Rasquache

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Rasquache is a Spanish term common in Latin America which originally had a negative connotation as being an attitude that was lower class or impoverished. This definition was later reversed by the Chicano arts movement which transformed the have-not sensibility into a style, "Rasquachismo," suited to dealing with the material and professional limitations faced by artists in the movement. Rasquache art uses the most basic, simplest, quickest, and crudest means necessary to create the desired expression, in essence, creating the most from the least. The term can also be used to reference the bicultural inspiration from which these artists draw inspiration. [1]

Amalia Mesa-Bains, artist and writer, writes that "In rasquachismo, the irreverent and spontaneous are employed to make the most from the least... one has a stance that is both defiant and inventive. Aesthetic expression comes from discards, fragments, even recycled everyday materials... The capacity to hold life together with bits of string, old coffee cans, and broken mirrors in a dazzling gesture of aesthetic bravado is at the heart of rasquachismo." [2] When employed by female artists, she calls it Domesticana, but cautions that these terms should not be understood as applying to all Chicano artists. [3]

Rasquache has non-artistic usage as well and can be used to mean "ghetto." Behavior such as reusing plastic utensils and zip top bags could be described as "rasquache." Beyond being simply frugal, the rasquache philosophy also involves inventing new uses for conventional objects. This often means giving a new function to something that would conventionally be considered broken.