhere, they will load onto a bus and a lot of the times it's very cute and it's also one of the better times to try to get stuff autographed because they can take their time, they're not in their car, they literally have to walk out to the giant bus and so not us, Being by the barricades Googling who has what car so that when they drove out and they're fully blacked out like completely tinted I'm talking about the front windshield tinted You could not see who was in that bitch, which made me question. Is it really that serious? I don't know. I'm new to the like baseball world. So I'm like, is it really that serious? Is somebody literally like hunting you down in the streets that you need your cars like that tinted? I mean when you have that much money, it might be that serious You Okay. It's a money thing. It's not even a oh, look who it is. It's like that person has a lot of money. Okay. Fernando and Manny have combined probably hundreds of millions of dollars. Not probably, they do. Yeah. I know the contract is like a certain amount of money and they don't get paid out up front. That's without any kind of, that's without any kind of brand deals. Fernando had an Adidas deal for a long time. I don't think he does anymore. I think he's on something else, but they both have a lot of brand deals and other things that they do. Right. It's not just from baseball. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Anyway. Yeah, so sometimes it could be that serious. It just depends on you don't really know their circle either, like who they hang out with, who they talk to. Yeah, the circles. I'm like, I don't really want to know anybody's circle with all of this ditty nonsense going on. Honestly. Ooh, we're not even going to get into the ditties. No, I don't really. That is such a long story. Right. But. How did we get on that? Oh, because spending money. Her daughter was absolutely loving it. Oh yeah, that's a fangirl in training and I don't care. I'm gonna be the crazy mom going with her. Both of us. We're gonna be going with her to wherever she wants. If it's a boy band, if it's a girl band, if it's a K pop. The second she's like, Mom, I love this, we're going. Thousands of dollars. Literally. Meet and greet. Yeah, I'm about to go heal my inner child with my child. Yeah, I wonder what it's gonna be. Right? In 10, 15 years what's the thing gonna be? Yeah, are we gonna have another Spice Girls? Maybe. Right? Yeah, I mean, you just never know what the trends and the cyclical what's gonna be popular when she's Old enough to like want to start going to concerts and stuff and between the 10s and the 13s. Yeah around there Yeah, anyway, all of those little things that like, I would probably just take at face value. And now that I have more time, I'm really like appreciating them a lot more. So that's what's in my cup. Yeah, appreciation, learning lessons, and trying to slow the fuck down. Yeah. It sounds like a real good seep. Can things get to seep in? Yeah. Yeah. You're like a little tea bag right now. A seep and a steep. Put it on a shirt. A seep and a steep. A seep and a steep. You're like a teabag right now. That's going in the intro. I'm gonna. You're like a really good teabag. Yeah, you're just teabagging all over the place. Teabagging here, teabagging there. Why does it always have to do with balls? I don't know. Every time. Every time. I mean, I was literally picturing an actual cutesy Tea bag, but I understand what it means because I too used to play Halo and was not very good at it. And that's okay. You don't have to be good at it. Yes, so what's in your cup? Speaking of Mattie Murphy, What's in my cup is that I was gifted by generous donor sitting on this very couch. Personal, well, it was a happy pod launch gift that kind of just got delayed. It was. And so I had a personal reading with Maddie Murphy, and she is such a gem. She's really down to earth. But in the most organized way and has all her ducks in a row and really is a very good listener and listens quickly and is able to respond in a way that makes you feel heard. And honestly. It really helps you to understand your chart in a way that's not complicated. So even if you are not an astrology girlie and you have no idea what we're talking about, you don't know what a birth chart is, you don't know you're rising from your moon from your whatever else, Maddie's podcast actually is a really great starting point, I would say. Yeah, every Monday she puts out, maybe it's on Sundays, she puts out the astrology of the week. So you know what's happening in the stars on a broader note. And then if you want to dive deeper and learn more about how it plays into your sign, she has a lot of resources. She has like a whole website. There's a whole community that's free. She has new moon groups when there's a new moon and stuff. So I'm not to make this an entire Matty Murphy promotion, but there's a lot of different ways that you can really. Break down things in simpler terms, which I appreciate. And it is confirmed. We shall have a memorial for what I thought to be my rising sign. And she is no longer. So, existential crisis confirmed. I am not a Sagittarius Rising. And for a while I made that whole, my, I made that my whole personality. Because I do have. It usually is those things. Those things that you make your whole personality and then you learn that it's actually not. Absolutely false. Absolutely false. I will say I'm on the zero degree. So, whatever that means and had to be a zero degree in Capricorn Rising. I was a Sagittarius Rising. Actually minutes away from Sagittarius rising. I got mine and my brother's birth times mixed up because we are five minutes apart within the same hour. That's crazy. So anyway, we really broke it down. We talked about everything that's happening. I was going to ask you actually, cause when does this eclipse and, and when. Because she said the next eclipse is October 2nd. Yes. So there's a lunar eclipse, which we just had. Huh. In Pisces? Yes. There's a solar eclipse in Libra on the second and that closes out the eclipse cycle. And that's why we, she focused a little bit on that because my midheaven? Yeah. Is in Libra. Yes. I'm learning guys. And I didn't, and I don't have any Planets in Libra, but it's in a very specific house that I mean, neither do I but I'm just saying I Don't have any planets in Libra, but I do Have Libra in very important houses. So if you're like, what is this bitch talking about? Please check out Maddie's podcast That's really what's mostly my cup. I'm still like floating off of that reading. It was amazing Such a nice treat such a great gift You I love. It is a great gift. Yeah, I love experiences as gifts. Yeah, there's only so much I could do with a thing and I love a thing as much as an ex girl. Capricorns are known to be material and I'm not like to the next level with it, but I appreciate a thing or two, but an experience, take me somewhere. Oh, it's on and pop in. Yeah, I definitely agree. Yeah, I yeah. I like both, but I would say I'm definitely more leaning on an experience. One time, for my college graduation, my mom gave me Ariana Grande tickets. Actually, I kind of forced her. I was like, I'm graduating and I want a gift. Can you get me these? And she was like, sure. Hey, into the style. And to this day, it's probably one of the most, I don't want to say thoughtful, because I like, it was my thought, it was my idea. But she did it. But she did it. She didn't have to. Right. She could have got you something else. Right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah, it could because it was such a great time and I took this bitch. Boom. We had a great time. It was a good time. Ugh. We were lit. We had a good slice of pizza. I don't know where the pizza was from. It was inside the casino. Yeah, yeah, it was good. In the MGM, if anybody knows what that pizza place is called when you're on the way to the MGM Grand Arena There's a pizza place in that food court. Amazing pizza. We also were lit though. So I'm like, I don't really know. But that's really what's in my cup. I'm really trying to focus on time management overall. Which is has always been a thing for me. But part of my reading was that everything will start to feel a lot more aligned and I'll know what to pick up when. So yeah, that's pretty much it. That's awesome. So let's go ahead and get into our support group EA meeting for the night. We're