Asco was an East Los Angeles based Chicano artist collective, active from 1972 to 1987. Asco adopted its name as a collective in 1973, making a direct reference to the word's significance in Spanish ("asco"), which is disgust or repulsion. Asco's work throughout 1970s and 1980s responded specifically to socioeconomic and political problems surrounding the Chicano community in the United States, as well the Vietnam War. Harry Gamboa Jr., Glugio "Gronk" Nicandro, Willie Herrón and Patssi Valdez form the core members of the group.
Origins
Political and cultural influences
The term Asco functions as a means of contextualizing and responding to the effects of the Vietnam War. This era, which art historian Arthur C. Danto has described as an era of revulsion, compelled young people to seek a new vocabulary for opposition through the growing importance of media, the impact of public mobilization, and new modes drawn from Happenings and spontaneous "be-ins". Socio-economic and regional factors additionally gave rise to revulsion. The shifting landscape of East Los Angeles during the 70s was particularly influential in Asco's work. The construction of freeway interchanges and the retention of walls dividing formerly connected neighborhoods fostered a hostile environment. Asco as a group was part of what Raul Homero Villa deems the "expressway generation", a generation aware and affected by how public policies and urban planning could create conditions of disparity and stratification both economically and geographically.
Last year at this time I was very active in the affairs of my community. I was deeply bothered and disgusted with the condition of my community and of the Mexican American people. I learned to distrust and dislike everything that was pro-establishment.—Harry Gamboa Jr., 1969.
Mr. Gamboa has described the members as "self-imposed exiles" who felt the best methods of artistic freedom and solidarity with the Mexican-American cause was to reject the political structures and mainstream stereotypes of modern Mexican art culture. Asco's emphasis on street culture and media hoaxes illustrates the merging of performance art with activism and protest. Asco occupies a unique place in the cultural landscape of Los Angeles. It deviated from the heavy nationalism of the Chicano Muralism movement to instead occupy a balanced position between the mainstream and its counter-movement.
Artistic influences
Some heavy influences of Asco art were Dada and Arte Povera. They used similar methods of recycling and appropriation to make something entirely different in meaning and form.
Historical context in East LA
"Geographically and culturally segregated from the then-embryonic L.A. contemporary art scene and aesthetically at odds with the dominant Chicano nationalism, at times Asco found a home in the new, interdisciplinary, artist-run spaces like Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE). On other occasions they chose to bypass galleries and museums altogether, and exhibit and perform in the streets."
"We only know the east side, we don't really know the west side and the west side doesn't know us." – Willie Herron
Los Angeles has little sense of the past or of place. A partial explanation for this is that Euroamericans have devoted little time or energy to learning the history of the region, treating that history much the same as they do learning other languages ... However, there are other reasons for [Mexicans] lack of visibility in Los Angeles history. Until recently, Mexicans in L.A., unlike their counterparts in San Antonio, did not have sufficient numbers to affect the politics of the city or even the Catholic Church, to which a majority of them belong. In addition, the vastness of the city and lack of cheap transportation have made it imperative for Mexicans, like other working-class Angelenos at the bottom of the wage scale, to live close to work ... The city's addiction to urban renewal projects has also resulted in the dispersal of Mexicans throughout the city via displacement of working-class renters. Even homeowners were not immune to massive projects, which uprooted entire Mexican neighborhoods to make sure that the suburbs had freeways ...
Additional members
In addition to the core members, the following notable artists were also involved with Asco at one point or another:
Robert Beltran
Cyclona (Robert Lagorretta) Jerry Dreva Diane Gamboa Mundo Meza Humberto Sandoval Ruben Zamora