Pinches Rinches
Each of Anciso’s works in the Pinches Rinches series is done in the Paño style. Paño is art that originated in the prisons of Southwest America by Chicanos in the 1940s (Paño Art). Paño is usually done with pen, pencil, or watercolor on a cloth handkerchief. Today Paño is still popular among Chicanx inmates. The art is used as currency, sent as messages within the prison, or sent to relatives outside of the prison. Thus, the Paño is wrought with personal details and emotions (Hoinski).
The work that will be analyzed for this project is Josefa. Josefa Segovia was the first and only woman hanged in California. She was a Mexican woman accused of murdering a miner, who sexually assaulted her and called her a whore. She proceeded to invite the man to challenge her inside of her home, where she fatally stabbed him. An impromptu judge and jury were assembled and Josefa was subsequently executed.
Josefa’s story was first published four days later, referring to her only as “the Spanish Woman.” Later accounts called her “Juanita.” Published articles explicitly linked Josefa’s murder to her ethnicity, appearance, and sexuality (Kohler). Josefa’s story is not an uncommon one, in which a Latinx woman is denied her identity and her name; the public sees she has no self.
Anciso’s Paños are saturated with Texas’s rich history, juxtaposing bright wildflowers native to Texas with stark images of death. The flowers in this work resemble traditional Mexican embroidery, as well. Anciso is both acknowledging her culture and repurposing a traditional art form to be impactful in modern times. This series brings a multitude of issues of light. The first being that it allows post Texas-Revolution history to be seen through a non-white American lens. This work legitimizes the life of a woman who would otherwise be seen as someone poised to murder innocent men.
Secondly, this work is a commentary on the prison system, both past and present. Paño art has been a staple in Chicanx prison culture, from its origination in the 1940s to now. Latinx people have always been overrepresented in the American prison system, meaning that in prison, there is a larger percentage of Latinx people than there are outside of the prison (Wagner and Kopf). Because of this the Chicanx people have been able to create their own art form, keeping it sustained both in and out of the prison system.
Anciso’s works in the Pinches rinches series is commentary on the white washing of history and the over-representation of Latinx people in the prison systems. This series sparks research into topics not taught in schools, from the Texas Revolution to America’s prison system today. With the ability to create dialogue around the topic, the work also holds the ability to incite change.
Josefa and the Pinches Rinches series as a whole function to advocate for a deeper understanding of Mexican and Chicanx history, while also illuminating the whitewashing of history. Furthermore, this series criticizes the severe overrepresentation of Latinx people in the prison system and the United States’ shortcomings in regards to a move towards equality for Latinx people.