“Words Through Walls”Chicano and Northern Irish Mural Traditions in Perspective

  1. Julio Cañero 1
  2. Tamara Benito 2
  1. 1 Franklin Institute-UAH
  2. 2 IES Luis de Góngora
Journal:
Oceánide

ISSN: 1989-6328

Year of publication: 2019

Issue: 11

Type: Article

DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

More publications in: Oceánide

Abstract

The Chicano community in the United States and the loyalist and republican in Northern Ireland have used murals to express their economic, political, social and cultural aspirations. In their origin, these artistic creations lacked a clearly artistic intention, but rather their function was vindicatory. The aim of the paintings was to show the members of their group, as well as their rivals and, therefore, the rest of the world, their way of understanding the conflicts in which they were immersed. In this paper, our intention is to present the muralist creations of these peoples in terms of their historical evolution, ideological commitment, political aspirations and main themes that have been used. Although the realities in which the three communities develop are very different, certain similarities are appreciable. Thus, Chicano, loyalists and republican murals have become the channel to articulate unity, pride in group membership and political activism, then conveying “Words through Walls.”

Bibliographic References

  • ANDERSON, T., and B. CONLON. (2013). “In the Shadow of the Peace Walls: Art, Education, and Social Reconstruction in Northern Ireland”. Art Education 66 (4): 36-42.
  • ARREOLA, D. D. (1984). “Mexican American Exterior Murals”. Geographical Review 74 (4): 409-424.
  • CAÑERO, J. (2017). Literatura Chicana. La experiencia colonial interna en la narrativa de Rudolfo Anaya. Madrid: Catarata.
  • CASHMAN, R. (2008). “Visions of Irish Nationalism”. Journal of Folklore Research 4 (3): 361-381.
  • CEJKA, M. A. (2017). “Dreaming in Color: Today’s Murals Reflect Past Nightmares, Current Hopes and Growing Diversity in Northern Ireland”. National Catholic Reporter 54: 17-18.
  • CORDOVA, C. (2006). “Hombres y Mujeres Muralistas on a Mission: Painting Latino Identities in 1970s San Francisco”. Latino Studies 4 (4): 356-380.
  • CORRELL, T. C., and P. A. POLK. (2014). “Productos Latinos: Latino Business Murals, Symbolism, and the Social Enactment of Identity in Greater Los Angeles”. Journal of American Folklore 127 (505): 285-320.
  • CROWLEY, T. (2015). “Hegemonic Shifts: The Latest from the Walls of Northern Ireland”. Estudios Irlandeses 10 (10): 58-76.
  • DONAHUE, D. M. (2011). “Connecting Classrooms and Communities through Chicano Mural Art”. Multicultural Perspectives 13 (2): 70-78.
  • GEOGHEGAN, P. (2008). “Multiculturalism and Sectarianism in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland”. Scottish Geographical Journal 124 (2-3): 185-191.
  • GOALWIN, G. (2013). “The Art of War: Instability, Insecurity, and Ideological Imagery in Northern Ireland’s Political Murals, 1979-1998”. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 26 (3): 189-215.
  • GOLDMAN, S. M. (1990a). “How, Why, Where, and When It All Happened: Chicano Murals of California”. In Sperling and Barnet, 23-53.
  • GOLDMAN, S. M. (1990b). “The Iconography of Chicano Self-Determination: Race, Ethnicity, and Class”. Art Journal 49 (2): 167-173.
  • GUNCKEL, C. (2015). “The Chicano/a Photographic: Art as Social Practice in the Chicano Movement”. American Quarterly 67 (2): 377-412.
  • HOLSCHER, L. M. (1976). “Tiene Arte Valor Afuera Del Barrio: The Murals of East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights”. The Journal of Ethnic Studies 4 (3): 42-52.
  • JARMAN, N. (Spring 1996). “The Ambiguities of Peace: Republican & Loyalist Ceasefire Murals”. Causeway: 23-27.
  • JARMAN, N. (1998). “Painting Landscapes: The Place of Murals in the Symbolic Construction of Urban Space”. In Symbols in Northern Ireland, A. D. BUCKLEY (ed.). Belfast: The Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University Belfast, 81-98.
