The 2010 U.S. Census shipped this week to residents across the country. For those who consider themselves Latino or Hispanic, question #9 may cause some confusion. Question #8 asks whether or not a person is of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity. No confusion there.

Question 8: Is Person 1 of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?

Asked in 1970. The data collected in this question are needed by federal agencies to monitor compliance with anti-discrimination provisions, such as under the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. State and local governments may use the data to help plan and administer bilingual programs of people of Hispanic origin. (census.gov)

Question #9 separates ethnicity from race, considering Latinos can be of various races; Spanish-speakers in Latin Americans do come in all colors. Using the crude color analogy, the available choices include “white,” “black,” “red” and “yellow.” But nothing explicitly for “brown.”

Question 9: What is Person 1′s race?

Asked since 1790. Race is key to implementing many federal laws and is needed to monitor compliance with the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act. State governments use the data to determine congressional, state and local voting districts. Race data are also used to assess fairness of employment practices, to monitor racial disparities in characteristics such as health and education and to plan and obtain funds for public services. (census.gov)

Most Latinos have mixed ancestral heritage from indigenous Americans (Amerindian, Native American) and whites (or one of the other choices). But the “American Indian” category asks people to specify a tribe. In past census counts, the government ignored what Latinos wrote in here and counted them as white. But this year is different, according to Nicholas Jones, chief of the racial statistics branch of the U.S. Census Bureau. From an article written by Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez, assistant professor at the University of Arizona, the “fill in the blank” box will be calculated and not re-assigned:

If they are de-Indigenized or far-removed from their Indigenous culture, that is not of interest to the bureau. For those who have a direct connection, they can check American Indian and write in their affiliation, such as: Aymara, Quechua, Mixtec, Maya, Huichol or Yaqui, etc. If they don’t know their affiliation – which is perhaps the case for most Mexicans/Chicanos and Hispanics/Latinos, the bureau will accept “unknown,” “detribalized, “de-Indigenized” or “mestizo” or any other term that indicates or connotes Indigenous or American Indian ancestry. (politicalarticles.net)

For me, I will be marking both “White” and “American Indian” categories, writing in “mestizo” as the tribal affiliation.

Artists include Nzuji De Magalhaes, Kip Fulbeck, Nathan Gibbs, Loren Holland, Bryce Hudson, Delilah Montoya, Toni Scott, Laura Kina, Bradley McCallum, and Jacqueline Tarry. The exhibit was curated by Jillian Nakornthap and Lynn Stromick:

Embracing Ambiguity: Faces of the Future

It is estimated that there are 6.8 million multi-racial individuals living in America. It was not until the year 2000 that Americans were allowed to choose more than one ethnic category on the United States census. Embracing Ambiguity: Faces of the Future features painting, sculpture, video and mixed-media works by ten multicultural artists living and working in the U.S. In a world where labels are often forced upon us, these artists are searching for new, more layered ways to respond to the question: "What are you?"

For centuries, the majority group in power has felt the need to label what they deemed to be the "exotic other" or any person that was foreign to them. During the 18th century, in the Spanish colonies, artists used casta paintings to depict the results of the Spanish conquerors intermixing with the native people. Casta paintings were formulaic studies that illustrated couples of different races with their mixed offspring. Reflecting the trend of the Enlightenment to scientifically categorize the world, these paintings contained inscriptions like mulatto, wolf, and coyote. The paintings reinforced the superiority of the pureblooded Spaniards and attempted to quantify the percent of pure (Spanish) blood in the mixed-race individuals.

Going forward in American history, the One Drop Rule stated that any individual with a trace of African ancestry was considered black. In the 1960s, Jim Crow laws kept races segregated in public places. Anti-miscegenation laws forbidding interracial marriage were also still in effect. On June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia, set a precedent. Mildred Loving, an African and Native American woman, and Richard Perry, a white man, were sentenced to a year in prison because the state of Virginia would not recognize their marriage; the couple would not have to serve a prison term if they left Virginia. The couple left, but took their case to the Supreme Court, who ruled that Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statue was unconstitutional. Ironically, Barack Obama or 44th president and a child of mixed race parents, was born in 1961 before the ruling took place.

