La Raza Cósmica,

2019

La Raza Cósmica 20XX is a print series that mythically reinterprets José Vasconcelos’s mestizo identity theory, using animal stand-ins to depict sixteen variations on intermixed Latinx bodies. In his theory, Vasconcelos states that the Latinx people descend from the intermixing of Europeans with AmerIndians, Asians, and Africans, creating an ethnical fusion, which he characterizes as the cosmic race. Pairing this theory with recurring imagery of Spanish casta paintings—popular in eighteenth-century Spanish colonial Mexico and instrumental in codifying racial identity—I envision a new set of castas that subvert the racial hierarchy of traditional castas.

Silicon Valley technology provides the means by which sixteen LatinX families are able to communicate in the post-digital “New World.” These screenprints attempt to connect the colonial dots from Cortez to Zuckerberg and recognize that patterns of colonization are perennial unless they are actively dismantled. Race making and race preservation necessitate new technologies that reinforce a hetero-patriarchal social order. I’ve developed the digital lexicon of archetypes and narrative pattern designs with my own digital codes to assist in mythologizing the interwoven logic of European conquest, US border imperialism, data colonialism, and AI-assisted automated racialized discrimination.

Michael Menchaca, artist