recording at night today. So that's why I say that. But we are talking like, as Danie said earlier, we're talking about Latina art and culture and why it is so influential. When we were creating the podcast and really coming up with ideas for the space, we really wanted to have an art wall so that we could showcase different BIPOC artists and just things that we love, create a vibe. And when we were picking out prints to put on the wall, Miss Frida was one of the ones that we really wanted to do. And so there she lives. And it's I feel like this is a more niche photo of her, you'll always see the ones where she has the flowers and her braids with you know, I feel like this one is well, she was still in school at that point. Probably I'm younger. Yeah. I'm not sure she looks younger in the face, but when you look at her hands, I'm not quite sure. And I'm not sure when she started. I, I don't know. I have an issue with the word like masculine dress, but just more non binary dressing, just genderless. You know, she's got the suit jacket and the button down and it's just really like a less formal version of Frida that I think we're so used to seeing. So when we saw this picture, we were like, Oh my gosh, that's the one. I really feel like it had to have been after her accident. Hmm. That would make sense. Yeah. And beyond Frida, we're going to dive into Frida a lot more. Because I feel like she's really the matriarch. Of Latina art, but we really do understand the impact that art has had on American history, especially Latina art. And we of course want to use our platform to advocate for expanding our minds, learning new things and sharing this knowledge with people who are willing to listen, which is you guys, hopefully. And so, like we were saying, went to the Cheech Museum. On the very first day of Hispanic Heritage Month, that bitch was September 15th, we're like, we are starting this month off right. It was. Oh. So we went to the Cheech Museum, which is in Riverside, California, it was founded by Cheech. I guess when I had heard of it, I thought that it was a museum about Cheech. Mm hmm. Or like the Cheech and Chong Museum. Yeah. And I was like, oh, I don't really think I would enjoy that. And then when Danie explained it to me, I'm like, oh, oh. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm. So we went, and they had a lot of different, Exhibits, like Danie said, there was one upstairs that was all dedicated to Yolanda Lopez, who I'll get into later in the episode, The Cheech Museum, I think, has only been open for three years, I want to say, or coming up on their third year. So it's a fairly new museum. And it was such a beautiful experience. And I did not realize that so much of the exhibit is Cheech's personal collection. Yeah. And a lot of it. You can see that it's been on, I don't want to say on loan, but yes, it's mostly on loan because it's his personal art collection. And so he changes the exhibits, you know, every several months. The downstairs was just so impactful for me and I think that we'll explore more of that at a later time, but getting into the Frida of it all, returning to the Frida of it all, Take it away. Take it away, Clyde! Yes. I actually really love what you said about her being the matriarch because we know that she struggled greatly. With trying to conceive a child or children mostly due to the accident that she had as a young child. If you are not aware of what happened as much as I would love to get into all of Frida's history, maybe that's a separate episode to have with a guest who is well versed in her life and all that. It was mostly, not mostly, it was a freak accident. It was a. Car crash, bus crash that left her impaled. So, it's really hard. By a pole. Yeah, it's a really tough accident to talk about. Yeah. However, her recovery lasted her whole life. I don't, can't really even say that she fully ever recovered. From the injuries, yeah. Yeah, because of where she was injured. She really suffered from many miscarriages. She suffered from pain in a lot of different areas of her body. And when she was basically bedridden forced to heal from her bed was when she really started to dive into her art a lot more is when she started to paint a lot more. And so I think that we honor Frida, the person and we honor Frida, the woman. While we appreciate her art and we love her art, I think that what she stood for, how she broke so many barriers in a culture that didn't really allow for women to say jack shit, it was really important for her. To speak her voice and speak out. So, Frida, being of dual identity, her father was a German, among other European, Descendants. And that's something I actually never knew about her. Really? Yeah I think I've watched, like, several documentaries and things. I don't, maybe I just was not paying attention, but I don't ever remember knowing that her dad was German. I just thought that she was Mexicana the whole time. Yeah, so her dad was an immigrant from Germany and I think that he had some, uh, Polish and other things going on in there as well. All that to say, he. Moved, as in, was liberated from that area and moved to Mexico City. He moved to Mexico City. And that's where Frida was born, because that's where he met her mother. Who was what you would call more, at the time, indigenous. More native to the area. So, when they got together, Frida ended up being this like, mulatto, mestizo child, right? Where It wasn't necessarily something that a lot of people did back then. Right. You know, you don't marry people of other cultures. You don't marry people that are of other countries or other worlds, especially in Latino culture. Yeah. That's pretty prevalent. We've come a long way of course, but it's still very much an ideal that a lot of people hold Which is fine to each their own, but yeah, they were already breaking barriers before she was born So she was bound to come out, you know ready to hit the ground running a little bit Yeah, a little different with some spice. Do we know her birthday? You know what? I forgot to look it up. Even when I was like, oh, she was born in Mexico City. I wanted to look up her birthday and just did not. Why do I want to say December? Am I wrong? Very. She, yes, couldn't be more opposite. She is born on July 6th, 1907, which makes her a Cancer. Oh, she's my sister. Sister. Sister. Sister. I love cancers. They are actually my sisters. So Speaking of Frida being of two cultures, this is where we really see a lot of her art imitate her life. So one of the more popular paintings that we know about of Frida was called the Two Fridas and she painted that in 1939. And that's the really famous one where it's literally two Fridas and they're both sitting on chairs next to each other and they're, yeah, have the heart and they're like sharing the vessels. Yes. So the puzzle, it's in the puzzle. It's in the puzzle. Yeah. You guys, We're puzzlers over here. Yeah. We did the best free to puzzle and it was like a huge collage of all her most famous paintings. Yeah. And significant moments in her life and different little icons of like things that represented her different things that she did. It was really cool. We should take a picture of it. Maybe we'll post it. I just thought that In a carousel or something. Yeah, because we don't take apart our puzzles. There are about five or six puzzles that are finished stacked on top of each other in the front room. That to be framed. That they do. We need to glue them together. We have it. We just, when we turn that room into a game room slash library study. Put the puzzles on the wall. So cute. Puzzles on the wall. Puzzles on the wall. So I really wanted to bring up the two Fridas not only because it's one of the more popular paintings of hers but because it really speaks to What a lot of us Latinas and other BIPOC women, women of color deal with on a daily basis is the challenge of being two identities and the challenge of being told that you're not enough of this or too much of that. A lot of what we talked about with Pam, who we love, got so passionate about it because it's true. Who is to say that you're not enough of something or too much of another thing. So I really like that. Frida was able to bring that feeling to life because if you look at it and you study it, you can see where she feels I'm this, but I'm also this too. And I shouldn't have to ignore one or the other or put more