Sun-Mad

Inscriptions

Signed, in graphite, lower right: Ester Hernandez '82; numbered, in graphite, lower left: 94/100; inscribed, in graphite, lower center: "Sun Mad"

Label

Las décadas de los 60 y 70s del siglo pasado fueron tiempas cruciales para la historia de la comunidad chicanx en los Estados Unidos; fue durante esta época que los chicanx se organizaron en California contra diferentes tipos de injustica. (Chicanz es un término que identifica a una persona de ascendencia Mexicana en los Estados Unidos y es, también, la forma nuetra y sin género de chicana/o.) De estas iniciativas políticas, una de las más importantes due liderada por Dolores Huerta y César Chávez en 1965, cuando crearon United Farm Workers (Trabajadores Agrícolas Unidos) para hacer frente a los principals productores de uva estadounidenses. Por medio de protestas, exigieron mejores salaries y derechos laborales para un fuerza de trabajadores que consistía principalmente de inmigrantes mexicanxs y chicanxs. Sun Mad de Ester Hernández, realizada después del inicio de estas protestas, habla directamente de sue experiencia con las granjas productoras de uvas en su pueblo natal en el Valla de San Joaquín de California, una zona que genera mucha de la fruta y verdure que se consue en los EE.UU. Al combiner la iconografía de la calavera, usada frecuentemente para efectos satíricos en el arte mexicano, con la icónica niña Sun-Maid [de la emblemática marca estadounidense de pasas], Hernández nos pide que consideremos los nocivos efectos a largo plazo del uso de pesticidas en la granjas comerciales de California. Al colocas la calavera—un cuerpo muerto—en el centro de un grabado de colores y formas fuertas y vibrantes, Sun Mad también hace referencia a la historica de grabado chicanx y su influencia en el movimiento de derechos civiles para los chicanx como un modo de comunicación políco y accesible.

The 1960s and 1970s were a crucial part of Chicanx history in the United States, when Chicanxs organized in California against a variety of injustices. (Chicanx is a term that identifies a person of Mexican descent in the United States—and the gender-neutral form of Chicana/o.) One of the most important of these political initiatives was led by Dolores Huerta and César Chávez in 1965, when they created the United Farm Workers against major American grape growers. Through protest, they demanded better wages and employment rights for a workforce that consisted largely of Mexican immigrants and Chicanxs. Ester Hernández’s Sun Mad, made after the start of these protests, directly speaks to her experience with grape farms in her hometown in California’s San Joaquin Valley, which generates much of the country’s produce. Fusing the iconography of the calavera, often used for satire in Mexican printmaking, with the iconic Sun-Maid girl, Hernández asks viewers to consider the fatal long-term effects of pesticide use among commercial farms in California. By centering the fleshless body in a bold, graphic print, Sun Mad also references the history of Chicanx printmaking and its critical role in the Chicanx civil rights movement as a form of accessible, political media.

From the 2019 exhibiton A Space for Dialogue 93, Los Mojados: Migrant Bodies and Latinx Identities, curated by Armando Pulido '19, Class of 1954 Intern

Course History

HIST 6, NAS 30, History of the American West, Ben Madley, Winter 2012

ARTH 40.04, LACS 30.09, Mexicanidad: Constructing and Dismantling Mexican National Identity, Mary Coffey, Winter 2019

LATS 41, Latinos in Media and Arts, Douglas Moody, Spring 2019

MUS 3.02, American Music: Covers, Theft, and Musical Borrowing, Richard Beaudoin, Spring 2019

LALACS 80.2, GOVT 84.6, AAAS 90.1, Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies, Identities and Power in the Americas, Lisa Baldez, Spring 2019

ARTH 48.06, Borderlands Art and Theory, Tatiana Reinoza, Spring 2019

LATS 7.02, Latinxs in Media & Arts, Douglas Moody, Winter 2020

MUS 3.02, American Music: Covers, Theft, and Musical Borrowing, Richard Beaudoin, Winter 2020

SPAN 7.02, Mural Art in Mexico and U.S, Douglas Moody, Spring 2020

MUS 3.02, American Music: Covers, Theft, and Musical Borrowing, Richard Beaudoin, Fall 2020

First Year Student Enrichment Program, Israel Reyes, Summer 2021

PHIL 1.11, Art: True, Beautiful, Nasty, Jacob McNulty, Fall 2021

LATS 03, Introduction to Latino Studies, Marcela Di Blasi, Fall 2021

LATS 5.01, Complexities of Latinidad, Marcela Di Blasi, Fall 2021

MUS 3.02, American Music: Covers, Theft, and Musical Borrowing, Richard Beaudoin, Winter 2022

WRIT 3, Composition and Research II, Doug Moody, Winter 2022

Latino Studies 44.01, Latino Roots and Transitions, Thamyris Almeida, Winter 2023

Writing Program 3.06, Composition and Research II, Doug Moody, Winter 2023

Music 3.02, American Music: Covers, Theft, and Musical Borrowing, Richard Beaudoin, Spring 2023

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 93, Los Mojados: Migrant Bodies and Latinx Identities, Armando Pulido, Class of 2019, Class of 1954 Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 11-June 16, 2019.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 10, 2002-January 22, 2003.

Virtual Space for Dialogue, 2018, The Labor of Art: from Sol LeWitt to the Guerrilla Girls, Kimberly Yu, Class of 2018, Homma Family Intern, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. https://www.kyu.vsfd.hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/

Publication History

Armando Pulido, Class of 2019, Class of 1954 Intern, A Space for Dialogue 93, Los Mojados: Migrant Bodies and Latinx Identities, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019.

Provenance

The artist; sold to present collection, 2002.

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Subjects