The
Royal Chicano Air Force (
RCAF) is a
SacramentoSacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California, and the county seat of Sacramento County. Located along the Sacramento River and just south of the American River's confluence in California's expansive Central Valley. With a 2007 estimated population of 460,242, it is the seventh-largest...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
-based art collective. It was one of the main centers of the Chicano art movement in California during the 1970s and 80s.
In 1969, poet and art instructor
José MontoyaJosé Montoya is a poet and an artist from Sacramento, California. He is one of the most influential Chicano bilingual poets. He has published many well-known poems in anthologies and magazines...
joined with some of his talented
Mexican AmericanMexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. They account over 12.5% of the country's population: 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006 forming about 64% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States. The United States is home to the second largest Mexican...
students to further the aims of the
Chicano MovementThe Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also known as El Movimiento, is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving "social liberation" and Mexican American empowerment.-Origins:The...
. The
Rebel ChicanoThe terms Chicano and Chicana were originally used by, and in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement mainly amongst Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's peak in the late 1960's and early 1970's...
Art Front was founded to foster support for
Cesar ChavezCésar Estrada Chávez was a Mexican American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers . Supporters say his work led to numerous improvements for union laborers...
and the
United Farm WorkersThe United Farm Workers of America is a labor union founded by Philip Vera Cruz, Dolores Huerta, and Cesar Chavez. This union changed from a workers' rights organization that helped workers get unemployment insurance to that of a union of farmworkers almost overnight, when the National Farm...
in the heavily-agricultural Sacramento-
DavisDavis is a city in Yolo County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to estimates published by the US Census Bureau, the city had a total population of 62,724 in 2007 . It is the largest city in Yolo...
area.
The
Royal Chicano Air Force (
RCAF) is a
SacramentoSacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California, and the county seat of Sacramento County. Located along the Sacramento River and just south of the American River's confluence in California's expansive Central Valley. With a 2007 estimated population of 460,242, it is the seventh-largest...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
-based art collective. It was one of the main centers of the Chicano art movement in California during the 1970s and 80s.
In 1969, poet and art instructor
José MontoyaJosé Montoya is a poet and an artist from Sacramento, California. He is one of the most influential Chicano bilingual poets. He has published many well-known poems in anthologies and magazines...
joined with some of his talented
Mexican AmericanMexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. They account over 12.5% of the country's population: 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006 forming about 64% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States. The United States is home to the second largest Mexican...
students to further the aims of the
Chicano MovementThe Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also known as El Movimiento, is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving "social liberation" and Mexican American empowerment.-Origins:The...
. The
Rebel ChicanoThe terms Chicano and Chicana were originally used by, and in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement mainly amongst Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's peak in the late 1960's and early 1970's...
Art Front was founded to foster support for
Cesar ChavezCésar Estrada Chávez was a Mexican American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers . Supporters say his work led to numerous improvements for union laborers...
and the
United Farm WorkersThe United Farm Workers of America is a labor union founded by Philip Vera Cruz, Dolores Huerta, and Cesar Chavez. This union changed from a workers' rights organization that helped workers get unemployment insurance to that of a union of farmworkers almost overnight, when the National Farm...
in the heavily-agricultural Sacramento-
DavisDavis is a city in Yolo County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to estimates published by the US Census Bureau, the city had a total population of 62,724 in 2007 . It is the largest city in Yolo...
area. When Montoya discovered that because of the group's the initials, they might be confused with the
Royal Canadian Air ForceThe Royal Canadian Air Force was the air force of Canada from 1924 until 1968 when the three branches of the Canadian military were merged into the Canadian Forces...
, the artists decided that rather than change the name of the group to create a different initialism, they would keep the initials RCAF and change the name of the collective to "Royal Chicano Air Force" as a humorous gesture. From that point on, the artists used the "Air Force" motif in their artworks, programs, and activities.
The RCAF began operating out of the Washington Neighborhood Center and frequently held events at Sacramento's Southside Park. To fund their activities and to support the farmworkers, they held dances, performances, and other fundraisers, for which they created promotional posters that visually incorporated the themes of the
Chicano MovementThe Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also known as El Movimiento, is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving "social liberation" and Mexican American empowerment.-Origins:The...
. They also received funding from
California State University, SacramentoCalifornia State University, Sacramento is a public university located in the city of Sacramento, California. It is part of the California State University system...
.
The RCAF painted murals to throughout Sacramento, as well as several in
San Diego'sSan Diego , named after Saint Didacus , is the second-largest city in California and the ninth largest city in the United States, located along the Pacific Ocean on the west coast of the United States. The US Census Bureau estimates the city's population at 1,279,329 as of 2008...
Chicano ParkChicano Park is a 32,000 square meter park located beneath the San Diego-Coronado Bridge in Logan Heights , a predominantly Mexican American and Mexican-immigrant community in central San Diego, California...
and one in
Burley, IdahoBurley is a city in Cassia and Minidoka counties in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Idaho. The population was 9,316 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Cassia County....
.
Community artCommunity arts, also known as "dialogical art" or "community-based art," refers to artistic activity based in a community setting. Works from this genre can be of any art forms and is characterized by interaction or dialogue with the community...
workshops included the Barrio Art Program and the Anciano Art Project, for children and the elderly, respectively. For high school and college students, there were workshops in silkscreening and muralism.
The members of the RCAF did not restrict their activities to the arts. Inspired by the free breakfast programs of the
Black Panther PartyThe Black Panther Party was an African-American revolutionary organization established to promote Black Power, and by extension self-defense for blacks. It was active in the United States from the mid-1960s into the 1970s...
, was instrumental in implementing the Breakfast for Niños program for impoverished schoolchildren in the Sacramento area. They also ran an automotive repair cooperative called
Aeronaves de AztlánAztlán is the legendary ancestral home of the Nahua peoples, one of the main cultural groups in Mesoamerica. "Aztec" is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan."-Legend:...
.
The RCAF organized cultural activities such as a yearly
poetry readingA poetry reading is a performance of poetry, normally given on a small stage in a café or bookstore, although poetry readings given by notable poets frequently are booked into larger venues to accommodate crowds...
s called "One More Canto", and revived indigenous Mexican practices such as celebrations of harvest ("Fiesta de Maíz") and the rainy season ("Fiesta de
TlalocTlaloc was an important deity in Aztec religion, a god of rain, fertility, and water. He was a beneficent god who gave life and sustenance, but he was also feared for his ability to send hail, thunder and lightning, and for being the lord of the powerful element of water. In Aztec iconography he...
"). The also encouraged modern aspects of the Chicano identity such as the modification of
lowrider]A lowrider is a car or truck which has had its suspension system modified so that it rides as low as possible. Lowriders often have user controlled height adjustable suspension...
s by hosting and promoting car shows and jumping contests.
Founding members
- José Montoya
José Montoya is a poet and an artist from Sacramento, California. He is one of the most influential Chicano bilingual poets. He has published many well-known poems in anthologies and magazines...
- Esteban Villa
Esteban Villa is a nationally recognized artist and muralist. A Professor Emeritus at California State University, his teaching career began in 1962 at the high school level and includes assignments at Washington State University, D.Q.U., Davis, and numerous lecture and slide presentations, art...
- Ricardo Favela
- Armando R. Cid
- Juanishi V. Orosco
- Rodolfo "Rudy" Cuellar
- Luis "Louie the Foot" Gonzalez
- Juan M. Carrillo
- Irma Lerma-Barbosa
- Eve Garcia