Oral history interview with Juana Alicia
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 4 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 8 digital wav files. Duration is 4 hrs., 6 minutes.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Juana Alicia
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
topic: label: Occupation
content: Muralists -- California -- Berkeley
label: Occupation
content: Printmakers -- California -- Berkeley
label: Occupation
content: Educators -- California -- Berkeley
label: Occupation
content: Painters -- California -- Berkeley
label: Topic
content: Latino and Latin American artists
label: Topic
content: Chicano artists
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Women painters
label: Topic
content: Women educators
label: Topic
content: Women printmakers
label: Topic
content: Women muralists
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
label: Provenance
content: Funding for this interview provided by SI Latino Initiative II, 1999.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Juana Alicia
label: Interviewer
content: Karlstrom, Paul J.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Juana Alicia Araiza (1953-), commonly known as Juana Alicia, is a painter, printmaker, and educator in Berkeley, California. Juana Alicia is among the leading Chicana muralists in California and a major figure in Bay Area Chicana and women's movements. Among her commissions is a mural done with her partner Emmanuel C. Montoya at the San Francisco International Airport. Uses only her forenames; does not use her last name.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 99 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2000 May 8 and July 17
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.alicia00
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Juana Alicia conducted 2000 May 8-July 17, by Paul Karlstrom, for the Archives of American Art, in Alicia's studio, Berkeley, California.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Juana Alicia discusses her childhood in Detroit and Texas; her feelins of identification with the Black community; admiration of Paul Robeson and Martin Luther King, Jr., whose death "devastated" her; moving in 1972 to Salinas, California at the invitation of Cesar Chavez; working in the lettuce fields and inspiration for her mural Lechugueras (1985) in the Mission District of San Francisco; Chicana identity; art as central to her story; her work during the 1970s and 80s becoming more international in scope and connecting to the struggles of others; her interest in ancient techniques and in the work of Los Tres Grandes and the frescos of Diego Rivera; her current project, Santuarios, with her partner, at SFO, and the iconography of the work in terms of three forces at work: artist's experience, mandate of commission, spiritual/universal force; El Cordon Rota (1998), a banner prepared for and withdrawn from a Tijuana show in response to John Valadez's poster image of a nude Chicana; interest in aesthetics and the idea of beauty in art as vital to survival; her views on gender equality, empowerment through art, differences between men and women; the "Positive Visability" mural (1995) in San Francisco's lower Haight district, with a description of the iconography and recent restoration project supported by Neighborhood Beautification Program fighting hate crimes throughout the city.