- [Announcer] "Expressions of Art" is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency.

Learn more at arts.ca.gov and the City of San Bernardino Arts and Historical Preservation Commission with its commitment to visual and performing arts organizations that enhances the culture and economic well-being of the community, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

- So, this is maybe an obvious question, but what is Chicano art?

Is it a particular style or theme?

Or, is it Chicano art because Chicanos are making the art?

Or, is it a political thing?

- It's all of the above.

(gentle upbeat music) - Today, the artists win.

And when the artists win, art wins.

And when art wins, humanity wins.

Welcome to The Cheech.

(audience cheering) - Riverside has something unique; literally, a museum that no other city has.

- With the creation of The Cheech comes a world of new possibilities.

- Their use of art to share these untold Chicano stories and unite the community has been groundbreaking for the inclusion of Chicano culture and the art world.

- [Cheech] Not a day goes by without somebody coming up to me and say, "I took my whole family to The Cheech yesterday, "and we're gonna come back and we're gonna bring everybody we know."

And, it happens every day.

Last year, we were recognized as one of the 50 most important shows in the world.

And so, we have been a success.

It's inevitable, just like fate.

And, it was meant to happen because of you.

So, thank you very much, and keep coming back to The Cheech.

I love you.

Thank you.

(audience cheering) - [Cheech] Depends on which Chicano you ask.

And, originally it was a derogatory term from Mexicans to other Mexicans.

The concept being that the Mexicans that had moved across the border and were living in the United States were no longer truly Mexicanos, because they had left their country.

They were something less.

They were smaller.

They were Chicos.

They were Chicanos, little satellite Mexicans.

And, depends on where you live in relationship to the border.

And, as time passed, that term became less of an insult and more of a description.

So, it depends on which Chicano you ask what the definition of it is, (laughs) and there's all kinds of definitions!

For me, Chicano is a politically-defiant Mexican American.

- And so, when we talk about Chicano art, what makes Chicano art "Chicano art?"

- I always characterize it as news from the front.

This is what, for my generation or the people that I grew up with, "this is what my neighborhood looks like.

"These are the people in my neighborhood.

This is what they do."

This is their most public moments and their most private moments.

You know, and they're different, depending who you ask that question.

(upbeat music) ♪ (upbeat horns/percussion) ♪ ♪ - [Lillian] Will you share the story of how you got the name Cheech?

- Cheech is short for chicharrón, and chicharrónes are deep-fried pig skins, pork rinds, and they're all curled up, you know, like that.

And so, when I came home from the hospital, my Uncle Bono came and said, "Ay, parece un chicharrón."

"Man, it looks like a little chicharrón!"

So, that was my name in the family.

- When did you first pick up a pen or a pencil and start doodling?

Or, did you doodle as a kid?

- I had a traumatic experience.

I was in, I think, first grade.

And, I went to Trinity Street School in South Central.

And, we were taken to the Grand Central Market as a class trip.

And, everything that grew on Earth was in that market and I was amazed, you know?

So, when we came back, the teacher said, "I want you to draw-- everybody to draw what thing impressed them the most."

And, for me it was these huge banana squashes, and they were bigger than I was.

I was always the littlest kid.

And, they gave us the good paper and the big crayons, and I drew these big, yellow banana squashes with a little stick figure of me next to 'em.

And, as the teacher was going around and commenting on everybody's art, they picked up my paper and said, "Well, you'll never be an artist."

And, it was like a dagger.

Ah?!

I went, "Oh, okay."

And, I just, you know, crawled off in the corner and let my soul die, you know, I guess.

But, I always loved art and I started learning about it from that day forward.

- When were you exposed to art?

When did you feel like something goes through you when you experience it?

- I think 11.

And, I had this group of cousins, there was four of us, and we were all real bright kids.

And so, the head cousin, Louie, who was the brightest of us all, and he decided that he was gonna assign us all topics.

And, we were going to go out and learn about those and bring it back to the group.

And, I got assigned art.

So, how do you do that?

I was an 11-year-old kid.

And so, I started going to the library, and every Saturday I'd go to the library and take out all-- I wouldn't take them out 'cause they wouldn't let me.

You know, I was an 11-year-old kid!

And so, they'd take out the art books and with their white gloves.

