# Chicano Screenprint Poster

> The screenprinted poster of the Chicano Movement and its heirs, made from the mid-1960s in community workshops across California and the Southwest for farmworker strikes and boycotts, teatro, dances, anti-war marches and immigrant rights. Flat opaque inks, posterised portraits and bilingual slogans recast Mexican icons (the UFW eagle, the Virgin of Guadalupe, Posada's calaveras, Mexica glyphs) for the US barrio, often by parodying American packaging.

- Period: 1965–present
- Where: North America
- Origin: California and the Southwest: Delano and the United Farm Workers, Sacramento (Royal Chicano Air Force), San Francisco's Mission District (Galería de la Raza, La Raza Silkscreen Center), East Los Angeles (Self Help Graphics & Art)
- Branch: Counterculture
- Also known as: Chicano graphics, Chicanx poster art, Movimiento posters
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/chicano-poster/

## Use it with care

The Virgin of Guadalupe is a devotional image for many Mexicans and Chicanos, and Chicana feminist reworkings of her have met protest. Mexica glyphs and calendar imagery carry Indigenous meaning, and the UFW black eagle is the union's own emblem, not a free motif. Use them with community context, credit the movement, and commission Chicanx printmakers rather than lifting the look for marketing.

## How it works

- Print by screen in a community workshop: flat, opaque inks in short, fast runs priced for the street.
- Posterise photographs of leaders and icons into two or three tones of flat colour.
- Write bilingually and play on the gap between Spanish and English.
- Recast Mexican and pre-Hispanic icons (the UFW eagle, Guadalupe, calaveras, Mexica glyphs) as emblems of a US-born identity.
- Turn US advertising and packaging against itself through parody, as Sun Mad does with the Sun-Maid raisin box.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (characteristic)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Collage & layering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/collage-and-layering/) (occasional)
- [Full bleed](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-bleed/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Single focal point](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/single-focal-point/) (characteristic)
- [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (characteristic)
- [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (characteristic)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (characteristic)
- [Grotesque & neo-grotesque](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grotesque-and-neo-grotesque/) (occasional)
- [Type as image](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (defining)
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (characteristic)
- [Complementary clash](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/complementary-clash/) (characteristic)
- [Limited spot colours](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/) (characteristic)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Naturalistic depiction](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/naturalistic-depiction/) (occasional)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)
- [Halftone & Ben-Day dots](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/halftone-and-ben-day-dots/) (occasional)
- [Misregistration & overprint](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/misregistration-and-overprint/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Folk & sacred symbols](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/folk-and-sacred-symbols/) (defining)
- [Emblems & badges](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/emblems-and-badges/) (characteristic)
- [Cosmic & celestial](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/cosmic-and-celestial/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Treated photography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/treated-photography/) (characteristic)
- [Found & vernacular imagery](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/found-and-vernacular-imagery/) (characteristic)
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Screen printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/screen-printing/) (defining)
- [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (occasional)
- [Woodblock & linocut](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/woodblock-and-linocut/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Agitational & persuasive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/agitational-and-persuasive/) (defining)
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (defining)
- [Rebellious & subversive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rebellious-and-subversive/) (characteristic)
- [Ironic & self-aware](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ironic-and-self-aware/) (occasional)
- [Spiritual & sacred](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/spiritual-and-sacred/) (occasional)

Avoids: Luxurious & glamorous, Rational & objective, Ornament-free, Gloss & highlights, Chrome & 3D render, Modular grid

Palette: #f2eadb, #141414, #d7262e, #f4a11c, #1f6f4a, #7a2d8c

Typefaces: Hand-cut screen-stencil lettering, Bold sans and hand-drawn capitals for bilingual strike and boycott slogans ('¡Huelga!', 'Boycott Grapes')

Known for: Andrew Zermeño, Huelga! (offset poster for the United Farm Workers, 1966); Rupert García (political screenprints from the late 1960s; Frida Kahlo portraits); Malaquias Montoya, Yo Soy Chicano (1972); Ester Hernández, Sun Mad (screenprint, 1982); Royal Chicano Air Force, Sacramento (José Montoya, Esteban Villa, Ricardo Favela); Self Help Graphics & Art, East Los Angeles (founded by Sister Karen Boccalero); ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now (Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2020–21)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Taller de Gráfica Popular](https://stylogeny.com/styles/taller-grafica-popular.md) (1937–1977)
- Influenced by: [Cuban Revolutionary Poster (OSPAAAL & ICAIC)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/cuban-poster.md) (1960–1990)
- Influenced by: [Pop Art Graphics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/pop-art.md) (1955–1975)
- Influenced by: [Mexican Popular Graphics (Posada)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/mexican-popular-graphics.md) (1880–1917)
- Alike in its design choices: [Australian Poster Collective Screenprints](https://stylogeny.com/styles/australian-poster-collectives.md) (1971–1994), 81% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [South African Resistance Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/anti-apartheid-poster.md) (1978–1994), 76% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Oaxacan Protest Printmaking & Street Graphics (ASARO)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/oaxaca-protest-graphics.md) (2006–present), 67% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Ukrainian Wartime Graphics (Saint Javelin, War Stamps and Be Brave Like Ukraine)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ukrainian-wartime-graphics.md) (2022–present), 66% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [NSK Retro-Avant-Garde](https://stylogeny.com/styles/nsk-retro-avantgarde.md) (1980–present), 66% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Puerto Rican Silkscreen Poster (DIVEDCO & ICP)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/puerto-rican-silkscreen-poster.md) (1946–1989), 66% alike

## Real works

- [Sun Mad](https://collections.lacma.org/object/253221): Ester Hernández, 1982 (first edition, printed by the artist), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.2019.236)
- [Huelga!](https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/huelga-116592): Andrew Zermeño (for the United Farm Workers), 1966, Smithsonian American Art Museum (2019.52.1)
- [Boycott Grapes, Support the United Farm Workers Union](https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/boycott-grapes-support-united-farm-workers-union-34738): Xavier Viramontes, 1973, Smithsonian American Art Museum (1995.50.58)
- [¡Libertad para los prisoneros políticas!](https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/libertad-para-los-prisoneros-politicas-116610): Rupert García, 1971, Smithsonian American Art Museum (2019.52.2)
- [Tierra o Muerte](https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/tierra-o-muerte-35066): Emanuel Martinez (for the Alianza Federal de Mercedes), 1967, Smithsonian American Art Museum (1996.8)

## Sources

- https://americanart.si.edu/node/59972
- https://hyperallergic.com/715351/in-the-chicano-movement-printmaking-and-politics-converged/

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Chicano Screenprint Poster”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/chicano-poster/