  • KANG SONG, Y. I., and J. A. GAMMEL. (2011). “Ecological Mural as Community Reconnection”. International Journal of Art & Design Education 3 (2): 266-278.
  • LAWARE, M. R. (1998). “Encountering Visions of Aztlan: Arguments for Ethnic Pride, Community Activism and Cultural Revitalization in Chicano Murals”. Argumentation and Advocacy 34 (3): 140-153.
  • MCQUAID, S. D. (2017). “Parading Memory and Re-Member-Ing Conflict: Collective Memory in Transition in Northern Ireland”. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 30 (1): 23-41.
  • MESA-BAINS, A. “Quest for Identity: Profile of Two Chicana Muralist”. In E. SPERLING COCKCROFT and H. BARNET-SÁNCHEZ (eds.). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 69-82.
  • PALOMO ACOSTA, T. “Chicano Mural Movement”. The Handbook of Texas OnLine. www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/CC/kjc3.html.
  • ROLSTON, B. (Fall 1988). “Contemporary Political Wall Murals in the North of Ireland: ‘Drawing Support’”. Éire-Ireland 23 (3): 3-18.
  • ROLSTON, B. (1992). Drawing Support: Murals in the North of Ireland. Belfast: Beyond the Pale Publications.
  • ROLSTON, B. (1995). Drawing Support 2: Murals of War and Peace. Belfast: Beyond the Pale Publications.
  • ROLSTON, B. (Winter 1997/ Spring – Summer 1998). “From King Billy to Cú Chulainn: Loyalist and Republican Murals, Past Present, and Future”. Éire- Ireland 32 (4)/33 (1-2): 6-28.
  • ROLSTON, B. (2003). “Signs of the Times: Murals and Political Transformation in Northern Ireland”. In The Representation of Ireland/s: Images from Outside and from Within, R. Gonzalez (ed.). Barcelona: Promociones y Publicaciones Universitarias, 27-43.
  • ROLSTON, B. (2009). “The Brothers on the Walls”: International Solidarity and Irish Political Murals”. Journal of Black Studies 39 (3): 446-470.
  • SÁNCHEZ-TRANQUILINO, M. “Murales del Movimiento: Chicano Murals and the Discourses of Art and Americanization”. In E. SPERLING COCKCROFT and H. BARNET-SÁNCHEZ (eds.). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 85-101.
  • SANTINO, J. (2001). Signs of War and Peace: Social Conflict and the Use of Public Symbols in Northern Ireland. New York: Plagrave.
  • SIMPSON, E. (1980). “Chicano Street Murals: A Sociological Perspective”. Journal of Popular Culture 13 (3): 516-525.
  • SLUKA, J. A. (1992). “The Politics of Painting: Political Murals in Northern Ireland”. The Paths to Domination, Resistance and Terror. In C. NORDSTROM and J. MARTIN (eds.). California: University of California Press, 190-216.
  • SOTO RAMÍREZ, E. (2003). “La cultura chicana, ¿manifestación cultural, rebelión o protesta?” Reencuentro 37: 39-42.
  • SPERLING COCKCROFT, E., and H. BARNET-SÁNCHEZ, (Eds.). (1990a). Signs from the Heart: California Chicano Murals. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico.
  • SPERLING COCKCROFT, E., and H. BARNET-SÁNCHEZ, (Eds.). (1990b). “Introduction”. In E. SPERLING COCKCROFT and H. BARNET-SÁNCHEZ (eds.). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1-21.
  • SPERLING COCKCROFT, E. “Contradiction or Progression: The Mainstreaming of a Mural Movement”. ZoneZero Magazine. ZoneZero. http://v1.zonezero.com/magazine/essays/distant/articfram2.html (Last access: 20 Dec 2017).
  • YBARRA-FRAUSTO, T. (1989). “Rasqua-chismo: a Chicano Sensibility”. Chicano aesthetics: Rasquachismo. Exhibition catalogue presented in MARS, Movimiento Artistico del Rio Salado, 5-8, in Phoenix, Arizona. http://geminiink.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Rasquachismo.pdf.
  • YBARRA-FRAUSTO, T. (1990). “Arte Chicano: Images of a Community”. In E. SPERLING COCKCROFT and H. BARNET-SÁNCHEZ (eds.). Albu-querque: University of New Mexico Press, 55-67.
  • VAN DAHM, S. (2015). “Barrio art: Telling the story of Latino Philadelphia through murals”. Latino Studies 13: 421-433.
  • WOODS, O. (2003). “Seeing is Believing? Murals in Derry”. CAIN Web Service. http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/bibdbs/murals/woods.htm (Last access: 6 Oct 2017).
Data source: Dialnet