After the Gold Rush: Reflections and Postscripts on the National Chicano Moratorium of August 29, 1970 was an exhibition at the Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles (2011). It focused on the events of the National Chicano Moratorium and the broader Chicano Movement.

The installation My Pops (Sacrifice) incorporated Moreno's father's original archive from his work as chairman of the Chicano Caucus and La Raza Movement in San Antonio, Texas. The archive was juxtaposed with a text piece reading "progress is a new disadvantage," rendered from his cremated ashes and drawn from his notes on poverty and labor. A video loop from the Cold War spy B-movie Red Boy 13 shows Moreno's father in military garb violently holding a protagonist by the neck with a machete, accompanied by a melodic tune he composed for the film's title sequence. The lyrics, "when danger is near and far I know you'll be with me… I'm ready for love and you will be soon," create a dissonant, humorous pathos between image and song.

The work places the symbolic portrayal of the "violent Chicano savage" in mainstream media directly against the political rights and self-determination advocated for during the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. The text piece, rendered from cremated remains and drawn from notes on poverty and labor, situates that contradiction in the body of a single life.

More Info:
Date: Sept 16th, 2011, Los Angeles, CA
Medium: Installation | Drawing | Archive | Video | Music | Performative
Archive documents from Tito Villalobos Moreno, text piece made from the ashes of Tito Villalobos Moreno, and video, dimension variable