The aesthetics of chola makeup can be explained in terms of the sociological concept of disidentification. Chola makeup cannot merely be looked at as a banal fashion statement, but instead as something that carries within it a deep network of social meanings. To understand Chola makeup in terms of disidentification is precisely to grasp this point: at work in Chola makeup is simultaneously a rejection of a dominant social norm and aesthetic and the adherence to a minority social norm and aesthetic.
These norms and aesthetics are inseparable from the Latino and Mexican subculture. Through Chola makeup, women demonstrate their belonging and commitment to the Latin and Mexican community. They wish to show their femininity through the adherence to a particular set of norms which are the product of a specific subculture: in this case, the Chola subculture of Mexican and Latino social milieu. Makeup becomes a way in which these women communicate to the world their belongingness to a subculture, as well as communicating this subculture’s vision of what female beauty entails and what the female should represent.
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At the same time, it is a rejection of dominant social norms about how females should look. The Chola makeup culture, while at once affirming the commitment to a Chola and Mexican-Lation worldview, simultaneously endeavors to draw a distance from mainstream conceptions of female body image, fostered, for example, through the hegemonic media. They reject the ideology of female sexuality and gender roles promoted through the mainstream; they reject the regulatory position that a female living in the United States should look a certain way.
This is a clear example of disidentification, because this rejection is also accompanied by an affirmation that the Chola female body image carries: the belongingness to a specific community.
