Hispanic, Latino, Mexican-American: Exploring Identity and Labels through Art

Identity has an important role in each individual. It determines what a person will do for the rest of her life and also how she is perceived by others. It is the person's qualities, beliefs, personality and expressions that define the person or the group the person belongs to. When identity is regarded as something psychological — something that is related to an individual’s self-image and self-esteem — it can affect a person negatively or positively, depending on how that person sees herself. Despite that, identity development occurs throughout different stages of one’s life, adolescence is the stage where individuals begin to analyze their identity because they are more self-conscious of the changes that are happening in their lives. Therefore, adolescents are more vulnerable when it comes to the struggle with different aspects of identity. For example, they grapple with decisions like choosing a career path, political beliefs, relationships or their ethnicity label. There’s confusion causing the inability to commit to one path because of the forces that surround and influence a person's decisions. Anyone can struggle with finding their identity, but it’s young people who are torn between two or more cultures who often find themselves more confused because they believe they have to make a choice of either assimilating to one culture or the other. Diana Calderón, a local Phoenix artist, shared the story of her journey to find her identity as a Latina woman through art. She argues that her method, a form of art known as “interdisciplinary,” can be used as a tool to help others like herself explore their identity.
Interdisciplinary art allows artists to design their careers without restrictions because it lets them merge different types of art such as painting, sketching, crafting and anything else that may represent art to them. Interdisciplinary artists invent new media, with their own techniques. In doing so, they allow others the freedom to create and interpret their creations without feeling pressured to follow conventions and guidelines, eventually providing a space to explore talents.
Calderón, who was born in Mexico and later moved, felt she was caught between embracing the culture of the United States and perpetuating her family's identity, which mixes the ideas of being Latino and American at the same time. Factors such as traditions, values, language and social experiences are what constructed Calderón’s identity; these are the same factors that make all of our identities. But as Calderón started expressing her identity through artwork, she was able to represent her true self as a Latina woman without feeling that she had to disregard either of the cultures she grew up with.
This thesis will explore the way that Latino artists like Diana Calderón use interdisciplinary art as a tool to help others – especially Latinos in between two or more cultures – discover their identity, even as they are being pressured by societal factors that impose what an individual should do or be.
Keywords: identity, interdisciplinary art, Hispanic/Latino, Diana Calderón

Website:
https://medium.com/@ekarina796/hispanic-latino-mexican-american-exploring-identity-and-labels-through-art-b420af0e2df8