This morning I emailed the 3 other units in my Harlem brownstone to ask how they were doing, how we can support each other, and what they need. I had been thinking of doing something like that, but it was only after interviewing Tassika Lloyd for the podcast on Friday that I knew I HAD to do it. Tassika spoke about collectivism, the notion that we consider the needs of our community along with those of ourselves as individuals. The only way we are going to emerge whole from this crisis is if we look out for one another.
Though she never used the word, Tassika’s vision is based on the notion that we must love each other. When Abram and I spoke about bell hook’s book All About Love last season, we learned that love is not a feeling, it is an action predicated on honesty and communication. Tassika insists that “social distancing” is a misnomer, that what we need is physical distancing combined with more social contact.
So after speaking with her I emailed my neighbors. Then I emailed the parents on the Little League team I coached. I reached out to the steering committee I sit on. I sent about 5 text messages to friends. And I will continue to reach out.
I don’t know exactly how I can or will offer support to others, but I know that the spirit of love and collectivism is behind this podcast. In All About Love, we learned that M. Scott Peck defines love as “the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” We are here for that.
That is the what. But how?
This brings me to rasquachismo. I know the word rascuache from my travels in Mexico, as a word for things pulled together, unrefined, making the most of what you have. I told Abram that that’s what our podcast is, rascuache. Then I turned to the internet, and this is what I learned from the rasquache wiki:
Rasquache is the English form of the Spanish term rascuache,[1] of Nahuatl origin[citation needed], which originally had a negative connotation in Mexico as being an attitude that was lower class or impoverished. This definition was later reversed by a Mexican and Chicano arts movement which transformed the have-not sensibility into a specific artistic aesthetic, “Rasquachismo,” suited to overcoming material and professional limitations faced by artists in the movement. It is the “view of the underdog, which combines inventiveness with a survivalist attitude.” [2][3] [4]
Rasquache art uses the most basic, simplest, quickest, and crudest means necessary to create the desired expression, in essence, creating the most from the least. The term can also be used to reference the bicultural inspiration from which these artists draw inspiration.
That’s what we’re doing here. The podcast sound quality isn’t very good, we don’t have rights to any music, and we’re not editing. We’re scheduling guests a day or so in advance, and many of them are friends. We’re making the most with what we have. And here’s more from the Wikipedia page:
Amalia Mesa-Bains, artist and writer, writes that “In rasquachismo, the irreverent and spontaneous are employed to make the most from the least… one has a stance that is both defiant and inventive. Aesthetic expression comes from discards, fragments, even recycled everyday materials… The capacity to hold life together with bits of string, old coffee cans, and broken mirrors in a dazzling gesture of aesthetic bravado is at the heart of rasquachismo.”
Irreverent. Spontaneous. Defiant. Inventive. That’s what we’re trying to do here. We’re trying to step outside the narrow role the bureaucracy would have defined for us, to be a part of something transformative. As two dudes with Chicano roots, we may have recognized the rasquachismo aesthetic of the podcast before we could name it.
Now is the time for all of us to practice rasquachismo, combined with love and collectivism. Let’s not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Let’s step outside of our comfort zones to reach out to one another. Let’s take action, for ourselves and for others. And hopefully, when this has passed, we can continue to act in the spirit of these words for the greater good.