They would turn the pages for me.

"Oh, okay.

Now, oh!

That's-?

How do you-?

It's Picasso.

Okay, that's good."

And so, that's how I learned about art.

And so, I studied it and I was intrigued, "Oh, this is interesting."

And then, I started going to museums.

You have to see paintings in person.

♪ - [Rosy] So, I wanted to paint her in blue and the kids in color.

So, it's as if she's drained from all the color and she gives them that life.

Well, one of the symbols that I like to use a lot in my work is a monarch butterfly.

The monarch butterfly is, you know, a symbol of migration.

The butterfly travels from Mexico, you know, to the United States and back.

And so, to me, that carries a lot of meaning.

So, she's wearing a ring in the painting.

I was kind of hinting at like, you know, is she married?

Is her husband back home?

You know, what is the story of this woman?

I also hid like a little black widow underneath the seat.

And, I like the idea of, like, you know, you're coming to this new promised land, but even still, there's hidden dangers or things kind of lurking in the darkness, too.

So, I really like to play with the idea of, like, sad and happy.

Even with the painting, it's a sad thing, but it's also a very hopeful thing.

To leave behind everything that you've known, and then, you know, but also be filled with, you know, hopes and dreams for your children, as well.

(mellow music) - [Oscar] So, the piece that I have here today is "El Mero Mero Paletero," right?

So, kind of like the OG paletero, right?

It's a life-size piece of an ice cream man.

He's wearing an L.A. cap.

But there's a lot of messages within the work, his cap says, "Dreamer," on the back; the barbed wire; there's crosses for all the people who have passed away trying to cross the border.

And, there's also a very famous depiction of a person who's bent over with a shorthanded hoe, which was made illegal because of the work that César Chávez did.

So, there's all these different things that are referencing, like, what immigrant workers have traditionally done.

And that, to me, is really personal, very important, because my father was one of those people.

He crossed over from Mexicali and I have a lot of family there who would do that work in the fields.

So, for me, it was important to then think about, like, what are these roles that these people play and how are they depicted in the larger media?

(mellow percussive music) - [James] Inspiration came from my grandmother.

A lot of creativity came from her.

I wanted to pay tribute to the creative life that she brought to the whole family, her being in East L.A. growing up as a Latino lady and fitting into American culture.

Around the borders at the top it says, "Aquí eternidad empieza," which is "Here eternity begins," which is what the priest said at her funeral and it really stuck out to me.

And then, on the bottom is a collage image, and it's a picture of a painting that she did.

And, it actually won third place in the L.A. Art Fair at the time.

And then, on the two sides is a pattern that was a brick wall pattern, as you would walk into her house, which I always found interesting from my younger years as a child.

Just all that combined little tributes to her whole life.

And, I wanted to capture what that's like for us as a Chicano, you know, being surrounded by American culture and fitting in and having our own culture, as well.

(mellow music) ♪ - [Lillian] So, at an early age you left L.A. and you moved to Canada.

Fell more into art and you met Tommy Chong.

- Yeah.

- Tell me about that.

- I took a pottery class, because there was a really cute girl that asked me if I would take it with her, "Yeah, okay!"

And, it changed my life.

I found my calling!

(laughs) You know, it was like first time I centered a piece of clay, it was, "This is for me," you know?

And, I quit all my other classes, quit my job, got a $900 NEDA loan, and that's what I lived on, and made pottery from the time I got up to the time I went to sleep.

And, I got introduced to this very famous potter in Canada and I became his assistant.

And, I was up in the Canadian Rockies for the first couple years and it was great, you know?

- Making your pottery.

- Making pottery.

So, eventually, I made my way to Vancouver and I got introduced to Tommy Chong 'cause he was there now.

And, he (laughs) was running this improvisational theater company in a topless bar in Chinatown in Vancouver.

Right away, I was intrigued!

I go, "How does this work?"

So, I met him and became a part of the troupe, and that was it.

That was the most interesting part of the whole deal.

When we were just talking about what to call ourselves, 'cause we came out of a group and now there was two of us.

And so, the first one was "Tommy Chong and the Shanghai Junk."

I guess I was the Shanghai Junk (Lillian laughs) at that point!

We were trying to figure it out.

And so, "Richard and Tommy?

No.

Marin and Chong?