pressure to perform. Yes, they connect. Right. To both of those cultures. To become whole. To become who I am today. Exactly. So, speaking to that, Crystina, have you ever been told that you are whitewashed or that you're not black enough? Yes. Hmm. Yeah, I think that a lot of my. I mean, I grew up with my mom's side of the family, who are white. And so naturally, when that's all you're around, that's what you know. Yes. And I grew up in a very rural area. In my middle school, there was like only me and like one other mixed girl, and I think one black boy, but yeah I think that I was always just like othered from both parties because how do I want to say this? I don't really know if there's a good way to say this. To all the little white girls, I was that brown girl over there. And, but I just never felt, one, I wasn't exposed to a lot of black communities unless we went into the city that was mostly black. And my mom started taking me to black hair salons. That's really when I experienced black culture for the first time sitting in a black salon. with Montel, who was my hairdresser. Love. I loved him. And then we couldn't afford him. So then she had to take me to a less expensive one. And they're the ones who fucked my hair up. But yeah, I think that that's really where I experienced the first, my first experience of like black joy and code switching. I was like, these people talk different and it's fun. Yeah. They got a little more attitude, a little more spice. Huh. And I felt like, well, that's how I feel inside. And I think that because of just where I grew up and my interests, I was a very. emo teenager and young adult. So it's like I listened to and I don't really believe in like labeling things like white people music or black people music or, you know, right. But I mean, I listened to a lot of emo bands and they're all white, white men mostly, besides like Hayley Williams. And so, yeah, I think that naturally I always felt a little disconnected because I didn't always like the things that my community liked. Right. That makes sense. Yeah. I have a very, similar experience. Although, growing up in San Diego I had moments where going to Catholic school and being around mostly brown kids. Cause that was in the smack dab in the middle of San Diego and you're going to Catholic school so you're definitely going to be with the little Mexican babies and the Filipino babies and it's like my preschool teachers were women of color. Yeah. I actually was thinking about this recently. That's funny. Because there is such a difference, did you know that in Wisconsin the main religion is Catholicism? Hmm. I did not. But Midwest Catholicism is very different than Latine, Hispanic culture. Catholicism. Mm hmm. Because you're speaking to probably Dutch Irish Catholicism versus Spanish Catholicism. Yeah. The Columbuses. Yes. You know what I mean? Yeah. Really interesting. Mm hmm. Yeah I don't know how seriously they take holy water and stuff like that. Not very. It's so serious for us. It's so serious. Like holy water is very serious. I didn't grow up in it. So I guess I can't really speak for that. But I just remember being in middle school and what does it call when you have to go to the course and then you're like certified or like your dedication or something like that? As your, when you're a child? All my friends were doing it in middle school. Like they had to go to a class like every Wednesday after school. I never got that far. I am indeed a sinner. The farthest I got was communion. Oh, yeah, this is definitely after communion. It's after communion. I can't remember the word. Catholicism guys, could you please let us know what that's called after, it's after communion. I don't know what's, if there's anything in between there, in between communion and the next thing that you do in your adolescence. Please tell us. There's going to be plenty of people who know. Yeah. School us, check us. We're always wanting to learn. There was a girl on my sports team. Yeah. Her name was Abby, and we, she was the bus stop before me. So we became friends because we were both on the bus the longest. Oh. Because I lived on a farm in the middle of fucking nowhere, so I was like the last stop. Moo. It took me, and at that time my parents were both working, so nobody could pick me up from school. Right. So it would take me an hour and a half to get home on the bus. Wow, that is a long ride. Because I was the last stop. Yeah, I wouldn't get home. You've got to write a book, bitch. I would be home at like 4 30. The sun would be setting. Wow. I'd be like, I just got home. That sucks. And you probably had to wake up really early. Super early. Oh God. Yeah. Anyway, side tangent. It's just, it's interesting seeing different people interpret or practice, I should say, Catholicism in different ways. Yeah. No, for sure. For the Brown communities, for the BIPOC communities traditionally, it's a very traditional thing. I would even say it's a for some people, it's not even a religious thing. It's not even a faith based thing. It's just, I go to church on Sundays and I go to mass at nine and I take communion and I go to Ash Wednesday and I give up something for Lent, you know, things like that. When people really love tradition, I think it fits those people really well. Yeah. All that to say, gotta get back to it. Thank you for sharing. Another thing we wanted to bring up about Frida was her sexuality. And how outward she was and vocal she was about being bisexual and sleeping with a lot of the women that her husband Diego slept with. She was like, me too. Actually, I get it. Until it was her sister. And that's not okay. Yeah, that's weird. Wait, did she sleep with her sister? No, he did. Oh, he slept with her sister. And that's what caused the first divorce. Okay. Divorced once, married twice. Yeah. Because he got sick. Yeah. And that's why she married him again. Oh. To take care of him. Anyway, Cancer Woman. They will do that. Mm hmm. We wanted to highlight, again, how she wore a lot of gender neutral clothing, as in this picture above, which I feel like is really one of the biggest things that drew us toward printing it and deciding that that was the one, because there were literally hundreds to choose from. There were. We could have just as easily put up a piece of her art, as well, but that's why we did it that way earlier. Yeah. In the episode, I spoke to honoring her as a person, as a woman, as someone who stood really ten toes down in a time where that was at all times actually unheard of, very frowned upon, very dangerous. Why do I say everything like that now? Very dangerous. It's the Jules tone. It was. I mean, wasn't there a time where she? was in a political party that was very frowned upon, very radical. Yes. I mean, it couldn't have been very safe for her to No, both her and Diego were often in Situations that could have been detrimental to their lives because they were outwardly members of the Communist Party. So, and even throughout all their travels when Diego was commissioned to do this and that that's when the affairs started to get, I think, really hot and heavy, if I remember correctly. But again, having This idea of gender identity and sexuality being so prevalent at that time and her just being authentically herself was something that we wanted to honor as well as her mental health. As we mentioned earlier, she really struggled to conceive, had several miscarriages and was in so much pain from her accident that she really struggled with potentially unaliving herself a few times and I believe a couple of attempts, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. So a lot of her art stems from that pain. A lot of her art stems from just, you know, Living in her truth and acknowledging so many different feelings existing at once. So, a couple of fun facts that I found about Frida, just to wrap it up so we can get to the next artist, was that she is known as the master of self portraits, having painted over 55 of them. Which is a lot. Most of the art that you think of when you think of Frida Kahlo are her. Yes. But done in such a way, like Van Gogh painted a lot of self portraits, right? Yeah. Not at first. Right. It was a lot of landscape. Then he got into the portraits, but having painted that many and have them all be throughout the different eras of her life, I can't say eras. I think I'm Taylor Swift. It's really unfortunate. Yeah. It's