Chicano Brings the Brown Power Movement Back at Museo de las Americas

Challenged to create an art show to enhance History Colorado's companion exhibit to 1968, El Movimiento — a straightforward visual history of the local Chicano rights movement that flourished in the barrio areas of Denver decades ago — Maruca Salazar of the Museo de las Americas came up with a street-smart answer...

By Susan Froyd

February 12, 2015

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Challenged to create an art show to enhance History Colorado's companion exhibit to 1968, El Movimiento — a straightforward visual history of the local Chicano rights movement that flourished in the barrio areas of Denver decades ago — Maruca Salazar of the Museo de las Americas came up with a street-smart answer. In the resulting exhibition, simply named Chicano, Salazar sought to show how El Movimiento is anything but over by filling the Museo with a splash of site-specific mural paintings by Los Supersonicos, the long-lived artist collaboration of Carlos Fresquez and Frank Zamora, and the photography of Delilah Montoya, who explores Chicano cultural symbolism.

While there will be other surprises promised in the show, the following sneak-peek images are reason enough to see it in person when it opens tonight at the Museo, 866 Santa Fe Drive.

Chicano opens with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. tonight at the Museo in the Art District on Santa Fe, and runs through May 29. Learn more about the exhibit on the Museo’s website.

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Susan Froyd started writing for Westword as the "Thrills" editor in 1992 and never quite left the fold. These days she still freelances for the paper in addition to walking her dogs, enjoying cheap ethnic food and reading voraciously. Sometimes she writes poetry.

Contact: Susan Froyd

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