La rilevanza contemporanea dell'arte politica Xicanx: il lavoro di Melanie Cervantes tra Artivismo e solidarietà con il Terzo Mondo

The Chicanx movement has represented a considerable force throughout the years of the broader Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in the U.S.A., and it has evolved in time, developing, among other currents, an important feminist coalition and pivotal connections with other Third World liberation groups. Art has always played an essential role in the development of the movement, and through visual arts Chicanx artists have learned to promote their political struggle and connect with their community. Despite the years of active militancy of the group being largely in the past, the heritage of the Chicanx art movement is still robustly influencing Chicanx contemporary artists, who are cultivating the rich tradition of Artivism created by the community in the past decades - at the intersection of politics, art, and struggle for social justice, Chicanx muralists, photojournalists, and printmakers have shaped decades of efforts to better the economic, social, political conditions of their community. This research work aims to explore the significance of such political art today: how has it changed with the advent of the Internet and the new socio-political challenges facing Chicanxs? Particularly, the analysis references the visual medium of the political poster and the rich artistic production of Chicanx visual artist and cultural worker Melanie Cervantes. ​