Gaspar Enriquez, Q – Vo – Way, Serie V. Two characteristics immediately strike the viewer upon viewing this work. One is the simple color scheme; neutral greys for the figure are separated from a brilliant red, which fills the negative space. The other is the defiant look on the figure, which is enhanced by his centered composition and the photorealist manner in which he is depicted. Both of these traits signify the expression of the rebellious nature of the Chicano in the 1940s and increasingly through the 1970s. The Chicano label implied a social and political stance in the context of the Civil Rights movement in the United States.


Juan Miguel Ramos, Virtual Tejanos, Serie IX. Ramos shows us the “new identity” of the Chicano and the Mexican-American. The urban backdrop of San Antonio and the modern dress of the subjects marks a particular place and time. These are not iconic Chicanos for all time, but specific Tejano individuals who represent the way Ramos sees his local world in the new millennium. The comic-book look of the two figures, reminiscent of Roy Lichtestein’s work of the 1960s pop-art movement, is a visual transformation from the image of the real people in Ramos’s life to a virtual depiction which, while not symbolic, is nevertheless representative of present-day urban Tejanos.