Ernesto Yerena
Ernesto Yerena is an artist famous for partaking in the Chicana art movement. This movement focuses mainly on the freedom and migration of Latina, Chicana, and Mexican people. Yerena was born in a town bordering El Centro, CA. What Ernesto Yerena sites for his now famous art work and unique perspective on life, is the way he grew up. Since Yerena went to school mainly in the United States but continued to travel back down to Mexico to visit with family, he was witness to a new way of seeing the world. He was able to experience not only the life of a United States citizen, but also the life of an immigrant on the run, as well as a Mexican man living in not so good conditions. This experience he says, allows him to see the free education in the first world as well as the authentic cultural experience of the third world. Some of his work includes what appears to be a Native American woman, holding up a book that says “Our True History”. Both her body stance and the level of eye contact she is holding is important because it makes her appear strong and less submissive than most male counterparts would want her to be seen. She is making direct eye contact with the viewer and is holding her cut fist up to signify she is ready to fight. All these details are prevalent in some of his work and provide a unique, invigorating experience to the audience as a whole.
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