INTRODUCTION
Food, music, and the experience of growing up in a bi-cultural family inform the semi-satirical social commentary of Paul Valadez’ art. Mucho Caramelo, the text from one of the Great Mexican-American Songbook collages, gives the show its title. Referring not only to the many shades of brown skin that have served as the basis both for discrimination and celebration, it reminds us that Mexican culture pre-dates Anglo culture in the Americas. It also suggests the idea that art might be consumable, particularly in candy flavored bites.
Combining text and image, Valadez invites us to question our understanding of seemingly simple Mexican delicacies. Tacos, fajitas, and icy raspas informally painted on richly colored grounds, suggest complex notions of personal identity. The hand drawn text, reminiscent of DIY signage, is easy to read but through repetition resists deconstruction.
Valadez elaborates on this theme in the songbook collages. Reimagining the canon of musical Americana, he makes mash-ups that suggest stories of cultural exclusion and poke fun at sentimental nostalgia. He creates visual dissonance by challenging language with examples of “Spanglish,” slang, unconventional spelling, and re-appropriated slurs producing a dark visual counternarrative.
Stockton-raised artist and professor of art at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, Paul Valadez gifted this body of work to the Latin American Studies Program at the University of the Pacific in the spring of 2019. Thanks to his generous donation and support from the Office of the President it will become part of Pacific’s permanent art collection.
Lisa Cooperman
University Curator
Combining text and image, Valadez invites us to question our understanding of seemingly simple Mexican delicacies. Tacos, fajitas, and icy raspas informally painted on richly colored grounds, suggest complex notions of personal identity. The hand drawn text, reminiscent of DIY signage, is easy to read but through repetition resists deconstruction.
Valadez elaborates on this theme in the songbook collages. Reimagining the canon of musical Americana, he makes mash-ups that suggest stories of cultural exclusion and poke fun at sentimental nostalgia. He creates visual dissonance by challenging language with examples of “Spanglish,” slang, unconventional spelling, and re-appropriated slurs producing a dark visual counternarrative.
Stockton-raised artist and professor of art at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, Paul Valadez gifted this body of work to the Latin American Studies Program at the University of the Pacific in the spring of 2019. Thanks to his generous donation and support from the Office of the President it will become part of Pacific’s permanent art collection.
Lisa Cooperman
University Curator