just like, I can't get it out of my brain. to wrap that all up essentially what I was saying was the 55 portraits speak to the fact that she used Painting as an outlet and it was a part of her grief and celebratory process all at the same time and really as we know her artwork did not get popularized until mostly after her death, right? So her painting, those was not an act of what will sell. Yeah. You know, it wasn't like, how can I sell this? How can I be as famous as Diego Rivera? No, I don't think that was ever her M. O. I think that she aligned herself with Diego. Mm hmm. I think she also was very inspired and intrigued by Diego. Mm hmm. And I know that at the time, Hollywood was very much in full swing. Yes. This was like, twenties, thirties. Yeah. I know a lot of celebrities loved her art. Mm hmm. His too. And I know that she was revered in certain circles, but it was more niche because there wasn't the internet or Instagram or anything like that. If you were to find out about an artist, it was because you were cultured and had the access to travel and see things like that. And meet artists and see art. So, all that to say, you guys, if you don't really know anything about Frida, I would say the best way to start is in form of entertainment. So please go watch the film that won Salma Hayek or got Salma Hayek nominated for many Academy Awards is the movie that she stars in called Frida. If you've not watched it, you need to watch it. It's got to go on your list. There's also many, at least three that I know of different documentaries or docuseries about her. Plenty. Yeah. So depending on what your flavor is, if you want a movie Hollywood moment, or if you want to like, Go more of the documentary route. There's a lot of different resources to really dive into the world of Frida. And I really want to actually look up, is there a museum or anything dedicated specifically to Frida? You can go see her house. You can go visit her house in Mexico City. Yeah. I know, we gotta go. We do. We have to go. I've been wanting to visit Mexico City for some years now. Me too. However, Frida has been a decades long inspiration to so many different Chicano artists, which leads us to the next woman in art. that we want to highlight. And that is the late Yolanda Lopez. And I will let Crystina take the reins. Yeah. So kind of jumping back to our time at the Cheech, did you know that she was the featured artist we were going to go? I had seen her picture online, but I was so quick to get the tickets because it was like kind of a last minute choice. Yeah. I had really just seen her picture and that was really it. So no. Right. I felt like it was very serendipitous. Because I didn't know. I literally, she bought the tickets and I was like, yeah, let's go. We're showing up. We got a little some Monty's beforehand and we walked over to the museum. Delicious. Gorgeous. And yeah, the downstairs part was all themed around homes, which we'll talk about in a little bit. Your idea of home, how you experience home or what What you call or identify as home. And then there were some local artists also featured throughout. You go upstairs and there was a whole exhibit on this woman and it was called a woman's work is never done. I looked at her and I'm like, did they know we were coming? So that what's interesting is that it's a, I wouldn't call it confusing, but if you're not really like well versed in how things go within the museum, when you got up the stairs, if you went right, it was A Woman's Work is Never Done. If you go left, it was A Portrait of the Artist. That was the title of the second exhibition. So they really did a Yolanda Lopez whole upstairs. Yeah, but included two exhibitions and I didn't know that But it makes sense because if you were to make that left there was a huge picture of her on the wall Yeah, so that was the start of that one. And then if you go right then it was two separate things Yeah, but they just like they let her be the star of the show. Yes Yeah, okay. So who is this Yolanda that we speak of we also learned that she is local She was local to the San Diego area So Yolanda Lopez was a Chicana artist and activist born in San Diego in 1942. At the time she was doing her undergraduate studies in San Francisco. She became really involved in the activism circles at that time in the 60s and 70s during a lot of the Chicano civil rights movement. And she was a founding member, which I thought was really cool because I have heard of this, but I didn't really know a lot of backstory. She was a founding member of de la Raza which is like a Black Panther esque group. So, she spent a lot of time kind of mirroring Angela Davis and learning the different tactics, techniques, and the mission of the Black Panther movement and how to kind of mirror that in Los Siente. So they really got their start in San Francisco's Latine community and produce works of protest and art to defend the seven Latino youths accused of killing a police officer. I actually didn't know about this until the exhibition. This is something that maybe because like I didn't grow up on the West Coast and Right. I It's not of my culture, so it's like, when I think of like, the Central Park Five. Mm hmm. So it's kind of a similar situation, except for with a police officer. Mm hmm. And they were wrongfully accused, and she created a lot of the art for that to help. For the protest. For the protests. Yeah. So the trial for that lasted a year and a half until they were acquitted in 1972. Yeah. It was all, during the Chicano movement, which we're going to touch on in a second. But that's, that's, that's, true for even for people who have grown up in California like myself. Having grown up in Southern California, having not grown up during that time period my dad being pretty young at the time and my mom being even younger. Fun fact, my parents are 10 years apart with my dad. being her senior. So it's hard to even ask them about the history because I mean, in the 70s, my dad was young and my mom was like five. So yeah, I wouldn't have remembered anything. So I would really probably have to talk to my grandparents about it, but it being up in Northern California, that would be an interesting, I wonder if they would know anything. That'd be an interesting combo. My Nana would probably have some memories, but I'm not sure. You So the exhibition, it was deeply impactful for me because I felt myself relating a lot to her even though we didn't really have a lot of similar experiences. But just kind of like how we talked about with Frida, of feeling very other. In a place that she even like she grew up in San Diego and like we had talked about when we were at the museum she was the only person of color in her entire dorm building. Right. And that school is historically, even though it's a state college, it's a very privileged school. Mm-Hmm. Was it UCSD? I feel like I made a note of this. UCSD is the one in La Jolla, correct? I think so. I think that's the one. And CSU is the one that's closer to La Mesa? I think so. I don't think it was So it was UCSD? Yeah, I It was by the beach. Yeah. I don't think it was SDSU. Yeah. So she went to UCSD. Mm-Hmm. Shout out if we have any UCSD. Alumni. Mm hmm. So, overall, it had us asking a lot of questions and bringing up a lot of deep reflection about the experiences of Latinx artists and how they experienced growing up in the United States. Just the color, the life, the different perspective is very apparent. And that goes for Yolanda's work as well as a lot of the artists that were in the downstairs portion. Right. Funny enough, that whole the bigger part, the one that you mentioned earlier about home, that was the front part, but the bigger part was called shifting perspectives. So it's funny that you said that. We started the wrong way because the girl gave us bad advice. We literally went through the whole downstairs backwards. I asked her and I was like, so like the best place to start is like wherever. I'm like, well, it's not really, wherever if you were looking for a very specific experience, then recommend me something. Anyway, it's okay. But going back to Yolanda, was there a certain mood or emotion that came up for you while you were going through the different art? And is there a certain piece of art that really stood out to you. Yes, as far as the mood or emotion that I felt the way that the exhibit was put together just was really