Chicano Heaven
Artist
John Valadez (American, b. 1951)
Date
2013Medium
ScreenDimensions
Plate : 22 1/4 x 30 in. (56.52 x 76.2 cm)
Sheet : 27 x 35 1/2 in. (68.58 x 90.17 cm)Credit Line
Hope College CollectionObject Number
2022.39
Label
East Los Angeles native John Valadez began his artistic career in the 1970s as a muralist painter. This 2013 lithograph recalls that early phase of his career by depicting the souls of armed campesinos proceeding toward a heaven filled with luminous red and blue clouds. The image is reminiscent of murals painted by the great Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros depicting scenes from the 1910-20 Mexican Revolution, and serves as a reminder of the multiple generations who fought to achieve political power, economic equality, and civil rights for Mexicans and Mexican Americans. The serigraph was printed at Self Help Graphics, an East Los Angeles art cooperative that has been an important producer of Chicanx art since the 1970s.
