Santa Barraza

Quick Facts

Full Name	Santa Barraza
Occupation	Printmaker
Date Of Birth	Apr 7, 1951(1951-04-07)
Age	73
Birthplace	Kingsville
Country	United States
Birth City	Texas
Horoscope	Aries

Santa Barraza Biography

Santa Barraza is one of the most popular and richest Printmaker who was born on April 7, 1951 in Kingsville, Texas, United States. Barraza believes that her creative spirit originates from emotion. In the process, the emotion is derived from her family and the physical connection to Texas. She has traced her own family history back to the 1800s and found out that she is a Native American (Karankawan) roots. Barraza believes that her ancestors were possessed of determination, which was passed on to her.

Barraza was a teenager when Barraza finished the BFA at UT and shortly after she had her own daughter Andrea she joined a brand new Chicano art group in Austin named Los Quemados. There were disagreements that led Barraza to quit and create her own organization in the year 1977. It was called Mujeres Artistas de Suroeste (MAS). Barraza and others who quit Los Quemados didn’t feel like Quemados was politically correct enough. Barraza and other members of MAS created their own studio. MAS was the organizer of a major female- focused conference called Plastica Chicana Conferencia, in 1979, which was financed partly from the National Endowment for the Arts. The conference featured a number of well-known artists, critics, and scholars as well as Garza and featured workshops organized through people from the Mexican art community that covered a range of subjects related to the arts. MAS organized and promoted art exhibitions across Texas and Arizona. MAS was active from the mid-80s. In the mid 1980s, a number of members of MAS had left Texas for more lucrative careers, and the status of corporate MAS was dissolved. Also, she was a part of the Chicano art group, Con Safo.

In 1985, Barraza accepted a teaching position at La Roche College. Applying for the job and the decision to leave for Pittsburgh caused a great deal of anxiety for her, both in terms of starting something new, and also from the perspective that she lacked support from her husband. Barraza took her daughter with her to Pittsburgh and taught graphic design at La Roche College. She felt that La Roche was very supportive of her work. Later, she accepted a position at Penn State in 1988. At Penn State, she began a study-abroad program to Puebla in Mexico that was very popular among the students. Barraza was an associate professor at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1993 to 1996. Her impetus for leaving Chicago came about after she was denied tenure, and one of the reasons given for the denial was that her art was “just” folk art. Later, she was offered a position at University of Texas at San Antonio, which she turned down in favor of working at Texas A & M, Kingsville. She currently teaches art at Texas A&M University, Kingsville. She has been the chair of the art department there since 1998.

Barraza’s art often uses motifs from folk art to express a sense of spirituality in her work. She has been influenced by Mexican-American experiences and Mayan and Aztec artistic themes, such as codices. Barraza taps into the concept of nepantla, or the mythic borderland of Hispanic culture for much of her artwork. Blending Christian and pre-Columbian symbolism is part of the way that Barraza reshapes the traditional narrative of history. Barraza’s trips to Mexico during the 1990s helped solidify her love for the iconography and history of Mexico. Barraza often uses the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe as an “empowerment symbol” for women. Barraza has also used traditional media, such as sand paintings, to connect with her cultural past. She describes the process of reusing traditional imagery as a way to appropriate the ancient past and then to update it in a contemporary art expression. Reusing the imagery of the past allows Barraza to “reimagine” the future of her own desires, her own making. In many of the futures that Barraza imagines, she is focusing on the “future of womanhood.” She has also been influenced by the painter Frida Kahlo and the photographer Lorna Simpson.

As of 1971 Barraza was admitted to University of Texas at Austin (UT) to study studio art and also because it was crucial for her to earn an BFA instead of an undergraduate degree.

Santa Barraza Net Worth

Santa Barraza is one of the richest Printmaker from United States. According to our analysis, Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider, Santa Barraza 's net worth $5 Million. (Last Update: December 11, 2023)

Santa Barraza (born April 7 1951) is an American mixed media artist and painter. She’s popular for her vivid and retablo-like paintings. An Chicana, Barraza pulls inspiration from her own mestiza family as well as pre-Columbian art. Barraza is believed as a significant artist of the Chicano art movement. The first academic study of the work of a Chicana artist is about her . It is titled Santa Barraza, Artist of the Borderlands that provides a detailed account of her life and her collection of work. Barraza’s art is collected at the Mexic-Arte Museum, and other museums across in the United States and internationally. She is currently residing at Kingsville, Texas.

Barraza was briefly a student at Texas Arts and Industry University, (now Texas A&M University, Kingsville), enrolling in 1969. It was at this point that she was introduced to Mexican and pre-Columbian art , and was exposed to the burgeoning Chicano Movement. After 1969, she got involved in the group of activists, Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO).

Barraza’s first job in the arts was as a graphic designer at Steck-Vaughan, which she took right out of the college to help support her husband and new baby. During this time, she pursued her Masters and received her graduate degree in 1982. When Barraza was working on her masters, at first she wanted to study Chicano art history, however, the faculty insisted that Chicano art history didn’t exist. Around this time, she began to study her own family history. Studying her family history also helped her become more aware of various social inequities and injustice that had been done to Mexicans in Texas over time. She found that she was a descendant of shaman, Don Pedro Jaramillo, and the Carancahuas.

Height, Weight & Body Measurements

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Who is Santa Barraza Dating?

According to our records, Santa Barraza is possibily single & has not been previously engaged. As of December 1, 2023, Santa Barraza’s is not dating anyone.

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Facts & Trivia

Santa Ranked on the list of most popular Printmaker. Also ranked in the elit list of famous people born in United States. Santa Barraza celebrates birthday on April 7 of every year.

Top Facts about Santa Barraza

1. Santa Barraza is a Mexican-American artist.
2. She was born in 1945 in Kingsville, Texas.
3. Barraza’s work focuses on Chicana feminism and identity.
4. She uses mixed media, including painting and printmaking.
5. Her art has been exhibited internationally since the 1970s.
6. Barraza co-founded the Chicano arts collective Mujeres Artistas del Suroeste (MAS).
7. She received her MFA from the University of Texas at Austin.
8. Barraza has taught at various universities across the US.
9. Her work is included in numerous public collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
10. In 2013, she was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.