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Title
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My Alamo
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Alternative Title
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My Alamo, 2a
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Description
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Throughout the series, Vargas combines autobiographical text and photographic techniques to generate a social critique of the national history about the Alamo and Mexican Americans. Using live models to represent her family, the series extends beyond Vargas’s biography and creates a shifting sense of time. Victoria Cortinas stands in for the artist’s mother. In the central image, the tall figure represents her father who is having a tug of war over the coonskin hat with a child representing the artist. In the left register, a family portrait, staged like a Polaroid picture, duplicates the narrative that is written across the surface. The artist’s text states, “When I was very young my cousins from Michigan would visit and want to go to the Alamo. My father and I would take them. They would buy coonskin hats and want their pictures taken in front of the ‘shrine.’ Once, I refused to wear the coonskin hat for the photo because on TV, Davy Crockett fought Indians in his coonskin hat. My father said that we were part Indian. Was Davy fighting us? I didn’t want his hat. Another part of me was Mexican, but the Mexicans were the bad guys at the Alamo. It was very confusing. Was I the bad guy? I still see families lining up to pose before the Alamo, and I wonder if, walking away, they have for the moment blamed Mexicans–my family–the way, in front of other monuments we have all blamed the ‘other.’ I was very young then, but I understood some things.” Gelatin silver print with hand coloring. Dimensions: 20” x 16”
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Image
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https://artist-encuentro.elevator.umn.edu/fileManager/bestDerivativeByFileId/6a8c583f8aeffac19a00de72
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Collection
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Summer 2026
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Access Rights
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© 1995, Kathy Vargas. This image may not be reproduced for commercial purposes without the written consent of the artist. The image may be used for educational personal individual uses and with credit to the artist.