No."

He says, "Do you have a nickname?"

I says, "Well, Cheech is my family name."

He goes, "Cheech.

Cheech and Chong, Cheech and Chong."

And, because he was a musician, we were both musicians, the sound scanned, you know?

It would've been different, "Chong and Cheech."

It's a different name, you know, "Cheech and Chong."

And, I said, "Okay.

We're Cheech and Chong now."

- And, what made you decide that you had an eye for art, and then start to buy it?

(chuckles) - The success of Cheech and Chong!

'Cause I had money now, you know?

Now, I could buy art.

So, "Okay, cool!

I'm gonna be an art collector."

So, I started buying art nouveau and art deco, first.

And, as I was traveling around, there was a lot of opportunities to do that.

All of a sudden that got very expensive.

Art nouveau caught on and people with a lot of money were buying it.

I was looking around for something else, and that's when I discovered these Chicano painters, So, I started buying their art.

I knew what it was right away, because I had studied art.

And, they had all gone to either college, university, and/or art school trained, the most prestigious art schools in the country.

So, they weren't, like, you know, hobbyists.

And, they weren't backyard painters; they were serious artists.

And so, I saw what they were doing right away.

- And, when you bought the artwork, did you think, "I'll get this one for this wall?"

And then, did you run out of walls?

- Oh, yeah.

Right away!

(laughs) I ran out of walls.

But, I was an inveterate collector of something all my life, whether it was baseball cards, or marbles, or buttons, or matchbook covers.

It didn't matter.

I had a penchant for collecting the whole set.

So, when it came to art, there was a-?

I was kind of early into that field and there was nobody else kind of buying on the level that I was buying, because they didn't kind of look at it as an investment.

- So, you were buying the artwork; you're looking at it as an investment.

But, where did you think you were going to put it all?

- That didn't enter into the equation!

(both laugh) I knew at some point that I was collecting art and I was going to have to put it in a place where people could see that.

You know, and all my friends in the art business that I was making friends with now says, "Well, you gotta have a museum show.

You gotta put it on."

"Well, how do you do that"?

"Well, go to a museum and figure it out."

So, I started talking to museums and they, "Well, you have to have a sponsor."

"Okay, how do you do that"?

"Well, you know?

You go find one."

Okay, so I want it to be a big national tour.

So, I started going to all these corporate entities, like General Mills, General Motors, anything with a "General" in it!

I thought, "They gotta have money.

They're generals, you know?"

The Target stores and Hewlett-Packard stepped up and they sponsored the show.

First show, we did seven major institutions in 14 years with the Smithsonian, the LACMA, the de Young, the Weisman.

I thought at that point that we've had little shows, you know, kind of in the West Coast.

But, I wanna go in with the trumpets blaring and the banners waving, 'cause this is the big introduction, you know, to it.

(gentle piano music) - [Todd] So, Cheech has always been very generous about exhibiting his work and championing the work of the artists in the collection.

And, when we started talking about how do we better engage our entire community?

Understanding that 55%, 56% of our community is Latino, how do we navigate that and make sure that our audiences are reflective of the community that we're working in?

And so, one of my ideas was, "well, let's see if maybe Cheech Marin "might be willing to let us exhibit some of the work in the collection."

That became Papel Chicano Dos, which started in San Diego, and then toured Riverside, and then went on to a number of institutions across the country.

But, it was the opening of that Papel Chicano Dos show where John Russo noticed this massive crowd that was here at RAM and said, "You know, what's Cheech going to do with his collection?"

And, that's how this whole thing began.

So, we pitched it to him in a restaurant in about 40 minutes.

- I tried to envision what the hell they were talking about!

(laughs) You know, really, "You want me to buy a museum?

"Well?

I'm doing okay.

I don't know if I'm doing museum-rich!

But-?"

"No, no.

We wanna give you the museum.

"You give us the art collection.

It'll be enshrined there for eternity."

And, I'm like, "Well?"

I still didn't understand.

- [Todd] We had this brochure that the city had put together and Cheech said, "Huh!"

- [Cheech] They came back with a seven-color brochure that, you know, had all this, "And, the paintings will go here."

And, I go, "Well, they've thought this through.

Oh, okay."

And, you know?

