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Farm Workers' Altar
1967
Emanuel Martinez, born Denver, CO 1947
Martinez created this altar for the 1968 Catholic Mass held in Delano California, where César Chávez broke the twenty-five-day fast he had undertaken to protest unfair employment practices and unsuitable work conditions for migrant laborers. On one side of the altar, a crucifix bears a brown-skinned Christ; on the other, an indigenous woman holds wheat stalks and grapes that prefigure the bread and wine of Holy Communion. Martinez defined social struggle in Christian terms by combining elements of spirituality and mestizaje, the mixed racial heritage of Mexicans and their Chicano descendants.
- Title:
- Farm Workers' Altar
- Creator:
- Emanuel Martinez, born Denver, CO 1947
- Date Created:
- 1967
- Description:
Martinez created this altar for the 1968 Catholic Mass held in Delano California, where César Chávez broke the twenty-five-day fast he had undertaken to protest unfair employment practices and unsuitable work conditions for migrant laborers. On one side of the altar, a crucifix bears a brown-skinned Christ; on the other, an indigenous woman holds wheat stalks and grapes that prefigure the bread and wine of Holy Communion. Martinez defined social struggle in Christian terms by combining elements of spirituality and mestizaje, the mixed racial heritage of Mexicans and their Chicano descendants.
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, 2013
Item details
- Partner:
- Smithsonian Institution
- Contributing Institution:
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Subjects:
- Cvil Rights
Architecture
Fruit
Grape
Religion
Crucifixion
Bible, N.T
Altars
Jesus Christ
History
Labor history
Martinez, Emanuel
New Testament
Christ
United States
Labor history
Civil Rights Movement
Religious
Altar
Object
Fruit
Grape - Type:
- physical object
- Format:
- Acrylic on mahogany and plywood
- Rights:
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the International Bank of Commerce in honor of Antonio R. Sanchez, Sr.