reflective having known that she had passed in just in unfortunately from cancer. It was very much an honoring. To what she brought to the culture and what she brought to a lot of the different movements that she grew up being a part of and just seeing those pictures and the portraits and the drawings of the women in her life. It really just reminded me how important. It is to have those connections if you're able to have them with your family members and your counterparts who understand womanhood and who fully can be involved in it. And her mom was really Pivotal in shaping Yolanda into who she was, like her mom got a divorce and during that time, if you think about it, wasn't really common the way that it is today, but she was really the person to teach Yolanda, the BS is not worth it. Yeah. So after Yolanda had her son and it didn't work out between her and her sons. Father. I really think that she had so many beautiful examples of what to look up to and What to not deal with especially knowing how valuable she was. Yeah, and all of the Beautiful things that she brought to this world and all of the passion as well You couldn't tell that she from a very young age like knew That she had a higher purpose and that she like kind of like what I was talking about in my cup, she kind of just went with the flow of life, but yet was still very intentional with what she was a part of and who she spent her time with and wanted to lift up. Yes. Yeah, her art was always ever evolving and like we talked about with Pam like she never was really finished like one of the pieces I'm gonna talk about is like this but a lot of her pieces she would add to it throughout the years. She would change things when she would have showings. She would keep going with it. Yeah. I really love that it spoke to the eras too. There were several places throughout the exhibit with different pieces of art throughout the decades of Work that she released that were a lot of experiments with Xerox copies. That's what I was gonna talk about. Yeah Okay, so we'll talk a little bit more mental. Yeah, we'll talk a little bit more about that, but she definitely Was experimental she used a lot of just what was available to her and she really just didn't care about air quotes You're messing up. It was just like let me see what this does Yeah And I love that attitude because you can really bring that attitude to anything in your life you can definitely look at anything in your life and you can say, what is this going to do? Yeah, I think similar to Frida. She was never coming at her art from a place of perfection or I need to be like a celebrated and cultured artist that makes a ton of money. Like, no, she was literally just doing things because she fucked with it. Yeah. I like this. It makes me happy. I can creatively express myself. And that's what it seemed Yeah, that bitch sold Mary Kay. She had to put food on the table. She did. She made it work. Miss Mary Kay. I think that one of the pieces, there were two pieces that really Stood out. And then there's that collection that's she's very famously known for. But there was one, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna butcher this, but I'll put it in the show notes. The title of it, it was something about like when you think of us or when you think of Mexican women, and it was, she had painted a maid's work uniform. Hmm. And the painting that accompanied it was basically the fact that, latina women were raising white women's children, but yet not being looked at as valuable members of society. Just the worker in my house, raising my child. Right. That one like, Brought me to tears and then of course one that I really related in my own way to my culture is she had a piece That was I'm probably gonna butcher this one to something about things I never told my son about being Mexican. Mm hmm in America just Mexican. Yeah. Yeah. And it was this piece, and it was one of her famous exhibitions that she would change periodically, but it just had all of these Americanized ideals of what being Mexicano or Mexicano meant. meant and how Americans viewed people from Mexico. So like it was this big collage wall and I had Speedy Gonzalez on it and I had Fiesta chicken nuggets on it and the Taco Bell dog and like things like that. All of these microaggressions that kind of get placed on you and your identity and your personality. This is how this country looks at you. You're a tiny little dog, you're a little Speedy Gonzales mouse, you're a chihuahua. You're, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It really reminded me of the book Things to Tell Your Son When They're Black in America. Mm. That same kind of concept of like, why do we always have to prep our children on this is how the world looks at you? Yeah. Instead of allowing them to celebrate who they are and not have that define them in a negative way. Right. It's like we're always having to do the front work and the back work. Yeah. To make sure that we can just be seen and safe. Yeah. In our spaces. And how that impacts our kids is just like, it was heartbreaking. I sat at that one for a really long time and was trying not to cry. Yeah, that was a tough one. So. Things I Never Told My Son About Being a Mexican originally published in 1988, which has taken on a lot of revisions over the last several decades of its initial release. And although that's the case, the original has the same intention and purpose, but the version that we saw when we went to the Cheech seems to have had Updates to it, which I really appreciated because it made me feel like I identified with the piece a lot more because it included a lot of pieces From that 90s era the early 2000s, right? I pointed something out on the actual Mural that collage that I had it was like this Supposed to be some sort of Latina Barbie and I do think it was like a McDonald's Happy Meal toy at one point. Yeah, cuz they would have the Barbie series Yeah, And with all the little, yeah. And she had this dress on with roses. Yeah, it was like black and white. It was a really pretty dress. Yeah, it was a very cute thing. And I do remember seeing that. It was like a flamenco kind of looking dress. Yeah. but like it does remind me actually of playing with Barbies because of course I had a lot of white Barbies and then the Closest thing to my skin tone was Teresa, but who was what was Teresa? What was Teresa like? Oh, we gotta make one brown one and all the brown people would just be happy with the one brown girl Like everyone can be Teresa if you're not white you're Teresa But she still looked white. She had like green eyes or blue eyes like black Barbie called Oh, I don't know. And I don't know when she came out either. Shani, S-H-A-N-I. That's probably the one that I had. She came out in 1991. Interesting. Shani, Asha, and Nichelle. Hmm, didn't Coco name one of her Barbies Asha? Yeah, but it's because she washed his wish now. Oh. That's a very, very popular piece especially because of how always evolving it is when you go back and look at pictures of that same exact piece from the eighties, when it was originally shown to the world. It. Looks nothing the same, you know, it there's so many different things about it. She crossed a lot of boundaries and she broke a lot of rules in a way that women before her like Frida helped to pave and as a result of that, she carved out a huge space for Chicanas in art, education, and activism, I'm telling you, you guys, learning about this woman is like incredibly empowering. And if you have the time and if you are her. In the area and able to get to Riverside, I would highly suggest going because this exhibit is going to be open through the end of January, January 26, I think. Yes, it ends January 26, 2025. However. So you have some months. It will return back to San Diego, I believe. I'm not sure if every single piece will go. Because I think some of them were part of Cheech's private collection as well. However, I think most of it will return back to, I forget the name of it, but we will link it in the show notes where I think it lives for the most part. So if you can't get to Riverside, you can go to San Diego when it gets back there or the next place. Also, a lot of her pieces are available for viewing online. