New Cheech Exhibit Traces Chicano Pictures From Civil Rights to Now; Muscoy Artist Paperwork Logistics Risk

The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture in downtown Riverside opened a brand new, sweeping exhibition Feb. 7 that traces how Chicana/o/x photographers have used the digital camera to doc their communities, assert id and problem energy throughout six many years.

“Chicano Camera Culture: A Photographic History, 1966–2026” is the primary main survey to look at the depth and evolution of Chicana/o/x lens-based image-making, bringing collectively about 150 works by practically 50 artists. The exhibition strikes from the civil rights period of the Nineteen Sixties into modern pictures and multimedia installations, highlighting the digital camera’s position as each a political instrument and a way of cultural preservation.

A non-public opening-night gathering welcomed pals, households and artists into the galleries, with espresso from Mundial Coffee and pastries served as guests skilled works spanning generations and areas — together with voices rooted within the Inland Empire.

Among them is Yulissa Mendoza, an artist whose set up attracts from an archive of images taken in Muscoy, the unincorporated San Bernardino neighborhood the place they grew up.

“My artwork is titled and is an archive of photos from around Muscoy, which is where I grew up,” Mendoza stated. “Each feather is a photo and they’re all color coded to be the correct colors for the rooster. But they’re all photos from my childhood, which includes liquor stores that I would go to. Just things that are happening around Muscoy specifically.”

Mendoza stated the piece displays each private reminiscence and the speedy bodily transformation they’ve witnessed.

“I did this because I wanted to showcase the changes that have been happening in Muscoy due to the logistics industry,” they stated. “So to me I’m just documenting what is already happening today. So that way we have some sort of an archive for when it’s not here, because I know that it’s coming.”

They stated entry to institutional areas like The Cheech is particularly important for artists from working-class Inland Empire communities.

“I think it’s important that I’m in here and that other people from San Bernardino or in the IE are in this exhibit specifically because it shows the scale that we’re at,” Mendoza stated. “There’s so many great, talented artists. Working artists.”

The exhibition additionally brings collectively photographers throughout generations, inserting early trailblazers — together with Louis Carlos Bernal, Luis C. Garza, George Rodriguez and María Varela — alongside artists who emerged within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties, resembling Kathy Vargas, Ricardo Valverde, Christina Fernandez and Ken Gonzales-Day, in addition to modern voices persevering with to develop the medium in the present day.

Behind the scenes, museum preparators labored intensively to rework the gallery area in time for the opening.

Eric Martinez, The Cheech’s lead preparer described the exhibition as one which connects historic actions to present-day creative follow.

“I know that this is the inaugural exhibition for this show,” he stated. “The hopes are that it’ll plan to tour, but it’s a large survey of Chicano photography, starting back with the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s and through today.”

He stated the purpose of set up work is to make sure the artwork stays the point of interest.

For artist Daniel Ramos, who was born in Chicago and now lives in New York City, collaborating within the exhibition represents each skilled recognition and a continuation of deeply private work.

“Elizabeth Ferrer actually selected some of my work to be in an exhibition in Woodstock, New York in 2018,” Ramos stated, describing how his relationship with the exhibition’s curator started.

His featured challenge, “The Land of Illustrious Men,” combines pictures, private artifacts and handmade bookmaking to discover migration, household and id after he returned to Mexico following his mom’s demise.

“So as a photographer, I was like, man, I would be interested to see what the border life is like and make pictures,” Ramos stated. “So I said, why do I have to photograph others when I could think about my experience?”

He described the work as an effort to doc tough truths with out embellishment.

“My art is a book that tells that story in photographs and also with memorabilia and other stuff that I collected through my family,” Ramos stated. “I don’t embellish it.”

“Chicano Camera Culture: A Photographic History, 1966–2026” is obtainable at The Cheech from Feb. 7, 2026, by way of Sept. 6, 2026, with a companion presentation on the Riverside Art Museum by way of July 5, 2026. The exhibition is supported by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.