There’s no place like…
In May 1900 the Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published. It was written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W.W. Denslow. Frank Baum wrote an additional fourteen Oz books and another twenty-nine Oz stories were written by other various authors. Needless to say, the story has become as iconic and American as apple pie. So what does this have to do with BF Cafe, a Latino centric web site in 2020?
Before I can answer the question, let me touch on cultural appropriation. The dictionary defines the phrase as, “the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society typically more dominant.” On further explanation, cultural appropriation is visible in pop culture, sports, and even in art, and utilized to the benefit of the dominate society. A recent case in point may be Shai LaBeouf’s character in the movie, “The Tax Collector” where it was argued the mannerisms of Shai’s character is a cultural appropriation of gang culture. For certain, actors have portrayed characters in movies outside their own ethnicity, gender and culture, and contend they have the right to do so based on artistic freedom.
You may see where I’m going here, and it began when I heard this statement in our current political atmosphere, a Caucasian woman stated, “They [minorities] are going to take away our culture, if we let them.” Upon hearing the statement, cultural appropriation became very clear in it’s intent, and I couldn’t help wonder how as a minority, I could steal away a culture? How can I control the narrative? Would replacing a white character in a story with a Latino based personality overrule the meaning of a story and undermine an existing culture? It’s a powerful idea.
I thought I would explore the possibility and take one of the most American iconic stories ever ingrained in a culture and replace the images with Mexican/Chicano iconographies. I have no delusions that a few simple illustrations are going to change a society, after all the drawings are more of a personal exercise of creating digital art, than a tool, to undermining a dominate culture. Basically, it appears to me that whether Dorothy wishes to return home to hotdogs and hamburgers or to tacos and tamales is irrelevant and dosen’t change the heart of the story - “There’s no place like home." However, one would wonder if the scarecrow was a field picker, the tin man a mechanic, the lion a wounded warrior and the munchkins as day of the dead spirits, would the story change in it’s meaning to those who are familiar with these personality types? Would Mexican/Chicano culture become a dominate culture by means of imagery alone? I believe plenty of people would say yes it would, but I’m not trying to purpose an answer. My aim is only to explore the idea of cultural creativity and how it fits within the boundaries of a single cultural dominate society.
Some may say it’s cultural appropriation to replace the original OZ characters, but artistic freedom is a thing. Ask Shai Labeouf. After all, the themes of Wizard the Oz remains of home and friendship regardless of the ethnic characters in place. So in this endeavor I brought Oz illustrations to the BF Cafe as a cultural exchange. A sharing of an idea that are commonalities in all cultures - “There is no place like home.”
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