Santa Barraza, artist of the borderlands /

This handsomely produced book, with gorgeous color plates, illuminates how contemporary Chicana artist Barraza created a personal imagery from her life, her mestiza ancestry, and her engagement with the borderland landscape of Texas. Half of this monograph, the first to be published on the artist, is devoted to Barraza's autobiography. Although fragmented and even frustrating in its organization, the artists iconographic commentary, shamanistic interests, and family's political history will be fascinating to both general and scholarly readers. An introduction and three shorter essays complement Barraza's narrative with interpretations of distinct series within the artist's career. Shifra Goldman's uneven overview provides a compelling section on Barraza's haunting, dream-inspired monoprints. After a dry recounting of the artist's involvement in the Chicano movement, Tomas Ybarra-Frausto offers a perceptive analysis of Barraza's individualistic reinvigoration of the retablo tradition. Dori Lemeh presents the most integrated reading of Barraza's mythological "feminine narratives." She analyzes three fundamental figures that Barraza employs from Spanish and Mesoamerican culture to convey her political status as a mestiza and to express familial bonds: the Mayan Dona Marina, la Virgen de Guadalupe, and La Llorona, a Mesoamerican Medea. Recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through professionals. J. Simon University of Georgia