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. So definitely check her out. to kind of close this section on, on Yolanda, I think that it wouldn't be doing her justice if we didn't talk about activism. So the question that we really were faced with and want to discuss, but also want to pose you guys with is, does activism breed art or does art breed activism? What's your opinion? My opinion. Hmm. This is like a common theme and the part of when we talk about the chicken. B for the egg, it's very similar to does life imitate art, does art imitate life. Right. All those things are so very cohesive that we never really know which one comes first. Right. So it's like, yes, you can release a piece of art that will evoke a feeling of passion and wanting to make a change and that would breed activism. You can be involved in activism. Within advocating for something in your community, seemingly very small, actually makes a huge impact because that's where you need to start. It could be something huge. Like we've not mentioned this before, but essentially what's going on in Palestine, what's going on in Israel, what happened with black lives matter in 2020. And before then as well with the murder of Mike Brown in the street, and that could breed art because Where do you put those feelings? Where do you put those emotions other than a creative outlet so that you don't completely lose your marbles? And fall apart. And fall apart. I think that it also has a place in bringing, wider access to an issue to communities or people who normally would turn a blind eye. Yep, and I think more like it's in your face. And I think that sometimes art is like well, no, you will look at this. Mm hmm, and you may even enjoy it and not even at first glance know what it's about. Right. But it's like it's going to make a statement and it's going to stick with you. And I think that that is Really reflective of Yolanda's art in both pain and in joy. However, speaking to that activism, the way that the exhibit was laid out, they really did make sure to honor, I think what Yolanda cared about very, very much, which was her advocacy. And it was her ability to speak out. And create art regarding what you spoke to, which is you are going to look at this. There were so many pieces. It's like, I can't, we wouldn't be able to reference every single work, every single title. That's the thing. We spent. a lot, like almost more time upstairs than we did in the downstairs, right? I think so. Yeah, we definitely spent a lot of time reviewing Yolanda's work. because it kind of just came clear to us that oh, this is the episode. Once we got up there, we're like, duh, this is why we're here. Right. So it kind of just became the main focus. And I'm grateful that we had enough time to see everything. So earlier when we discussed more of the Chicano movement, Yolanda's involvement with it, we referenced the phrase La Raza. And so since that was a little bit before my time, although I'm very familiar with that and I've heard it before, I never really. understood the depth to it and that it was attached to a historically and culturally significant time in California's history. And it was led on by Cesar Chavez, who was advocating for migrant workers and farmers and people working in agriculture, basically, who were immigrating here. And as I Research for this episode because he's supposed to be doing research. I learned that a lot of people don't necessarily, they don't. always use La Raza anymore because the literal translation is the race. And so I think because it was being literally translated over the last several decades, it's lost this all encompassing meaning, which was supposed to be people, community, culture. When it's literally translated, it really cuts out a lot of people. Yeah, because I mean there is a whole discussion about the word race in general. Because it's like, I think I'm thinking of it as an an academic. I mean there's a lot of Racism and racial injustice and conversations about that in our country. So it's like, to me, the word race is like top of mind, but the idea that race is a construct and people are kind of trying to eliminate that from vocabularies. And instead using your culture instead of right. Race. So I think kind of like we talked about with Pam, the word community, it's like, we're kind of choosing other words. Yes. That are more specific and they are specific on purpose so that it honors the people that we're speaking of and it honors the cultures and the practices of the people that we're mentioning. I definitely understand that. The thing is I was gonna talk a little bit about the word Latinx just as like an addition to Yeah. That, but I did also see Luis's post. Mm-Hmm. So every posted it Mm-Hmm. While I think many people within the L-G-B-T-Q community. can identify as Latine if they prefer Latinx, that's fine. I just had read this article that, although many people have heard of it, only 2 to 3 percent of Hispanics and Latin Americans actually use the term. Latine or Latinx? Yeah, because I think that it got some heat. Mm hmm. In some circles. It got a bad rap. And so I don't know who coined the term, and so maybe that's where that stems from. Mm hmm. As in that doesn't really exist within the language, but if it helps. for people to identify in a certain way and make them feel more welcomed in whatever communities or groups that they want to be a part of, then sure, we can use it. Yeah, I think that Personal preference. Right. I think being an ally, I'm just like, okay, I just, let me know what word I'm supposed to use. Because I'm not trying to use the wrong one. To me, Latine is just very all encompassing. Right. Reaches everybody. Right. It's a lot more broad. Because I don't really want to use, I don't really want to use Hispanic. That's too broad. Yeah. And it's very, it's like whitewashing, in my opinion. It feels like whitewashing of, Yeah. Because if you think of South America and Latin America, there are countries who a lot of their main languages are still indigenous languages. Right. Brazil speaks Portuguese. Right. So they're not Hispanic. Right. They're Brazilian and they speak Portuguese, which a lot of people in Brazil also speak Spanish as well. But Latine speaks to Latin America. Yeah. So, I like Latine. That's what I use. And that is more easily what I identify with as well being Mexican American. So that being said, just to kind of put a cherry on top of all of Yolanda's involvement with the movement had lasting effects and was very indicative in the way that she saw herself as an artist, as we mentioned a couple of times. We spoke to this a little bit earlier, but she became infamous. And I like using the word infamous. Mm hmm. Because saying famous just gives like that celebrity kind of connotation to it, which wasn't necessarily the case with her infamous because of the way that she depicted the Virgin Mary Guadalupe, if you will, having come from a Hispanic or Mexican American background, but not a religious one, which is something we spoke about earlier. She wasn't very Catholic. Her family was not very Catholic. They were not Christian Protestant. They were just, we're not religious. Yeah. So. Yolanda saw the Virgin Mary as a very different entity. Yeah. She didn't pray to her, you know, she saw her as a feminist symbol. Yeah. Which if you think about it, isn't really true for a lot of the Catholic culture, the Hispanic culture, she is. Virgin Mary, Mother Mary. Yeah. So a lot of those connotations take on caregiver, supporter, all the things that make a Hispanic woman submit to the patriarchy. However, she wanted to be able to envision the women in her life as this figure, the Virgin Mary, who represented what it felt like to be Chicana. Especially growing up in the States. So we shared a lot about Yolanda. There is still so much to learn. I would love to watch a full documentary we're definitely documentary girlies. So I would love to find one if there is one. And if we do, whatever we find resources that we think will be. them for sure. And since there is so much to her story, we hope that you share more information with us. If you have it, if you know about Yolanda or if you know about any other Chicana artists or if you are one or if you are one, please fill out the Google form. There's a space for you right here. We followed a lot, which perfect segue because we did actually follow a lot of artists in the Endland Empire, and we are going to reach out soon and hopefully link up. Yeah, so one of the collections on display through April, so you have