Scene: A gallery talk; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; March 22, 2026.
Somebody asks Royal Chicano Air Force founding member Rudy Cuellar at what point did the RCAF’s work “go viral” – when did he feel the art world considered what they had done important?
“Right now,” he responds, “with this show. That’s just happening now.”
The show is Rebels with La Causa: Royal Chicano Air Force Art and Activism 1970-1990, at the Crocker through June 28.
The Royal Chicano Air Force was/is a politically-, culturally-, socially-, educationally-minded artist collective that has its origins at the late-1960s Sacramento State College campus.1 By the early ’70s, the RCAF was an organized group with its own event space and non-profit status. As part of the burgeoning Chicano Movement, its members worked to further the interests of their community, using a multi-disciplinary artistic approach to do so.
Although I don’t recall the circumstances in which I became aware of the RCAF, I do remember Jean Roach, one of my high school art teachers, informing me about the newly-painted downtown-parking-garage butterfly mural, so my knowledge of the group’s existence likely came through her. As she was aware of my interest in the elegant Viennese Secession posters, the severe Russian Constructivist posters, the psychedelic Fillmore Auditorium posters – I didn’t have any hierarchical prejudice against the form – she also told me about the political posters the RCAF made. In retrospect, she probably sensed that inside that lower-middle-class suburban kid beat a budding socially-conscious rebel heart that she wanted to help cultivate.2
About ten years later, in the early 1990s, I met Rudy Cuellar when we were both donating our time and services to Chalk it Up to Sacramento, a local non-profit that provides funding for children’s art education.3 After the festival moved to Fremont Park in 1993, for years Cuellar drew the large square at the northwest corner of the block and his piece, usually a portrait with text forming a border – not unlike a poster design – was always one of the event highlights for me. During this time, he was also screening T-shirts for Archival Framing, where I showed my work; it was through these avenues that we got to know one another, and how I learned of his RCAF history.4
Rebels with La Causa consists primarily of the silkscreened posters, several of which are in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, toward which Jean Roach guided me. They were used to announce a myriad of events – United Farm Worker rallies,5 Cinco de Mayo celebrations, community dances, benefits, educational conferences, art shows. This was truly art for the people, art that spread its specific message in a literal, text-based manner while using a visual vocabulary with which the audience would be largely familiar – imagery from Aztec relief sculpture, pyramids, the United Farm Workers eagle, zoot suits, and lowriders all appear and re-appear throughout the exhibition.
One of the highlights of the show is Cuellar’s Xicano Bicentenial 1776-1976, a black and red screenprint on white paper in which a face, gagged by a tightly-pulled chain with a lock inscribed with the legend “Made in USA,” stares out at the viewer. His eyes are witness to those two hundred years of horror; the stark treatment of the face stands in bold contrast to the swirling, painterly background. The frightening immediacy of the image speaks to not only the Chicana/o community’s struggles, but to those of all marginalized groups.
Be advised the Crocker has given Rebels with La Causa the respect it deserves, with an extensive program of related events in conjunction with La Raza Galeria Posada and other local organizations.6 Rebels with La Causa is not only an art exhibition, it is the story of a group of people who worked not only for the betterment of their own community, but for the betterment of the people. We the people.
Royal Chicano Air Force, I salute you.
1 Sacramento State College became California State University, Sacramento in 1972.
2 She recruited me to design and screen T-shirts for Ground Zero Week, an on-campus program that was part of a nationwide series of events designed to raise awareness of nuclear proliferation and its threat. I responded with a conflation of mod and punk motifs – a target with ransom-note-style text. Reference was important to me, even then.
3 The first year I participated in Chalk it Up, it was a fundraiser for La Raza Galeria Posada, a local bookstore/art gallery founded by members of the RCAF.
4 Cuellar is the only original member of the group I know; I’ve met Louie “the Foot” Gonzalez a couple times and used to see others around town, but never had any interactions with them, as far as I can remember. Sadly, many of them, including artist/poet/musician José Montoya and artist/musician Esteban Villa, the two Sacramento State College faculty members around whom the group was formed, have passed away – Rebels with La Causa includes an ofrenda, an altar honoring those members.
5 The RCAF worked closely with the UFW; Louie “the Foot” Gonzalez said in addition to making posters, members also served as bodyguards and worked crowd control. Although they were inexperienced and untrained, they managed to perform these tasks without ever having an Altamontesque incident.
The recent disturbing news about César Chávez broke a few weeks into Rebels with La Cause’s run. It was a painful reminder that power is relative, and the corruption of power occurs at all levels.
6 There is also a beautiful exhibition catalogue, Rebels with La Causa: Royal Chicano Air Force Art and Activism 1970-1990 (Crocker Art Museum/Scala Arts Publishers, Inc., 2026).
Recommended Viewing: Steve LaRosa (Director): Pilots of Aztlán: Flight of the Royal Chicano Air Force documentary (PBS KVIE, 1994).