Ricardo Favela was a trailblazer in the use of calavera imagery to depict Chicano life, addressing issues and perspectives often marginalized in the mainstream. His involvement with the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) offered him and his peers a powerful medium of expression through silkscreen posters. For the RCAF, Chicano arte was not created for art’s sake but as a tool of resistance and empowerment, reflecting the cultural pride and activism central to Chicanismo.

The RCAF, initially called the “Rebel Chicano Art Front,” was founded in the early 1970s by artists and activists José Montoya, Esteban Villa, Ricardo Favela, and other Chicano artists with the aim of making cultural arts accessible to the working-class raza—La Plebe! 

As Favela often said, “Have causa, will travel.” In other words, your struggle is our struggle, and we will be there to support you with our arte.”