Orale ese Vato
- Description
- As this paño humorously titled Orale ese vato (Spanish for roughly, right on, man) shows, one characteristic of Chicano art is that it avidly consumes and reconfigures both American and Mexican pop culture with its own slang, looks, and attitude. A paño is a hand-drawn handkerchief traditionally designed by Chicano prisoners. Like a letter that retells memories of both good and bad times, paños are often mailed as gifts to friends and loved ones. Valued as a vibrant popular art that overlaps with muralism, tattoo design, graffiti, and auto airbrushing, paños and their makers are receiving increased exposure for their visual storytelling abilities. An illustrator and a muralist known for depicting Chicano themes, Walter Baca (1947-1993) designed this paño in New Mexico in 1992.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- paños
- Date made
- 1992
- artist
- Baca, Walter R.
- Physical Description
- cotton (overall material)
- ink, pen (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 42 cm x 41 cm; 16 9/16 in x 16 1/8 in
- Place Made
- United States: New Mexico, Albuquerque
- ID Number
- 1993.0150.02
- catalog number
- 1993.0150.02
- accession number
- 1993.0150
- subject
- Popular Culture
- Mickey Mouse
- Latino
- Prisons
- Cultures & Communities
- Art
- Mexican America
- See more items in
- Home and Community Life: Ethnic
- Mexican America
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- Title (Spanish)
- Orale ese Vato
- Credit Line
- Gift of Rudy Padilla
Visitor Comments