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Rasquache

Elizabeth Torres

Perm # 7227416

CHST1C

Professor Casillas

Rasquache

Function

Explanation

Rasquachismo is often something that is being reused from something else--changing its function. It started off as a tin can that held a liquid and is not cut up to be made into a tin wind decoration.

Growing up, and still till this day, my family back in Mexico would create these wind decorations that always fascinated me. They took something that served such a small purpose, recycled it and then turned it into something that serves a completly different purpose.

Example

Aesthetic

Explanation

The aesthetic part of rasquahce comes from making something that could have once been deemed as ugly or "trashy" and making it something beautiful. These painted cans, which otherwise could have been thrown away, have been painted with bright colors to fit a new aesthetic.

Example

Many see the loud colors and think of the item to be tacky. In reality this item is fitting the aesthetic of what rasquachismo is. When I go to Mexico, I can not help but to look around in awe when walking past the brightly painted paletarias.

Quote

"Aesthetic expressions comes from discards...the capacity to hold life together with bits of string, old coffee cans, and broken mirrors in a dazzling gesture of aesthetic bravado is at the heart of rasqachismo"(Mesa-Bains, 1999, p.158).

Attitude

In Rasqauchismo, there is always a sense of attitude. It is a way to show off pridefully the way you can be apologetically in tune with your culture's practices.

Explanation

Example

When you look at the girl in the picture, you can tell that not only the way she chose to dress but the theme she picked for her Quince all fit into the theme that follows rasquachismo. She does it with a sense of pride and resistance towards the negative connotation that many attach to the word rasqauche.

"In its broadest sense it is a combination of resistant and resillient attitudes devised to allow the Chicano to survive and persevere with a sense of dignity"(Mesa-Bains, 1999, p. 158).

Quote

"So uncool

its cool"

Explanation

The term "so uncool it's cool" perfectly decscribes what rasquache is. Rasquche items, art, and concepts are usually seen as tacky, kitschy, or over the top. These things however are able to defy these judgments and come out on top.

Example

While many people may think it is trashy or tacky to have literal aluminum cans hanging from the roof of your porch, I always thought it was a very creative way to make an outside decoration. Especially when the people who have made it came from a lower-class background but still came up with the bright idea to make it into an outside decorations.

Quote

"While the term [rasquache] connotes something negative in Mexico for its lower-class or impoverished backdrop, Chicanas/os have managed to reverse its meaning into something kitsch but at the same time resourceful...Creativity, although funky, even ghetto and busy, is its ultimate motivation"(LomelÌ, 2013, p.112).

Multi

Generational

Explanation

Rasquachismo is a practice that can be taught and passed down to younger generations. Our younger generations observe the styles or practices the older generation does and makes it their own.

This young teen girl has learned how to use to and vitalize the tradition and aesthetic that comes with the loudness of rasquachismo.

Example

Quote

While rasquache themes can be seen as an eyesore, it should be something that is openly practiced because especially in cases of gentrification, it being practiced preserves cultural pride (Cooper, 2018).

Adaptablility

One of the main ideas that follow rasquachismo is the idea of adapting to your resources and using what you can to make do.

Explanation

Example

When I was little, I was not able to constantly buy new accessories for my dolls so I would look up Youtube videos on how to make different accessories with things I could have laying around the house. I would make clothes out of socks or balloons and beds out of cardboard.

"[Rasquachismo] is a stance rooted in resourcefulness and adapability, yet ever mindful of aesthetics"(Ybarro-Frausto, 1991, p.133)

Quote

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