ASA Lecture Series: The Vietnam War talk 2-- by Professor Malaquias Montoya

Sherry Yuan

Section 01

Date: May 1st

Speaker: Professor Malaquias Montoya. Chicana/o Studies. Artist, Activist, Scholar, U.S. Veteran. “Movements, Arts and Activism.”

I learned that Professor Malaquias Montoya is an American born Chicano poster artist and a major figure in the Chicano Art Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. He said there were two ways for Mexican-American to get prestige in the U.S.: joining military or becoming a boxer, and he chose to join the military and after military he founded Chicano Art Movement and made lots posters reflecting the social issues or war issues.

I picked up the term "Chicano" and learned that it is a chosen identity of Mexican-Americans in the United States. He recalled that during the Vietnam War, the U.S. encouraged the young Chicano to join the military. Some were not

Fun fact: Professor Malaquias Montoya was able to get through the classes in UC Berkeley by not going to classes but attended many strikes. One of his art-class professor once told him that "I know you've done lots paints and posters but I can't give you an A since you've never come to class. I will give you a B." This gave Professor Malaquias Montoya a thought that if he has become a professor, he would do the opposite way, which is-- he'd give assignments to students but class attendance was not required.