Janeth Aparicio Vazquez
llano en llamas (Burning Plains), 2024
Serigraph, ed. Of 50
30 x 22 in.

In 1973, Mexican writer and Nobel prize laureate Octavio Paz published the essay "El Pachuco y Otros Extremos" (Pachuco and Other Extremes), one of the first literary analyses of Pachuquismo to Mexican audiences. While Paz criticized “El Pachuco ha perdido toda su herencia: lengua, religión, costumbres, creencias” (the Pachuco has lost all its heritage: language, religion, customs, beliefs), he also described pachuques (the act of being a pachuco) as rebeldes instintivos (instinctive rebels).

Contrary to Paz's judgment of the Mexican-American subculture, the artist believes this rebeldía instintiva is pachuquismo's significant inheritance from working-class relatives. Llano en Llamas (Burning Plains) places pachuquismo as part of a legacy of movements of resistance. Reflecting on the work by scholars Nydia A. Martinez and Santamarina Gómez and referencing Juan Rulfo's Llano en Llamas, the print connects the rebeldía instintivo of Pachuquismo to the rebeldía alegre (cheerful) of the Zapatistas, and the rebeldía that lives in each working-class person affected by the industrialization and extractive capitalism of post-revolution Mexico. Llano en Llamas also records Popocatepetl's volcanic activity from the sky in February 2024.