By the 1970s, Mexican and Mexican American artists were known in the U.S. for making certain types of art. The art world identified murals and folk art with Mexican and Chicano(a) artists in the U.S. Most people believe that Mexican artists were not capable of more innovative works.
In 1974, ASCO (nausea or disgust), a group of young Chicano artists from East Los Angeles, created Instant Mural. The “mural” was made by taping ASCO member Pattsi Valdez to a wall with duct tape.
In Instant Mural, ASCO defied yet contributed to the Chicano mural movement. Their performances combined old traditions (the mural) with new ways of working (performance art), creating a new type of art that had not yet been seen on the streets of Los Angeles.
Chaz Bojorquez, another young Chicano artist, fused graffiti to painting and Chinese calligraphy to create works that challenged notions of graffiti as vandalism.
Placa, a painting by Bojorquez, is shown above. Bojorquez continued making street art while also creating canvases like these, bringing attention to the hybrid or mestizo nature of Chicano(a) art.