Poster Farmworkers Strike to Save Their Union (1971 Viva La Huelga

Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., 1971 Part of a larger Chicano civil rights movement that spanned the decade between 1965 and 1975, the Chicano art movement sought to achieve social and aesthetic autonomy on a national level. Many works related to the movement were produced by or displayed at Mechicano Art Center which opened in 1969 in East Los Angeles. it a gathering place for artists and the greater public in response to a need within the Chicano art community for greater visibility. greater public in response to a need within the Chicano art community for greater visibility. Andrew Zermeño, an artist active with the center, was born in 1935 in Salinas, California. He graduated from high school with a scholarship to attend California College of Arts and Crafts, eventually transferring in 1958 to Art Center in Los Angeles (now Art Center College of Design in Pasadena). When Cesar Chavez started the United Farm Workers Union newspaper El Malcriado, he asked Zermeño to draw the political cartoon character of Don Sotaco to educate farmworkers about their rights and to encourage them to join the union. Throughout the late 1960s and into the 1970s Zermeño continued to produce graphic design works, including strike posters and a calendar, to support the union's cause. Copies of this poster are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Hammer Museum. Condition is good+ with no fading but some short closed tears along the edges.. Poster. Good. Illus. by Zermeno, Andrew. 23" x 29".