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Santa Barraza (born April 7, 1951) is an American mixed-media artist and painter who is well-known for her colorful, retablo style painting. A Chicana, Barraza pulls inspiration from her own mestiza ancestry and from pre-Columbian art.〔 Barraza is considered to be an important artist in the Chicano art movement. The first scholarly treatment of a Chicana artist is about her and is called ''Santa Barraza, Artist of the Borderlands'', which describes her life and body of work. Barraza's work is collected by the Mexic-Arte Museum, and other museums around the United States and internationally.〔 She currently lives in Kingsville, Texas. == Biography == Barraza was born in the Kingsville, Texas home of her grandmother, Victoria Meza Barraza.〔 She was the second of six children. Barraza's father, Joaquin Barraza, worked hard to provide opportunities for his children and her mother, Frances Contreras, was a feminist.〔 Both of her parents jointly owned a small car repair shop. Growing up, Barraza was exposed to many indigenous, South Texan, Chicano cultural traditions.〔 Her aunt on her father's side was a ''curandera'', and Barraza would accompany her when she trained in Mexico. These visits to Mexico, watching the rituals her aunt performed, became part of her later work.〔 Her parents were Catholic and the imagery of the religion also influenced much of the iconography of her later work.〔 Ironically, her given name, Santa, proved problematic when she was to be baptized because the priest felt the name was sacrilegious since "Santa" means "saint" in Spanish.〔 Barraza recalls that there was a great deal of stigmatization against the Mexican-American students as far back as elementary school.〔 Kingsville itself had a history of oppression towards Mexicans and Chicanos living in the area.〔 Barraza met and became friends with Chicana artist, Carmen Lomas Garza, when they were both in at H.M. King High school together.〔 Barraza's first art classes were taken at the high school.〔 She was also the art editor for the high school's literary magazine.〔 Barraza briefly attended Texas Arts and Industry University, (now Texas A&M University, Kingsville), enrolling in 1969. It was during this time that she learned about Mexican and pre-Columbian art and was exposed to the growing Chicano Movement.〔 In 1969, Barraza became involved with the activist group, Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO).〔 In 1971, Barraza transferred to the University of Texas at Austin (UT) in order to pursue studio arts〔 and because it was important to her to receive a BFA rather than a BA.〔 Barraza faced a sense of displacement when she was at UT. She recalls that she would walk around campus for "months and never see another brown face." At UT, Barraza studied with Jacinto Quirarte, who was the only Latino or Chicano faculty member at the time. Quirarte was considered an important historiographer of Chicano art and her association with him was a big influence on her later work.〔 In his class, Barraza was introduced to his important work in Chicano art history, ''Mexican-American Art'', which they had to use in manuscript form.〔 Being a part of his class also helped introduce her to many of her friends who became activists.〔 Barraza recalls that while she was at UT, she knew she wanted to be an artist and make a difference and she chose to do this by painting the images she felt were missing from the textbooks: Chicana imagery. Barraza met her husband at UT where the two of them had several classes together.〔 When Barraza graduated with her BFA from UT and after the birth of her daughter, Andrea, she joined a new Chicano art organization in Austin called ''Los Quemados''.〔 Differences of opinion caused Barraza to leave and form her own group in 1977, called ''Mujeres Artistas de Suroeste'' (MAS).〔 Barraza and the others who left ''Los Quemados'' didn't feel like ''Quemados'' was political enough.〔 Barraza and others in MAS opened their own studio space.〔 MAS organized a key feminist conference, ''Plástica Chicana Conferencia'', in 1979 which was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. The conference had many well-known scholars, critics and artists, including Garza, and included workshops created by the Mexican fine arts community on a variety of topics on the arts. MAS curated and promoted art exhibits throughout Texas and in Arizona. MAS was active until the mid 1980's.〔 Around this time, several members of MAS left Texas for better careers and the corporate status of MAS was allowed to lapse.〔 She was also a member of the Chicano art group, ''Con Safo''. Barraza's first job in the arts was as a graphic designer at Steck-Vaughan, which she took right out of the college to help support her husband and new baby.〔 During this time, she pursued her Masters and received her graduate degree in 1982.〔 When Barraza was working on her masters, at first she wanted to study Chicano art history, however, the faculty insisted that Chicano art history didn't exist.〔 Around this time, she began to study her own family history.〔 Studying her family history also helped her become more aware of various social inequities and injustice that had been done to Mexicans in Texas over time.〔 She found that she was a descendant of shaman, Don Pedro Jaramillo, and the Carancahuas.〔 In 1985, Barraza accepted a teaching position at La Roche College.〔 Applying for the job and the decision to leave for Pittsburgh caused a great deal of anxiety for her, both in terms of starting something new, and also from the perspective that she lacked support from her husband.〔 Barraza took her daughter with her to Pittsburgh and taught graphic design at La Roche College. She felt that La Roche was very supportive of her work.〔 Later, she acepted a position at Penn State in 1988. At Penn State, she began a study-abroad program to Puebla in Mexico that was very popular among the students.〔 Barraza was an associate professor at the Art Institue of Chicago from 1993 to 1996.〔 Her impetus for leaving Chicago came about after she was denied tenure, and one of the reasons given for the denial was that her art was "just" folk art.〔 Later, she was offered a position at University of Texas at San Antonio, which she turned down in favor of working at Texas A & M, Kingsville.〔 She currently teaches art at Texas A&M University, Kingsville.〔 She has been the chair of the art department there since 1998.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Santa Barraza」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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