What you develop over the years as a collector, you develop your sense of intuition and you have to make a decision very quickly.

And, it's like all of a sudden a door opens up, you glimpse what's inside of it, and the door closes.

And, if you don't make a decision before the door closes, you lose out on that opportunity.

And, when they presented it and I understood what they were presenting, I made a decision with it quick; "okay."

It is fortuitous, I guess, that this opportunity was presented, because you're never gonna get a museum that's gonna take that big a collection.

(gentle piano music) ♪ - [Todd] And so, I think the opportunity for him to have a place where the collection stayed intact was something he never thought about.

You know, lots of museums take donations and take work, but they've got thousands of pieces to rotate in and out and lots of things just live in storage.

And so, the opportunity for the collection to be intact and to be on permanent display in a rotation of the collection, but also to keep building the collection.

There are so many artists that really belong in this collection and I think that The Cheech will continue to grow this collection and continue to show all kinds of artists.

- When we were discouraged at the very beginning, you have to go out and talk to a lot of people before anybody starts saying, "Oh, I'll do this."

Because, I know how much it takes for someone to give money to a vision.

We had the building, but to convey what it was going to represent was difficult.

But, the Chicano-Latino community really bought into it.

They felt that this was something that they could get behind and, more importantly, feel comfortable being in the space.

- My reasoning was that the Chicano community had supported me all in everything I've done, whether records, or movies, or concerts, and they were always there for me.

So, at the end of the day, this is my gift back to the community.

And, there's no such thing as a free gift.

Because, now they have to enjoy and join in the participation and keeping this museum open so that everybody can see it.

So, now the burden has shifted to the Chicano community to invite every other community to come in and see their heritage.

(people chattering) As far as I'm concerned, because I've studied the history of all kinds of art schools in the world, I think because of its longevity, because of its description of culture over a long period of time, because of its inclusion of new techniques and has been very innovative, that it is probably the most important art school in the history of America right now.

And, we've waited this long to have a museum, but there it is.

- The character-defining features of the building needed to be refreshed.

And, at the same time, the spaces needed to be modified in order to, one, have this destination place where the dialogue that Cheech wants so much can happen.

And then, also to exhibit the art.

So, we took some things away and we brushed some things up.

But, we cut this big hole in the floor, and then worked with the artist to create this "wow moment" of arrival.

(upbeat percussive music) ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Lillian] Was it always gonna be called "The Cheech?"

- No, I got that in as soon as I could!

You know, 'cause we were all gathered around one day, and then someone said, "Well, what would we call this?"

"We have The Broad.

How 'bout The Cheech?"

And, everybody got caught up, "Yeah, yeah!

The Cheech."

"Oh, phew!

Got one."

You know, so there it is.

It worked for their purposes as well as mine.

- Are you still buying?

- Yeah, yeah.

Because there's-- artists are making great works out there all the time.

All the masters who have not completely died off, or only a few of them have died.

But, there's new generations of young kids just coming out of art school and they're making great art.

- How much artwork do you have?

- A lot!

(laughs) I think the gift was about 550 pieces for the museum, because it's gonna take a while to go through the collection.

They thought that no, there's so many reservations that people have never even seen the first show.

So we kept it open for a year, and now it's changing.

Now we're gonna shift about 30, 40 pieces.

- Do you work with the curator of what's going out and what's coming in?

- I have some input, yeah, in it.

Because-- only because I know the collection better than anybody else.

- [Lillian] Sure.

- You know, when we were touring with the Chicano Visions show, my only caveat was that they have to put all the artists' works together.

So, but now they wanna do different themes or, you know, fine.

But, if I can aid you in that process-?

Because, I like to see it arranged different ways all the time, you know?

- This year has been amazing.

And, I've been blown away by the reception we've had.

Folks coming here and expressing the love of the work that they're seeing, seeing their culture reflected back to them, having the sense and feeling of being home.

The impetus for the exhibitions are to reflect the depth and the breadth of the collection of what Cheech has collected over the last 40 years.

Chicano-Chicanx art is complex; it's not one thing.

And so, it's important for us to explore themes that are important and critical and spark dialogue.

We really wanna bust the box open and we want people to come and be blown away by what they're seeing.

- What do you want people to know now about Chicano art?

'Cause for so many years, I guess it wasn't accepted as fine art.

