Check Out Elindio Copyright1985’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elindio Copyright1985.

Elindio, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
¡Qvo! My art name is elindiocopyright1985 or simply, elindio. Soy Chicano. Un vallero from Sun Valley, en Sur Califas (for locals, that’s in the 818, 91352 area). I produce visual art work that’s mostly a digital & multi-media mix-and-mashup of historical and popular images, centering Mexican & Chican@ iconography. Imagine Andy Warhol’s pop style, meeting Emiliano Zapata’s revolutionary ideology, with a sprinkle of Frida Kahlo’s surrealism and a dash of Banksy’s urban art technique. I try to work with serious subject matter while presenting it in a pop or light-hearted manner—a style I call raskwache pop. I been doing this kinda work for a cool minute, como like over ten years, but I still consider myself a bit of an amateur or novice cuz I never went to school for it. I just kinda started playing with microsoft paint and finding digital programs to make cut outs and mashups look artsy-fartsy. Since then my work has made rounds in galleries, on book covers, and also a few college and university profes have showcased my work to their students. That’s firme a/f!

Most recently I dropped a poem-book called “Once Upon a Time in… Occupied Aztlán.” It’s a mashup of poetry, experimental literature, Chicano y Mejicano history & socio-politico commentary. At its core it’s a tale of highs and lows the warmth of kinship, the coldness of poverty, the glowing delight of the quinceañera party, the brutal pain of the gang jump-in, the shame of ignorance, the pride through education, and the unconditional amor de la famila. Although it’s not explicitly mentioned in the book, the time period is the 1990’s, in the SFV (the big 8-1-8 for those in the know). And to plug a pitch for readers and viewers to purchase: “Once Upon a Time in… Occupied Aztlán” is an award winning book, being a finalist for best poetry book and also best book cover art by the International Latino Book Awards. It’s published by Maíz Poppin’ Press and available at the website: www.maizpoppin.com.

Producing both visual and written art can take a toll. On the one hand, I can go to work and come back home. Eat, sip and slurp caguamas, pistos (drink), whatch el tele, shower, then go to bed, only to wake up to run it again. Perform la misma rutina, the same routine en la madrugada, early in the morning. La pura neta: I feel dabbling con arte, visualmente or in written form, offers a release from la rutina, that pattern of wake-eat-work-eat-work-home-drink-sleep-rewind-play-it-again-and-again-and-again. Lo ke kiero dezir, I’m sayin’: arte, either making art or enjoying it, pokes a hole into the swelling blisters of working, laboring, grinding and treading through the work-life we all live from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. And if I can enjoy or consume art, chietos, I can also create a lane in my mind and time to make stuff for me and my people—La Raza. I’m just saying we can make art for ourselves… and the art I put out insists on resistance and also revolution.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s really unheard of to be un Chicano or Mexican-American or so-called Latino (or Raza) without feeling, suffering under some form of oppression. At the moment we got el pinche trompas in office greenlighting brown, indigenous folk like me y mi Raza to be targeted, questioned, cornered, trapped and thrown away. In some cases we seen so-called American citizens slammed down on the pavement, chained up and put away simply for being brown and loud. And we don’t even gotta be loud, we can be outside home depot looking for un jale or, work, and la migra rolls up like a trojan horse pretending to hire us for work and BAM! They ship us away into concentration camps. And this is the most recent example of being brown or looking too Mexican and being penalized for it. I been making resistive or subversive arte. We been going through this same pattern. And I try to not only display this, but express en mi arte. Back in the day operation wet back snatched up both undocumented American Raza of Mexican descent now (in my time) we got prop 1-8-7-. That scared a butt load of Raza for a cool minute. And later we got post-9/11 policies wanting to build a wall, with alligators y plovo, or dust, that glows in the dark to identify brown people at night coming through, etc, etc, NOW el pinche nalgon–trompas– is replaying the same ugly play. It don’t end to be oppressed under the u.s.a. as brown, indigenous, native people. Pero… I hope mi arte can show resistance to that and inspire the idea that we not only gonna endure, we’ll also succeed. And so I put out images of Mexica (or to the uninitiated, Aztec) jaguar warriors piercing their flint knives into the hearts of trompas, of hitler, of migra agents, of the entire DHS- department of homeland security—logo. And I’ve made agitation art pieces since with the intention of resisting the orange payasos, the clown’s administration de puras pinches mamadas.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
By now, I been making visual art for over a decade. It took a good amount of time for it to become what it is now: RESISTIVE. It’s resistive, also subversive, in the way that it defies popular American (or dominant) culture by embracing its iconography and subverting it by slapping faces of Raza that have defied colonization, exploitation and occupation. What makes my approach different from others is the blatantness: whereas other artists compromise and accept the Mexican-American identity, I lean really hard into being un Chicano and part of La Raza. What I’m really saying is: there’s a difference between artists promoting Mexican-American identity and politics, and Chicano, or Chicana or Chicanx. One is assimilative, the other(s) resistive. And so, I consider myself, my work, Chicano. I’m not American. I’m a citizen of the united states of america. Yo soy Chicano… and so is my work. I aint the first doing this, but those among us that tend to get the spotlight are sellouts to Americanism and its melting pot ideology. We call them vendidos o tio tacos. ¡Chales!

What do you like and dislike about the city?
My hometown is Sun Valley, Califas. Pochos call it Sol Valle. I was born and raised here, I’ve gone away, came back, left, returned, etc. I keep coming back cuz there’s a charm to this place. I don’t know the exact numbers, but this place is known for having the most trash dumps, the most yonkes or junk yards, the most pot holes, the most auto repair shops, plus we got a GR office that reels in both families and single adults throughout the SFV. I know that sounds like talkin’ smack, but at the same time this barrio is an indicator: If we got the most industrial, blue color, working class environment, that might also mean we got the hardest working people working within it… and being from here I see that its mostly Raza, brown. I was once explained that that Aztlan is the interior 3rd world of the u.s.a. That claim might be a bit broad but fursure it rings true if we’re talking about pockets, even large pockets within it. There’s so many barrios in this region that not only resemble, but fit the definition of 3rd world. Swap meets, junk yards, dirt roads, cracked pavement, homeless people, muti generational homes, pollution, street vendors, yard sales, bootleg goods, stolen goods, and so on. And to be raised in one of those barrios, seeing the hustling, booming, bustling of Raza at every edge tells me that we are a resilient people, thick skinned, rough and tough. And that’s inspiring, encouraging. It begs the question: what else can people from here do? But also, can we bring it all back home? As we should.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.maizpoppin.com
• Instagram: elindioarts
• Facebook: elindioarts
• Twitter: elindioarts
• Youtube: elindioarts

Image Credits
elindiocopyright1985