What art does is far more interesting than what art is. While revisiting Amalia Mesa-Bains’s seminal essay, Domesticana: The Sensibility of Chicana Rasquachismo, highlighting the importance of Chicana creativity, often in the home, seen most clearly in manifestations like altars, it occurred to me that art history follows a similar path; “What art history does is far more interesting than what art history is.”
This art history’s doing began with a contemplative revisit to the text; one I had not read in several years. Since that last reading, Chicana/o/x art history had taken me to the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin as Curator of Exhibitions and Director of Programs and then to Los Angeles as Curator of Collections for the AltaMed Art Collection; a collection focused on Chicana/o/x art and finally, back to San Antonio, where I first met Chicana/o/x art. Reading the essay again was like returning home after being away for many years; reflecting on how everything is the same and nothing is.
My recent reading of the text was deeper, wider, and more nuanced. Since my last reading, how many Chicana artworks had I studied, curated, and written about? How much time and effort had I dedicated to everyday, domestic, cultural, spiritual, and familial objects; those like the ones that Mesa-Bains uplifts in her essay?
The doing of this art history continued with it as a catalyst for community building. This rereading was done to prepare for the La Lucha Sigue Chicana/o/x Art History Book Club, a group that discusses Chicana/o/x art history. During this month’s (November 2025) discussion, five people came together, sharing knowledge, anecdotes, laughs, and confidences, informed by Domesticana: The Sensibility of Chicana Rasquachismo. Our discussion ranged from how it builds on the work of Tomás Ybarra-Frausto’s Rasquachismo: A Chicano Sensibility, to how the text fits into modern understandings of creativity, to how our lives are reflected in its words. What was clear throughout the discussion was that Mesa-Bains’s heightened importance on Chicana creativity, domestic space, spiritual preparations, cultural continuity, and familial histories rings true as vital to where we’ve come from and who we are.
Finally, the doing of this art history came with a visit with my mother to Centro de Artes Gallery to see the exhibition, Madre Land: South Texas Memory & the Art of Making Home. On the advice of a book club member, I visited the gallery, because the exhibition is grounded In the work of Amalia Mesa-Bains, Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, and Amelia Malagamba-Ansótegui. This is an exhibition that, “honor[s] domestic aesthetics, rasquache sensibility, ancestral healing, and natural world/environmental motifs.”
My mother, who has not studied Chicana/o/x art history was delighted by the exhibition, finding reminders of her childhood throughout the gallery. The joy my mother radiated is something I was glad to share with her and will not soon forget.
Art history is a living thing. We take it with us as we move through time and space. It affects how we interact, not only with texts, but with art, exhibitions, and one another. This text, by Amalia Mesa-Bains, is a special one for me, my friends, and family and one that I look forward to returning to in reading, writing about, experiencing, and sharing.
(Isabel Alexander Servantez III is a San Antonio born art historian, curator, and artist. He earned his B.A. in art history at UT-San Antonio and an M.A. in art history at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His research, writing, and curatorial focus is Chicana/o/x art and Latina/o/x art. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with friends and family, and attending San Antonio Missions baseball games in the summer.)
