Chicana Feminism and Laura Aguilar

 Chicana Feminism and Laura Aguilar

Laura Aguilar was a Mexican-Irish woman born in San Gabriel, California in 1959. She was a member of the LGBT community, resulting in her photographing other LGBT WOC for some of her collections. Many of her most famous works explore notions of femininity and self-image. She recently passed in 2018.

Aguilar’s works uniquely look at her experience as a plus-size, LGBT, woman of color. Many of her photographs depict her naked body, likely to normalize seeing women’s bodies, which tend to be criticized for their size, shape, or amount of coverage. Her art seems to be a form of self-expression, a search for a safe space as a plus-size, LGBT Chicana woman. According to ARTNews, “the photography of the late Chicana artist Laura Aguilar has caused many to see the world differently,” due to her openness with mental health and equity as well as “her identities as a large-bodied, working-class queer Chicana woman” (Duron 2020, 1). 

Center 99 by Laura Aguilar, 2000.
Gelatin Silver Print, MOLAA Permanent Collection.

Center 99 depicts Aguilar prostrating in a brick room. This work was photographed in 2000 and is located in the Museum of Latin American Art. It is currently part of the museum’s exhibition “The Persistence of the Body.” This work seeks to normalize women’s bodies, deviating from the normal ideas of femininity at the time. 

Noting the ideas of beauty and femininity in the early 2000s (pale and skinny), makes this piece all the more powerful. Aguilar embraces her body and herself, physically and artistically. However, the use of lighting within this piece tells us that this process of self-love may not be done.

Behind Aguilar is a bright, white light, but in front of her are dark shadows. This contrast implies that Aguilar is leaning towards the dark, suffering in her body. She sits in the center of these two forces (light and dark), yet leans towards the dark. 

Nature Self Portrait #7 by Laura Aguilar, 1996.

Gelatin Silver Print, MOLAA Permanent Collection.

Center 99 seems to tell us that though Aguilar is working to embrace her body, as we see her physically doing in the photograph, she is also still grappling with her own struggles. This may be in relation to her physical self-image, or even her identity as a queer, plus-size woman of color.

This photo challenges the ideas of femininity and beauty from its time of production, but it also portrays her unique struggle with her self-identity. Many of her works center around Aguilar developing an understanding of her own identity, much of which seems to be shaped by the Chicana feminist movements of her young adulthood.

Doctor Alma Garcia of Santa Clara University is the author of "The Development of Chicana Feminist Discourse, 1970-1980," published in Gender and Society in June 1989. Garcia writes about Chicana feminism's origins and how it has changed over 20 years of its prevalence. Chicana feminism arose during the Chicano nationalism movements in the seventies and eighties, while “Chicana feminists struggled to gain equal status in the male-dominated nationalist movements and also in American society” (Garcia 220). Aguilar began photography in the 1980s, when she was in her twenties, so she would have been especially influenced by this. 

"Chicanas in the Chicano Movement" from IDCLS at the Claremont Colleges

It's especially important to note that "Chicana feminist lesbians," like Aguilar, faced "attacks from those who viewed feminism as a divisive ideology" (Garcia 226). Violence against these lesbian Chicanas likely influenced Aguilar, who was a lesbian Chicana. Aguilar had many works that focused around the intersection of these two identities, such as "Plush Pony" and "Latina Lesbians." Lesbianism makes the intersection between being a woman and a Chicana all the more complicated.

It also makes Center 99 much more interesting, as it is evident that this played a factor in its creation. The display of her body feels more natural than sexy, however Center 99 likely seeks to show lesbian Latinas in a more normal light. They have been seen as a threat to feminism and to the Chicano movement, so her portraying a Chicana lesbian in such a natural way subverts these ideas.

    Lesbian Latina (Yolanda Retter) by Laura Aguilar, 1987.
From the Trust of Laura Aguilar.

Cherrie Moraga, a Chicana feminist, wrote that her "lesbianism is the avenue through which [she has] learned the most about silence and oppression... In this country, lesbianism is a poverty- as is being brown, as is being a woman, as is being just plain poor. The danger lies in ranking the oppressions. The danger lies in failing to acknowledge the specificity of the oppression." (Moraga 1981, 28 in Garcia 226).

Moraga's statement is still very relevant today. Despite the differences in methods of oppression of various sexes, sexualities, races, etc., it is important to realize that all of these groups suffer. There is nothing to gain by claiming your group has been the most victimized when we could, instead, have no victims. I personally believe Moraga put this everlasting struggle into perspective, and we should realize that the only way to achieve any change is through unity, not through discrediting others' experiences.

In this way, I feel that Laura Aguilar perfectly encapsulated her experience through her art. It is impossible to look at any of her work and not see who she was- a queer, plus-size, Chicana. Looking at someone, or even something, as a whole and not a part is the only way you will truly understand anything. 

My theme for this semester is authority and the people, and I wholeheartedly believe that Moraga's writing would be helpful for any politician, or ordinary person, to hear. If we want to make any change within our legislation to help people of color, women, the lower class, we cannot look at these groups as simply those groups, but we also need to see how they intersect. That is the only way effective legislation will ever occur, and the only way we could ever hope to find solutions. 

Works Cited

Aguilar, Laura. Center 99. 2000. Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach.

Aguilar, Laura. Nature Self Portrait #7. 1996, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach.

Aguilar, Laura. Yolanda Retter. 1987, Trust of Laura Aguilar.

“Celebrating Diversity Series - Laura Aguilar - Molaa: Museum of Latin American Art.” MOLAA, Museum of Latin American Art, molaa.org/cds-laura-aguilar.

Durón, Maximilíano. “Laura Aguilar's Lasting Legacy: How the World Caught up to the Pioneering Photographer.” ARTnews.com, Penske Media Corporation, 24 Apr. 2020, 6:00 PM, www.artnews.com/feature/laura-aguilar-who-is-she-1202684828/.

Garcia, Alma M. “The Development of Chicana Feminist Discourse, 1970–1980.” Latina Issues, 2020, pp. 359–380., doi:10.4324/9781003059141-18.

M., Marycarmen. “‘Chicanas in the Chicano Movement’ (by Marycarmen M.).” YouTube, IDCLS at the Claremont Colleges, 4 Dec. 2020, youtu.be/AprzmdQaVVg.