The Accidental Archives of the Royal Chicano Air Force (William and Bettye Nowlin Series in Art, History, and Cultur)

A group that is based in Sacramento and little known outside of activist Chicano groups and members of Caesar Chavez United Farmworkers, the Royal Chicano Air Force has had a major legacy on activist art in California since its founding, though no one is exactly sure when that happened. Members would travel the state and guard Caesar Chavez at rallies, and at the same time create posters, collages and other works of protest art to tell their story. This is part of their story. The group did not set out to keep archives it just happened that way; and this book is a look at those archives. Most of the art ended up at UC Santa Barbara, instead of the local university Sacramento State which did not start collecting until 2007. A damning indictment.

This book is both interesting and infuriating. It is interesting because it gives a look at a leftist group working in very conservative areas, and infuriating because it does not follow a particular path and can be confusing to the lay reader. Their art is very much part of protest art, so some people will like that and some will not.