- Uh huh.

- Is it now?

- Oh yeah, absolutely.

There's no question.

Last year, we were recognized as one of the top 50 shows in the world, last year.

(pauses) - What do you want people to know about Chicano art?

- It's a description of the Chicano community in all their various facets, and all their various generations, too 'Cause we're now in the maybe fourth or fifth generation of Chicano art.

And, every generation is like the tide.

They bring in news from the front, leaves a lot of things on the shore, and then goes back.

And then, the next generation comes and they leave more stuff.

And, you get a broader understanding of a community that has been existent for basically the life of the country that nobody ever kind of recognized it.

Or, even-- there was never a place for it, you know?

So, there was never a museum for it.

This is the first Chicano museum, which after we've been through all these years, like, (chuckles) it took this long?

You know, and I-?

"Well, okay.

But, we're here now."

So, that's really gratifying.

- I wanted to get your thoughts on the Riverside Art Museum receiving the National Medal for Museum and Library Science.

- I say, "Well, cool.

We're getting on the map!"

We're getting on the map, you know?

And, it's about time.

And, I wanna represent proudly, and we're all of a sudden being recognized, and it feels good to be recognized.

And, it's growing all the time.

And, I'm trying to make it an international destination, which it's becoming, you know?

That you can go to see the Picasso Museum in France.

You can come and see the Chicano Museum in Riverside.

- In Riverside, California.

- What's gonna be wonderful for the educational part of the exhibition is showing the great diversity of styles.

When I'm teaching this in my classes, students always think there's a Chicano style.

No, it's the content and the person who made the artwork; it's not the style.

There's paintings in there that are impressionists, that are cubists, that are landscape paintings.

There's everything in there.

So, it's the perspective of the artist, not the style of the art.

- [Charles] My whole family's expectations were exceeded.

The variety of art and artists, the vibrancy of the works was something that is unique to this museum, I feel.

- [Vivienne] From what I've seen of Latino art, I knew there would be a lot of vibrancy, and culture, and colors.

But, once I went in there and saw what everything it represented and all the different medias of art, [loud festival music] it just blew my mind.

It was something that I did not expect at all.

- 'Cause there was such passion and love for what we needed a Chicano museum in our sphere.

And so, it being the only one in the world is exciting.

- I think it means a lot to California in general.

This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity and you definitely have to bring your family and your friends to come down and experience this firsthand for yourself.

- Our people are so gifted and we've been held back for so long, and this is an opportunity to share all this.

I have marched.

I have picketed.

I have stomped for years.

Years, mija.

And now, to see something like this?

Oh, my God!

Brings tears to my eyes.

- Art has really changed your life.

And, it continues to change your life, because I'd say, just with this, you're more busy now at 70-something with art.

- About to be 77!

Yeah.

Yeah!

I'm more busy now than I've ever been in my life.

I would like to get less busy.

That would be cool!

You know, because, (laughs) I'm getting older now, and I want the peace.

But, no.

I love the process.

I love being involved with the artwork, and I love the people I meet in the art world, and all the people that come and see it.

I mean, my biggest thrill is getting somebody to come in to the museum and that's the first time they've been in any museum ever.

(inhales deeply) - And, I would guess that you would get a lot of Latinos that have never been to a museum.

And, suddenly because it's got that Latino base, that it's piqued their interest.

- Yeah.

"This is about my neighborhood.

"I recognize these people.

These are my people," you know?

And, it hadn't been done before, you know, and there hadn't been a stationary target that you could come.

Like, if you went to the Louvre and found, you know, just wanted to study that art, that exists.

There hadn't been an equal component in the Chicano community.

So, here we are.

You know?

And, the longer it gets out there, the more publicized-- that's one of the keys is you have to publicize it so people can come and see it.

And it becomes a part of their wallpaper almost, you know?

It's accepted as "this is fine art."

And, the more you see it and the more you proselytize for it, the more it is going to happen.

'Cause it's supposed to happen.

- Thank you, Cheech.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Announcer] "Expressions of Art" is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency.

Learn more at arts.ca.gov and the City of San Bernardino Arts and Historical Preservation Commission with its commitment to visual and performing arts organizations that enhances the culture and economic well-being of the community, and viewers like you.

Thank you.