But his work is primarily driven by his working-class upbringing in Los Angeles. “I airbrush a lot in my paintings,” he said, a process he calls “really labor intensive.” The same machine is used to paint lowrider cars, which are a cultural marker for Chicanos in Los Angeles. Mr. Ayala hopes this overlap makes his work accessible to people who share his background.

For a long time, art like Mr. Ayala’s or Mr. Esparza’s was rarely seen in galleries and museums, more often “incubated by Chicanx or Latinx organizations,” said E. Carmen Ramos, the deputy chief curator of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Major art museums in the United States “did not invest in acquiring works by Chicanx and Latinx artists, and we see that when we look at the underrepresentation of these artists in permanent collections.”

Eduardo Díaz, the director of the Smithsonian Latino Center, said that in part, the issue is the perception of Latinx art as a fringe interest. “I start with the notion that Latino art is American art,” he said.

Mr. Díaz noted some progress, especially over the last decade, as the Smithsonian and other institutions have begun to hire curators of color. He credits Ms. Ramos with increasing the Latinx art collection at the Smithsonian American Art Museum by 62 percent, with several hundred pieces. In 2021, the first gallery of Latinx art established by the Smithsonian will open at the National Museum of American History. Similar investments are being made elsewhere: The Dallas Museum of Art, for instance, established a million dollar fund to acquire Latin American art and will hire a dedicated curator.

In the meantime, Latinx creators have been commemorating their history by including cultural artifacts and references.