a lot more time to go see that if you're wanting to, and I highly recommend. There were a lot of really impactful pieces, but it is called hogar, Dulce Hogar, exhibition that explores the profound meaning of home amidst global migration. Curated by Cesar Garcia. The exhibition showcases 18 artists from the Inland Empire challenging traditional notions of home and emphasizing the dynamic nature. I mentioned it a little bit in the beginning. I mean, it's not very surprising that I cry. I was not expecting to cry. But there were two in particular that just like really left a stamp on me. One of them, please go check out her Instagram because she has And makes amazing art. Her name is Bee. Cisneros and she had a piece that was it ceramic? It was ceramic. It was called, have you ever felt like you can't leave? And it was just a ceramic model of her bedroom. And in the description that talks about what the piece is about, she was just talking about how We're in a housing crisis and it's like you can feel stuck because you may be in your childhood bedroom and you can feel a little disheartened because you feel like, you know, by this stage in life, I would love to be able to, in my thirties in California, be able to be on my own and thriving and in my own space. But There was a certain line in the description that said, but until then I'll be in my bedroom dreaming and it just like I, it was, it was my favorite piece of probably the entire museum. Very precious I love ceramics. I've always loved ceramics. And I think that my love for them kind of started when my mom told me that she used to do it and really loved it when she was younger and made several pieces that were really very cute. And I think she still has one upstairs and original Margaret piece which she had made for her Nana when she was younger because my Nana loved owls. Okay. And so she made her a little owl and she painted it. And she gave it to my nana, and when my nana passed, my mom took it and so, I think just being able to say so much with something you already love to do. All of these artists were really young, and they're a lot of them I noticed after following on their Instagram were students of CSU San Bernardino. And I think they have a great art program there. It was really refreshing to see someone so young take on that perspective because it just felt, I don't want to say cohesive, it felt Welcoming and it felt I wasn't alone either right like I'm seen mm hmm It was like looking around at all these pieces that there were a couple pieces that we're talking about that Yes, you know being in a housing crisis and you know Rent is going up and people are around a lot moving around being yeah displaced, you know There was another artist who was like, you know couch surfing and things like that So they didn't feel like they had home their home was them. Yeah but I Knowing that yeah, we aren't alone and a lot of people are experiencing this problem and it's like, I'm okay. I'm not a failure. Right. The system's so stacked against us. And if you're having to have multiple, multiple roommates or live with your family or someone else's family or whatever it may be, it's okay. It is okay. And don't be ashamed about that and find the joy and find the moments because it's that's, I mean, that goes back to like my cup that I shared is that's really what I'm trying to appreciate more. could I spend all of this time looking towards the future of I gotta get myself there, I gotta get myself there, or can I slow down and appreciate the time that I have now? Mm hmm. To be in the community that I'm in. Mm hmm. To experience something new, to be safe. Mm hmm. That's the biggest thing that stood out to me is that it may not be the exact place that you want to be in physically. It may not be your own. It may not be a complete Mm hmm. Individual experience that you get to completely make your own, but are you safe? Are you taking care of, can you find that silver lining? Can you find those moments of joy and just let out a sigh of relief almost right that there are certain things that I could potentially stress about However, I am well taken care of My favorite have a home which a lot of people in California cannot say we saw it all over. Yeah Yeah, it's so heartbreaking. We saw it Basically, everywhere we've traveled in the last two weeks, you see it in Riverside, you see it here in Temecula the population is growing of people who are displaced and without a home. And you're just, not to use these people as, I mean, I have to try lightly here, they're not an example. You know what I mean? They're not even Oh, I'm so grateful for my life because I could literally be homeless. Let's not do that. Let's not do that. But in a way does shift your perspective and it really reminds you to always be grateful for any type of home over your head and a safe mental place to be in and a safe physical space to be in. Right. All that to say, My favorite piece from, I had a lot, but my favorite piece from that exhibition specifically regarding home was the artist and I can't not do her justice. I forgot to write down my home one. Oh. But it was the one with the backpack. I took a picture of the backpack, do you remember? Yeah, and we got in trouble for the both of us standing in there together. Yeah. Oh my gosh you guys a security guard was I know, I was like, can you spare me? There were people in there literally yelling and he was following me around like I was a perp all because I went inside of a glass igloo. We both went in at the same time. Yeah, it was only one person. And he passively, aggressively came over and Moved the sign around instead of just communicating to us hey, only one person in the exhibit at a time. Yeah. Anyway, I shouldn't complain about a man every single episode. Why not? Now they've pissed me off. Why not? I'm not complaining. I'm sharing the truth. He really did do that. He really was passive aggressive. He did. Her name is Elizabeth Red. Not me wearing a shirt with so many different versions of one man talking shit about men. This is literally just my personality at this point. Not Fernando. He doesn't count. So my favorite piece was called Community by Elizabeth Red and she used blown glass, which is really freaking hard to do. Have you seen someone blow glass before? First of all, it's hot as shit, right, because it's got to be melted for it to take shape. Blown glass, copper, found objects, which I love that it's listed as a material used. Elizabeth says, The majority of my young adulthood has been spent in no place in particular. I moved around quite a bit and chose to prioritize travel and exploration. Pretty early on I realized the most important thing about a place, what really makes the experience, is the people. Every place I have called home I have felt that way because I found myself as a part of a community. For this show. Oh god dulce. Oh god I got to live out a version of my dream by building my own home The copper structure was built to be the shape of a literal shelter a space you can walk inside and be safe the colorful glass Represents the people that are a part of my life family friends acquaintances and passersby the clear hanging glass vessels Hold treasure, seeds, bones, shells, and rocks that I've collected from the natural environments and the various places that I have lived. Hidden within the piece, is an ode to my life on the road. For years, home was whatever I had in my backpack. Find the glass backpack full of things that I traveled with. We did just that. It was indeed a Kind of this, it was like an arch, but it wasn't, it was enclosed at the top, it was like a dome situation and it fully copper wire and just glass hanging from it, the backpack was darling you'll see it in the reel that, that Crystina will put together because It wasn't just the things. She made the things out of glass. Yeah. And put them in the backpack. There was like a little mini diva cup. It was a freaking diva cup. There was a passport. Some gum. Some gum, some toothpaste. I just thought it was the most precious thing and it was so purposeful and the time spent to do that, it felt like a real healing process for her. Like she said, she was able to build her own home having traveled so much. And even for a person who loves exploration. Humanity, we do crave consistency. We do crave structure, and we do crave a place to call our own. You can love to travel, you can