This exhibition opens a year after the election of Obama, our first multiracial president. It was his image on a Time magazine cover that sparked our curiosity about the American identity. The photo of Obama was similar to that of a computer-generated face that appeared on a cover thirteen years earlier. Dubbed "The New Face of America," the image was a composite of many different races. It visually reinforced the idea that Americans were not so easily defined. The artists in this exhibition have an advantage in the search for answers as they represent with images what words may not be fully able to express. Their artistic expressions allow these artists to question the past, and look forward to the future with new visions and voices. We hope this will be a future without boxes, where no one will be limited to "check only one."

-Lynn Stromick and Jillian Nakornthap, January 2010

(The curators wish to thank Mike McGee, Marilyn Moore, Martin Lorigan, Joanna Roche, the exhibition design students, the artists and lenders, the Art Department, the Art Alliance, the AICC, the Multicultural Leadership Center, our families and friends. This exhibition would not have been possible without all of your support and guidance.)

Justine Bursoni is a graduate student in art education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an editor for the online magazine Smile Politely. She came across my Self-Portrait art piece online and wanted to include it in a lesson plan for a group of fifth and sixth grade students. She asked how I created my piece, and after giving her some tips, she had her students create their own paint swatch portraits.

“During the lesson,” Justine wrote in email, “the students were quick to note how identity comes in different forms, parts of identity can be shared… but mostly, one’s identity is unique and multi-faceted and how all should be recognized and tolerated.” It’s humbling to have my work aid that learning process, and even more humbling to be included in the list of self-portraits she used in her lesson plan:

• Charis Tsevis, “Barack Obama” (2008)
• Chuck Close, “Self-Portrait” (2007)
• Michael Mapes, “Poor Boy Michael Strange” (2006)
• Nathan Gibbs, “Self-Portrait” (2002)
• Grammy Posters (2009)
• David Hockney, “Mother I, Yorkshire Moors” (1985)
• Paul Klee “Senecio” (1922)

I also want to thank Justine for allowing me to post her PowerPoint presentation and lesson plan. The PowerPoint notes include her comments on the students’ reactions:

• Download PowerPoint Presentation
• Download Paint Swatch Lesson Plan

In the vein of open collaboration and online sharing, I put together some notes from our email conversation to provide a list of steps to help others create their own pixelated portraits.

How to Build a Portrait Out of Square Blocks of Color

In my case, I used Photoshop to create a reference image first. For best results, choose an image where the face has a solid color background. You’ll want to follow these steps in Photoshop to get the right result. These steps assume you’re printing the reference image on a standard 8.5×11 inch sheet of paper.

Photoshop Instructions

• Open and Crop: Open your image in Photoshop. Using the Crop Tool, crop it down to just the face. For this exercise, hold the Shift key while using the Crop Tool to make the crop a perfect square.
• Reduce to Pixels: Go to Image Size (on the top menu, Image > Image Size). Under Pixel Dimensions, change the units to “pixels” and adjust the width and height to 8 for both. This will end up giving you an 8×8 grid of one-inch squares. Important: Make sure the check boxes for both Resample Image and Constrain Proportions are checked. Select OK.
• Set Document Size: Your image is now 8×8 pixels. But you still need to make a second adjustment to the image settings before it can be printed correctly. Go to Image Size once more. Important: Uncheck the Resample Image check box. Under Document Size, set the units to “inches,” type in 8 for width and 8 for height. Select OK.
• Print: Everything is done and you’re ready to print. From the File menu, select Print :)

The final step in creating your pixelated portrait depends on your eye to match the colors. One tip I can offer is that the “value” or black and white levels of each color are more important to recognizing the final image than the “hue” of the color itself. For people to recognize the original image, it’s more important that it have the right amount of contrast than perfectly matching the nuances of each color.

If you do use this process to make your own, I’d love to see your project. If you have a place to upload images, post a link and describe your project here in the comments. Otherwise, send me a note and I can help you post it online.

Special thanks again to Justine for allowing me to publish her class materials and for sending the photo. Seeing that image of them working on their self-portraits puts a huge smile on my face. It’s truly rewarding to see an idea I had almost seven years ago come back to life in the hands of these young minds.