This thesis examines the methodology used to create the subject matter and pedagogy of The Great Wall of Los Angeles mural created by Chicana artist, Judy Baca. The analysis explores the visual metaphors present in the half-mile public art project through decolonial theory and visual metaphor analysis, and examines the artwork's aesthetic characteristics using cultural analytics techniques. The mural's social justice outcomes are considered for its ability to achieve youth empowerment through community cultural development. I further the concept of decolonial arts pedagogy to encapsulate a framework for producing and evaluating social justice artwork. I analyze the design and production aspects of the Prehistoric segment painted in 1976, and 1950s segment produced in 1983. The analysis considers youth recidivism programs and the concreting of the Los Angeles River through the program's artistic vision. The findings suggest that decolonial metaphors integrate the subject matter and youth pedagogy in the design and production phase of the mural. The findings have implications for the study of Chicano and Chicana mural arts movements, creative placemaking initiatives, urban environmental revitalization efforts, social practice training, and arts education.

Three years ago I found my mother’s name in a book about muralism throughout California. Not knowing my mother as a “public” artist, I pursued an intimate investigation on Chicana artists in public vs. alternative spaces. This thesis explores the process of making a short documentary film, that focused on two artists Cecilia Aranaydo and Silvia Figueroa Garcia (my mother) from an early Chicana art collective in the San Joaquin Valley called Las Mujeres Muralistas del Valle (1978). As we dig through the memories of constructing their only mural, which was whitewashed and destroyed shortly after its construction, we uncover what it means to be a Chicana artist in California's San Joaquin Valley. This research aims to develop an experiential lens in understanding Chicana Art by asking, when we’re dealing with histories of erasure and censorship, is a name in a book—representation—enough? Should art production merely be evaluated through the product, often losing the artist’s social and political location? A particular focus is posed on how and why the artists moved from public muralism to private crafting collective spaces, exploring connections to the rural and urban divide of the Central Valley and the artists’ connection to place, space and memory.

Using spatial theory, social theory, geography and visual analysis, this thesis demonstrates the history of Watts as well as the ongoing community activism that empowers residents. The results of gathering this data and being closely involved with the Watts community have informed the mural, Watts Still Rising and the public monuments we at the Social and Public Art Resource Center have collaborated to design. By visualizing this history through a mural and public markers, we hope to inspired local memories from the past and social consciousness as we advocate for social justice, radical self-love and creativity as forms of liberation. Finally, while the arts movement in Watts from 1965 is overshadowed by the legacy of destruction from the Watts Rebellion, we must remember the tremendous role of the arts in Watts and continue to create artwork that will usher in the future residents’ desire to see.

This dissertation project identifies the anti-colonial and anti-racist traditions that Black and Brown Angelenos have created, specifically the artworks expressing cultural pride and solidarity with each other. While other scholars have looked at Black and Latina/o/x Los Angeles together, few have looked at the trends and traditions within visual culture and art history. This particular intervention is historical, but also builds from the contemporary moment we live in, where underpaid school teachers have been striking en masse, where women are proclaiming #TimesUp, where Black Lives Matter is ushering perhaps the largest social movement in U.S. history, and still, the movement continues to grow all over the world. Furthermore, this dissertation has been informed by the COVID-19 crisis, which deeply and disproportionately impacts housing, employment, health outcomes and many other factors for people of color, especially Native Peoples, African Americans and Latinx folks in the U.S. As a way to reframe this political moment of pandemics, social injustice, and consciousness raising, I freedom dream through Afro-Latinx Futurism, a concept I offer that empowers Black, Latinx and Afro-Latinx people to center pleasure, rest, and joy as a visual practice in the arts and an important expression of liberation. Together, this project will forge a new history of the past by offering analysis of artworks, but also, moments when people lived, fought and created together. In some cases, I will highlight works of art that were not exactly made together, or directly in conversation with the other, but still work within a constellation of struggle against US imperialism and white supremacy. I have conducted participatory observation fieldwork, interviews, investigated archives, made maps via Emoji Mapping and Social Explorer; I offer visual and historical analysis to demonstrate the social realities that Black and Brown creative communities have forged for the past 237 years in what is now Los Angeles.

Currently, about 20% of the young people in the United States are born to immigrant parents (Chaudry, 2010). There are an estimated 5.5 million U.S. children who grow up in immigrant homes (Passel, D'Vera Cohn, & Center, 2011). While the population of children in immigrant families continues to increase, anti-Latino immigrant sentiments and record numbers of deportations by the Obama administration are creating traumatizing experiences for the next generation of U.S. citizens.

This study examines 115 drawings, poems, and letters by predominantly Mexican-American children ages 5-18 from immigrant families in what is known as the laboratory for anti-immigrant legislation--Phoenix, Arizona. This work provides a compelling look into the harrowing lives of children growing up in hostile anti-immigrant environments by using an artistic medium. Some of the themes found in this work include Family Separation, Respect/Racism, Sheriff Joe Arpaio/Authority, and Hope. This study can be useful for teachers, academics, policy makers, and community organizations in assessing the needs of immigrant children experiencing the threat of family separation.

“We didn’t know anything about my cousin until we saw on the news that his body was found on the border,” shared 12-year-old Elisa, with tears in her eyes, as she explained the term “immigrant” during our theater class. Elisa herself had made the journey alone from El Salvador to reunite with her aunt in Los Angeles two years prior. When asked about children like Elisa’s classmates, who were born in the U.S., President Trump responded, “I’ll just use the term Anchor Babies.” Already, the national impasse to resolve the undocumented status of 11 million people has placed 4.5 million children of immigrants at risk for family separation (Su�rez-Orozco, 2000). We know that the combined stressors of migratory status and poverty can have long-term detrimental consequences for youth (Yoshikawa, 2011). We also know that rates of post-traumatic stress disorder are twice as high in children from urban areas than soldiers returning from war (Tucker, 2007). Yet, there is still so much we do not know about children of immigrants, the fastest-growing population in the United States.

This dissertation addresses the following questions: (a) How do current anti-immigration policies impact children in immigrant families?; (b) How can the art-making process mediate children’s experiences with the law?; and (c) How can artistic methods serve researchers and educators who work with children? This dissertation highlights the understudied preadolescent children of immigrants—both U.S.-born citizens and undocumented immigrant children—through a multidisciplinary theater class at a local elementary school in Los Angeles, California. Data collected included family, child, and teacher interviews, class/school observations, artwork and performance videos, and pre-/post-surveys from recently arrived Mexican and Central American children ages 11 to 13.

This work contributes to the fields of immigration policy, education, and Latinx/Chicanx studies, among others. Ultimately, I argue that an anti-immigrant climate creates harmful consequences for children of immigrants, most of whom are U.S. citizens. This work illuminates the ways immigration policy and anti-immigrant sentiments impact immigrant children. Findings from this study reveal that: (a) children receive messages from society that reflect dehumanization, violence, and harm and through art, children respond with strategies to navigate that racism; and (b) in children’s response to racism and legal violence, art fosters personal agency and gives them tools to develop coping mechanisms and resilience. Creativity allows children to make sense of and articulate their views on the political realities/state violence they are experiencing.