It's Like The Song, Just Another Op'nin' Another Show…

José Antonio Aguirre dedicates this print to Carlos Almaraz by emulating his distinct, colorful painterly style. Almaraz, a founding member of the Chicano art collective Los Four, died of AIDS-related causes in 1989. His portrait rests at the base of a red cross while the letters "SIDA", the Spanish acronym for AIDS, are on a banner at its top. The late artist’s imagery of Echo Park, a central Los Angeles neighborhood, also appears in the background. The title of the work comes from the Broadway show "Kiss Me, Kate", referenced by Almaraz in an interview with the "Los Angeles Times" about the 1989 opening of the controversial exhibition "Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibition was the first of its kind at LACMA since 1974, when Los Four had exhibited. Almaraz said, “They’re not interested in Hispanic art. It’s like the song, just ‘Another Op’nin’, Another Show’ . . . This is supposed to appease the peasants. People will be quiet for another 15 years.” Los Four were part of a generation of Chicanx artists that began to achieve visibility at the national level.