Cristina Cárdenas

The ASU Hispanic Research Center Presents: Teaching & Visual Thinking Strategies with "La Niña de los Espejos" & "Yo Soy"

About: Cristina Cárdenas

Unlike many Mexican-born Chicana/o artists, Cristina Cárdenas did not relocate to the United States as a child but remained in Mexico into early adulthood. Her artistic education included studies in watercolor, drawing, and etching at the Instituto Allende and coursed in architecture at the Instituto Tecnologico de Estudios Superiores de Occidente. In 1980, she received her B.A. in painting from the Universidad de Guadalajara. After moving to the U.S. in the mid-1980s, she studied print-making at the University of Arizona in Tucson, earning her M.F.A. in 1990.

 In the 1990s and early 2000s, the HRC commissioned two lithographs by Cristina Cárdenas: "Yo Soy" (1999) and "La Niña de los Espejos" (2005). 

When Cárdenas relocated to Tucson in 1986, she did so to distance herself from what she considers the patriarchal society of her homeland. Her work is in large part autobiographical and introspective, an appraisal of personal identity and self-image. Cárdenas gives women, who are frequently the protagonists of her work, a permanent and positive voice. Often, these women protagonists in her work serve as embodiments of strength, innocence, subjugation, and courage. Cárdenas acknowledged the Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco as a major influence in her work; this is evident in her neofigurative, exuberantly expressionist painting style, as well as her bold brushwork and palette. And, like the Mexican muralists, as well as U.S. artists such as Luis Jiménez, her paintings embrace her ethnic background and cultural heritage.

In an effort to promote and celebrate the fine art of Mexican American artists in Arizona and around the country, the Hispanic Research Center commissioned several Mexican American artists, including Cárdenas, to create a set of lithographs. From those commissions, Cárdenas created "Yo Soy" in 1999 and "La Niña de los Espejos" in 2005. These two lithographs remain a vital part of the HRC collection of Mexican American and Chicana/o art.


Lesson Plan: Visual Thinking Strategies

Here at the Hispanic Research Center, we are inspired by  Visual Thinking Strategies  (VTS), a visual and discussion-based facilitation method that seeks to foster collaborative, inclusive, community-building dialogue grounded in the visual arts.

Below, we draw on VTS and the pedagogical method known as "What's going on in this picture?" to explore two lithographs by Cristina Cárdenas: "La Niña de los Espejos/The Girl of the Mirrors" (2005) and "Yo Soy/Myself" (1999).

To begin, watch  this video introduction  to "What's going on this picture?"

Then, encourage students to look closely at these two lithographs by Cárdenas and together answer the following three questions:

  1. What's going on this picture?
  2. What do you see that makes you say that?
  3. What more can you find?

Respond to student comments with paraphrasing and affirmation of their observations. To extend the discussion, students can individually write a "blog post" that summarizes their responses. Students can then read each others' posts and reply to their peer's observations.

Following the group discussion, share information about  Cristina Cárdenas , including her life story and the  additional resources  available to supplement this lesson . Students are encouraged to consider how learning her backstory might influence the ways in which they see "La Niña de los Espejos" and "Yo Soy." Next, share the image analysis of ASU art historian ,  Dr. JoAnna Reyes , shown in the following section.


La Niña de los Espejos (2005)

Instructions: Navigate through Dr. JoAnna Reyes' answers to "What's going on in this picture?" by scrolling through the lithograph below.

Be sure to click "unmute background audio" so you can hear Dr. Reyes' voice. As you zoom in and out of the image, you can always click on the image itself to see it in its entirety.


Yo Soy (1999)

Instructions: As you did with the lithography above, navigate through Dr. Reyes' analysis of Cristina Cardenas' "Yo Soy" by scrolling through the lithograph below. Be sure to click "unmute background audio" so you can hear Dr. Reyes' voice.

Additional Resources

Primary sources related to Cristina Cárdenas' artist practice and relationship with the HRC from the HRC archive. Scroll through the resources below or  click here  to view and download these resources.

Notes

This project was built using using ArcGIS StoryMaps and with support from the  ASU Humanities Institute. 

The opening text under "About: Cristina Cárdenas" is borrowed from volume one of the art book  Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art: Artists, Works, Culture, and Education , which was published in 2002 by Bilingual Review Press of the ASU Hispanic Research Center.

Thank you to the HRC team, particularly Anita Huízar-Hernández and Santiago Morrato, for their insights and collaboration.

Credits

 Dr. Alana de Hinojosa  is a Digital Public Humanities Fellow at the ASU Hispanic Research Center and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Transborder Studies at ASU. In 2024, she will join Texas State University as an Assistant Professor of History. Alana holds a PhD in Chicana/o Studies from UCLA and a certificate in the Digital Public Humanities from George Mason University. Her scholarship is concerned with histories of displacement, diaspora, and refusal, and what these have to do with the Río Grande and the Chamizal Land Dispute.

 Dr. JoAnna Reyes  is a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow and incoming Assistant Professor in the School of Art at ASU. JoAnna holds a PhD in Art History from UCLA and has held previous positions at the Getty Research Institute, LACMA, and the Hispanic Society Museum and Library. Her scholarship centers on the visual and material culture of colonial Mexico and contemporary Chicana/o America.

Suggested Citation: de Hinojosa, A. 2024. "The ASU Hispanic Research Center Presents: Teaching & Visual Thinking Strategies with Cristina Cárdenas' 'La Niña de los Espejos' & 'Yo Soy.'" Research Gate, DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.10207.27043

 In the 1990s and early 2000s, the HRC commissioned two lithographs by Cristina Cárdenas: "Yo Soy" (1999) and "La Niña de los Espejos" (2005).