love to explore, but at the end of the day, do you not love coming back to your own bed? Right. Truthfully. And so I really think that was a beautiful piece for me. And then as far as the bigger exhibit, I would briefly just wanted to share because it's very prevalent was in the shifting perspectives exhibition, and it's called Retablo. For Uvalde by Marta Sanchez and at first glance, kind of like what you said earlier, you weren't really sure what it was. And then you take a longer look at it, and then an even longer look at it, and then you go up and you read the placard. And it was a dedication to all of the babies who lost their lives to gun violence in Uvalde, Texas. And if you, step back, you can read the words at the bottom. It says cry, baby cry. And you can see these little like angel faces that are of course meant to be the victims. Yeah. And the face itself though, was the face of an adult. And it just was so like, it was just so powerful. It was so moving. Yeah. Because we cannot forget. And if I'm one of the people that becomes desensitized to gun violence and to actual children being shot at the place that they were supposed to feel the most safe every day because they have to go there every day to spend time with their peers and their teachers and learn skills that they will use for the rest of their life and grow and make social connections. Then I don't know how I will move on as a human being in this world. If we all start to become. That desensitized to gun violence in schools. This used to be something that we mourned for months and months. And now it's just another headline because it's so frequent because it's so frequent the access That some of these children have to these kinds of weapons. I don't understand How it's a fight. I don't understand the argument, right? You know, I just don't get it There should be no argument when there are children involved and the children involved are being shot dead. That's Really what it is can't sugarcoat it because the people on the other side don't care about children And I just will never that is just how do I I can't even speak how can you even begin to understand that you can't you cannot whole point you cannot yeah And when you go back There's these like silver reflective pieces that are the adult faces tears that are supposed to represent the bullets, right? Actual like pieces of sheet metal like bullet shards. Yeah. Yes Some were painted over but I think some were intentionally left Blank so you can see how they reflected and because they gave you like this kind of 3d Like they came outward at you almost right to look like actual You tears coming down the person's face. Mm hmm. And all over. And all over. Yeah. And all over. So yeah, that was like. That one was very powerful. It was. Yeah. Another one that really impacted me, just my last shout out. To kind of wrap it all up, because the person who curated the exhibit had two pieces featured and they were both made out of wood. And I cried at this one also. One was for their father. Who was an immigrant field worker. The second one was depicted of them with their two daughters in front of a tree and they're picking apples off of the tree. And it talks about how having a place to live and having a home should be as easy as picking fruit from a tree. But we live in a barren fruitless forest, right? Where it's like, it's just not. available to a lot of people. And so we're forced to make other choices or spend a lot of our hard earned resources on something that's never going to be ours or having to move around a lot. So that piece impacted me a lot too. Because it's just the fact of the matter of going back. What we talked to is a lot of people are in this boat and I don't know what it's going to take to ignite some change around housing. But at some point the levy has to break because there's just no way we were talking about it yesterday of a, you know, one bedroom, two bedroom apartment being 3, 500, 4, 000, 5, 000, and I'm like, I don't know what people are doing to afford that and how many there can't be that many people that exist that are making that much money to be able to afford to live there. Right. Because if you're having to make three times the rent, that's 15, 000. Mm hmm. You know, yeah, it's at this point more than a two income household, right? It's like the person that could get by or the two people that could get by by each having a single income are now having To quadruple that and have a quadruple income Because maybe both people now have to have two jobs instead of just the one to literally survive. Right. We saw that in the Dinky rinky dinky. We saw that in the protest outside of the Padres game yesterday. There was a sign that said one job should be enough. Hilton Bayfront, shout out. They were going in. They were going in. Si se puede. But we always do want to bring it back. We hope that this does. inspire you and also helped you feel seen whether you are Latine or not. I really would love to know who all is listening to this because it's not, this series is for everyone. Oh, yes. It is in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, but it is for everyone. And I would love to hear how it has impacted you if you are of another culture or if you are Latine. And I hope that like we said before that if you are in the area and able to make it out to Riverside, that you go, because I really enjoyed it. And I will, when they start switching up the exhibits, I would love to go again in the summertime, because this is until April. So through the spring and then in the Summer quarter. It'll be a new theme. Yeah yeah, purpose here is always to Have conversations that are not normally being had on the day to day And we're really grateful to you guys every day and hope that honoring these Chicana artists with us inspires you to celebrate your culture for the rest of the month, but honestly, all the time, because we exist at all times. And while this is meant to uplift in a very specific period of time, it exists evergreen for always. It does. Listen to it whenever. Every month is Hispanic Heritage Month on this podcast. Every month is Black History Month on this podcast. Yes. Because that's what we do here. Yeah. And we will continue to do it. But, period. when something calls for an extra celebration, we will If there's one thing, I'm gonna celebrate it. Oh, yes. I love a good theme. Yeah. I love a good series. I think, at least once a week, I say something along the lines of, such and such thing happened or, this happened, we should go celebrate. Exactly. We love any exceptions. Excuse to go to Goat Vine or Gourmet Italia for an espresso martini. But, as always, we are grateful for you guys. If you enjoyed this episode, please give it a thumbs up on YouTube, of course, and subscribe. Hopefully we are getting closer to our 100 subscribers. I haven't checked this week. 93. Get us over the hump. I know. I don't really have a prize for you if you're number 100. You just get bragging rights. A kiss. Mwah. To say in years to come when we have 100 subscribers. Exactly. More people added to the community. You can say, I was their 100th follower. Oh yeah. So. Within the 100. Yeah. So please do that and follow the podcast. Apple Podcast is changing their shit again. Cool. So if you want to know when we release new episodes and you want to support the podcast because we are. Part time creators we have other gigs on the side to get us through life, but this is because we purely Enjoy it and think it's important to create more BIPOC spaces So, please leave a rating and a review if you really enjoyed this and yeah, just let us know in the comments Anywhere that you would like and could find us whether it's Instagram YouTube Spotify or Apple, how this impacted you and how Who you're gonna share it with. And who you're gonna share it with. Share the episode. Share it with a friend, if you enjoyed it. Huh. Share the link, throw it on your story. If you throw it on your story, tag us and we'll repost you. Please. Yeah, share it with your bestie and be like, Listen to these bitches. Besties on besties. Besties supporting besties. Besties supporting besties. So in the spirit of Guadalupe. Let us pray. Let us pray. Spirit, grab me the serenity to find home within myself. The courage to appreciate the art that exists in my life. And, as always, the wisdom to not read a bitch when they try us. And so it is.