Judith F. Baca, Absolutely Chicana

Several acquisitions have been influenced by the major traveling exhibition Pop América, 1965 – 1975, which is co-organized by the Nasher Museum and the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas. One is a screenprint on paper, Absolutely Chicana (2008), the first work by Judith F. Baca to enter the collection.

Baca is a painter, muralist, community arts pioneer, scholar and educator who has worked in Los Angeles for more than four decades. Absolutely Chicana comes out of a 1976 project she did at the Women’s Building, a feminist art incubator in Los Angeles. Part of the project involved a performance in which Baca dressed up as a 1940s pachuca—the iconic figure of a rebellious Mexican woman. This print derives from a photo taken of her in that costume. An image of Baca as a pachuca, as well as one of a local gang member dressed as a chola, or “homegirl,” were included in her work Las Tres Marias, a statement on Chicana identity that was part of the Pop América, 1965-1975 exhibition.