Lowriding across Time, Space, and Disciplines

Artist and historian Dylan A.T. Miner’s innovative and insightful text effectively bridges the gap between the fields of Chicana/o Studies and Indigenous Studies, invoking relevant discussions of art history, anthropology, sociology, and philosophy. In his interrogation of conceptualizations and visual representations of Aztlán throughout a variety of temporalities and spatial constructs, Miner offers a framework that relies heavily on Indigenous studies to understand the artistic creation of various manifestations of Aztlán as foundational for Xicano sovereignty and integral to overcoming the legacy of settler-colonialism. Promoting a (trans)hemispheric approach, Creating Aztlán: Chicano Art, Indigenous Sovereignty, and Lowriding across Turtle Island links Indigenous people groups—from the pre-Cuauhtemoc Mexica to Chicano activists of the 1960s and contemporary MiXicano (Michigan Xicano) and Anishinaabe artists along la otra frontera---through the construction and transformation of Aztlán as a strategy of Indigenous resistance. The author establishes his positionality as Michif or Métis, raised alongside many Xicanos in a rural community in the U.S.-Canada borderlands, and explains that the text is, “[…] based in my own experiences as a Michif artist engaged in radical Xicano politics. It merges these intellectual and lived experiences in a way that situates Chicano art history within a series of radical potentialities and Indigenous ontologies” (12). As such, Miner’s book establishes the nexus between individual and collective experiences and identities as well as the links of colonial oppression, resistance, migration, diaspora and survivance shared by Xicano and Anshinaabeg individuals, as reflected in artistic production.

Relocating the study of Chicano art within Indigenous studies, or perhaps vice versa, Miner’s Indigenist leaning is evident. Beyond the incorporation of seemingly minor editorial choices such as the use of “pre-Cuauhtemoc” rather than “pre-Columbian” to displace the emphasis on the role of the settler-colonizer, or the spelling of “Xicano” to reflect indigeneity as well as a “lost or colonized history” (221), Creating Aztlán’s bifurcated structure uniquely complements the primary arguments of the text through utilizing the Nahua concept of in tlilli in tlapalli (“red and black”) (17). Divided into two sections (Tlilli and Tlapalli), even in its structure the text embraces the Indigneous concept of sacred knowledge and dualistic singularities (17). Creating Aztlán focuses first on a comprehensive overview of the history of theoretical frameworks relevant to Aztlán and the notion of utopia, and includes a 12-page glossy insert of colored images. The second section develops concepts that are more directly pertinent to Chicano art history through analysis of various artists’ works. Moreover, Miner integrates a variety of the projects that Linda Tuhiwai Smith identifies in Decolonizing Methodologies as a framing technique, naming individual chapters after these decolonizing projects and describing how the various artists are engaged in such within each chapter. Of utmost importance are the acts of naming, and re-claiming, and thereby creating Aztlán. This theme of Aztlán as reclamation emerges repeatedly throughout the text’s exploration of the continued implications of Aztlán for Indigenous communities today.

Divided into five thematic areas, Miner traces the history and historiography of Aztlán, incorporating a variety of interesting images from pre-Cuauhtemoc codices as well as maps created during the colonial period. He then explores the notion of Aztlán as utopia, not in the sense promoted by Thomas More, but as a dialogic process along the lines of Mikhail Bakhtin’s heteroglossia. Nuanced, though perhaps a bit dense for the readers outside of academe that Miner intends to reach (221), this discussion outlines how various Indigenous renderings of Aztlán disrupt the idea of a monolithic or hegemonic narrative of Aztlán. Next, Miner emphasizes the manner in which Xicano sovereignty does not preclude other Indigenous or Native sovereignties before delving into the history of Chicano art along the U.S.-Canada border. Finally, the focus shifts to the significance of lesser-known...