Cheech Marin Says Chicano Art Remains Vital Voice for Community

Whether it's 1960 or 2025, "El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido." The Spanish call to action translates to "The people united will never be divided," a phrase that's echoed throughout time as the Latinx community fights for their rights.

The art form of singing and chanting is synonymous with protesting since Woody Guthrie wrote the lyrics for "Tear the Fascists Down" to Zack de la Rocha from Rage Against the Machine yelling "Let's testify, it's right outside your door."

In the current political climate, where a protestor was hit while expressing their opinions, Richard "Cheech" Marin says art is vital more than ever.

"That's where the Chicano movement started," Marin said in an exclusive interview June 16 at The Cheech. "[Art] was the face of the political movement, the Chicano Civil Rights.”

In 2022, Marin collaborated with the city of Riverside and the Riverside Art Museum to open the very first Chicano art museum. It is the first museum in North America dedicated exclusively to Mexican American and Chicano art.

Marin is an actor and comedian who's appeared in movies like "Up in Smoke" with his comedy partner Tommy Chong, Robert Rodriguez's "Desperado" with Antonio Banderas, and "From Dusk Till Dawn" with George Clooney.

His personal art collection is permanently displayed at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture. The collection consists of work from Patssi Valdez, Sandy Rodriguez, Carlos Almaraz, Frank Romero, and Gilbert "Magú" Luján.

Since its opening, "The Cheech" has made it its mission to "continue the exhibition, scholarship, and dialogue of Chicano art's deep roots in the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s to its contemporary and evolving response to current social conditions and global artistic movements," according to its website.

The paintings currently displayed reflect the Chicano lifestyle. A painting currently at the exhibition is titled "La Novia Del Verde" by Cande Aguilar, which centers a woman in a green dress wearing a fedora, surrounded by graffiti.

La Novia, which is Spanish for "the bride," captures the style of the early 1930s Mexican-American pachuco lifestyle. During that era, men expressed their culture and identity through their clothing, a style that is reflected by the woman in the piece. The zoot suit has been a part of the culture, and now anyone who identifies with the suit of armor that was the zoot suit can finally feel seen and acknowledged by the art world.

Marin hopes his personal collection helps the Latinx community of Riverside and the Inland Empire see themselves in the art, after so many years of being ignored.

"It's nice to be recognized," Marin said. "[Latinx people] go to most museums and they don't recognize themselves, there's nothing about them."

Marin recognizes that the protest reflected in the art has reinvented itself throughout the years. In the current political climate where the immigrant Latinx community is being targeted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it's time for the contemporary artists to speak about the fight.

"It's time to kind of comment [on] their art about what is happening right now," he said.

More information: The Cheech Collects IV: Chicano Art from the Cheech Marin Center and Beyond is on view now at The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, 3581 Mission Inn Ave. The museum is free tonight during ArtsWalk and free every Sunday this summer. Learn more at riversideartmuseum.org.